József Varga (; born 6 June 1988) is a Hungarian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for

Kazincbarcika Kazincbarcika is an industrial town in Borsod–Abaúj–Zemplén county, Northern Hungary. It is the district seat of Kazincbarcika District. It lies in the valley of the Sajó river, from the county capital, Miskolc. History Kazincbarcika ...

Club career

Early years

Varga was seven years old when he started playing football, influenced by his father. Playing primarily as a striker he made his breakthrough in 2000. In the 2007–08 season he started in the Debrecen B team before moving on to play for their A team.

Debrecen

Varga's first trophy was won against

Budapest Honvéd Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

by 4–1 on aggregate. The first leg finished 1–1 in the Bozsik Stadion. In the UEFA Champions League 2007–08 season

Debrecen Debrecen ( ; ; ; ) is Hungary's cities of Hungary, second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain Regions of Hungary, region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the large ...

entered in the second qualifying round. Debrecen faced with the Swedish champion

IF Elfsborg Idrottsföreningen Elfsborg, more commonly known as IF Elfsborg or simply Elfsborg (), is a professional association football, football club based in Borås, Sweden, and is affiliated to the Västergötlands Fotbollförbund. They play in the Alls ...

. Debreceni VSC were eliminated from the Champions League 1–0 on aggregate. In the Hungarian League 2007–08 season, Varga's team finished second while MTK became first. Debrecen won the

Hungarian Cup The Hungarian Cup (, ), officially known as MOL Magyar Kupa for sponsorship reasons, is the Hungarian cup competition for football clubs. It was started by the Hungarian Football Association'','' in 1909, eight years after the commencement of ...

in the 2007–08 season by beating Budapest Honvéd in the final 9–1 on aggregate. Debrecen played in the

2008–09 UEFA Cup The 2008–09 UEFA Cup was the 38th season of the UEFA Europa League, UEFA Cup association football, football tournament. The 2009 UEFA Cup Final, final was played at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, home ground of Fenerbahçe S.K. (football), F ...

. In the first round of the Central-East region they drew in Kazakhstan against

Shakhter Karagandy Football Club Shakhter (), commonly referred to as FC Shakhter Karagandy ( ), is a professional football club based in Karagandy, Kazakhstan. They have been members of the Kazakhstan Premier League since its foundation in 1992, but fell of to t ...

1–1, while in the second leg they beat the Kazakh team by 1–0. Debrecen qualified for the second round by 2–1 on aggregate. In the second round Debrecen faced with the Swiss

BSC Young Boys Berner Sport Club Young Boys (YB by short abbreviation, ) is a Swiss professional sports club based in Bern, Switzerland. Its first team has won 17 Swiss league championships and eight Swiss Cups. YB is one of the most successful Swiss footbal ...

. Debrecen were eliminated from the UEFA Cup by 3–7 on aggregate. Rudolf won the

2008–09 Nemzeti Bajnokság I The 2008–09 Nemzeti Bajnokság I, also known as NB I, was the 107th season of top-tier football in Hungary. The league was officially named ''Soproni Liga'' for sponsoring reasons. The season started on 25 July 2008 with Kaposvári Rákóczi F ...

season after beating their provincial rivals

Diósgyőri VTK Diósgyőri Vasgyárak Testgyakorló Köre, more commonly Diósgyőri VTK () is a professional Association football, football club, part of the Hungarian sports club from Diósgyőr district of Miskolc. Founded in 1910 by the local working clas ...

3–2 away. In the 2009–10 season, Debrecen played in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

. After beating

Kalmar FF Kalmar Fotbollförening, more commonly known as Kalmar FF, is a Swedish professional football club based in Kalmar, Sweden. The club is affiliated to Smålands Fotbollförbund and play their home games at Guldfågeln Arena. Formed on 15 June 1 ...

, Levadia Tallinn, and

Levski Sofia PFC Levski Sofia () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which competes in the First League, the top division of the Bulgarian football league system. The club was founded on 24 May 1914 by a group of high sc ...

Debrecen reached the group stages of the

2009–10 UEFA Champions League The 2009–10 UEFA Champions League was the 55th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 18th under the current UEFA Champions League format. The final was played on 22 May 2010 at the Santiago Bernabéu St ...

season. Varga scored a goal against Levski in the Puskás Ferenc Stadium. On 1 May 2012, Varga won the Hungarian Cup with Debrecen by beating MTK Budapest on

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

in the 2011–12 season. This was the fifth Hungarian Cup trophy for Debrecen. On 12 May 2012, Varga won the

Hungarian League Hungarian may refer to: * Hungary, a country in Central Europe * Kingdom of Hungary, state of Hungary, existing between 1000 and 1946 * Hungarians/Magyars, ethnic groups in Hungary * Hungarian algorithm, a polynomial time algorithm for solving the ...

title with Debrecen after beating

Pécs Pécs ( , ; ; Slovak language, Slovak: ''Päťkostolie''; also known by #Name, alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the fifth largest city in Hungary, on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the c ...

in the 28th round of the Hungarian League by 4–0 at the Oláh Gábor út Stadium which resulted the sixth Hungarian League title for the Hajdús.

Greuther Fürth (loan)

On 30 January 2013, Varga joined

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

club Greuther Fürth on loan from Debrecen until the end of the

2012–13 Bundesliga The 2012–13 Bundesliga was the 50th season of the Bundesliga, Germany's premier football league. The season began on 24 August 2012 with the season opening match at Westfalenstadion involving defending champions Borussia Dortmund and SV Werde ...

season. Varga was watched by several

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

clubs including Swansea but Varga decided to move to

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

. On 1 February 2013, Varga played his first Bundesliga match in 2–1 victory over

Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as Schalke 04 (), and abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional sports club from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its football team, w ...

Gelsenkirchen Gelsenkirchen (, , ; ) is the List of cities in Germany by population, 25th-most populous city of Germany and the 11th-most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher, Emscher River (a tribu ...

at the

Veltins-Arena Arena AufSchalke (), currently known as Veltins-Arena () for sponsorship reasons, is a retractable roof and pitch, football stadium in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It opened on 13 August 2001, as the new home ground for FC S ...

Middlesbrough (loan)

On 25 June 2013, Varga signed on a season-long loan with English team,

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

. He was assigned the number 8 shirt previously worn by Newcastle United loanee Sammy Ameobi last season. He made his debut for the English side in the opening match of the 2013–14

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

season against

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

during an eventual 1-2 home loss. He was deployed by manager

Tony Mowbray Anthony Mark Mowbray (born 22 November 1963) is an English football manager and former footballer who was most recently the manager of EFL Championship club West Bromwich Albion. Mowbray played for Middlesbrough, Celtic and Ipswich Town as a d ...

on the right-wing. He was later played at right back against Millwall and Burnley under the new management of Aitor Karanka, both performances were man of the match performances. At the end of the season Varga returned to Debrecen after Middlesbrough refused to take up the option to buy Varga for €650,000 Middlesbrough boss Aitor Karanka stated this was because Varga was not a natural right back and to employ him as so would be a detriment to the player himself.

International career

József Varga debuted in the Hungary national team on 10 October 2009 against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

. However Hungary lost to 3–0 at the

Estádio da Luz The Estádio da Luz (), officially named Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica, is a multi-purpose stadium located in Lisbon, Portugal. It is used mostly for association football matches, hosting the home games of Portuguese club S.L. Benfica, Ben ...

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

Varga's performance was convincing, therefore he became a stable member of the national team during the coaching of the

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

Erwin Koeman Erwin Koeman (born 20 September 1961) is a Dutch former professional football player who currently serves as an assistant coach for the Netherlands national team. As a midfielder, he played in three spells at Groningen and two at PSV Eindhoven, ...

. Since then Varga was called up many times and he even played a defender against

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

in the

Euro 2012 qualifiers The qualifying competition for UEFA Euro 2012 was a series of parallel association football competitions held across Europe between 2010 and 2011 to decide the qualifiers for UEFA Euro 2012. The draw for the qualifying rounds was held on 7 Febru ...

at the

Puskás Ferenc Stadium Puskás is a Hungarian surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Ferenc Puskás (1927–2006), Hungarian football player and manager **FIFA Puskás Award, the player judged to have scored the most aesthetically significant and "most beauti ...

because two of the key defenders

Roland Juhász Roland Juhász (; born 1 July 1983) is a Hungarian former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. Career MTK Budapest Juhász spent his youth career in Tápiószecső playing for the local club Tápiószecső FC. He started his ...

and Vilmos Vanczák could not play. Hungary beat 2–1 Sweden so his performance in the defence contributed to the success of the team.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Club

Debrecen *

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

Hungarian Super Cup The Hungarian Super Cup is an annual association football match between the League (Nemzeti Bajnokság I) champions and the Cup (Magyar Kupa) winners. Winners (*) due to violent incidents during the recent 1997–98 Magyar Kupa Final between ...

: 2009, 2010 *

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

Hungarian League Cup The Hungarian League Cup () was an annual football tournament contested by clubs in the Hungarian League. It was created in 2007 and the competition only lasted for 8 seasons, being cancelled ahead of the 2015–16 season. Ligakupa finals The pe ...

Individual

Nándor Hidegkuti Nándor Hidegkuti (3 March 1922 – 14 February 2002) was a Hungarian football player and manager. He played as a forward or attacking midfielder and spent the majority of his playing career at MTK Hungária FC. During the 1950s he was also a ...

Prize: 2009 * Zilahi Prize: 2012

References

External links

József Varga
profile at magyarfutball.hu
József Varga
at dvsc.hu {{DEFAULTSORT:Varga, Jozsef 1988 births Living people Footballers from Debrecen Hungarian men's footballers Hungary men's under-21 international footballers Hungary men's international footballers Men's association football midfielders Debreceni VSC players Létavértes SC players SpVgg Greuther Fürth players Middlesbrough F.C. players Fehérvár FC players Puskás Akadémia FC players Kazincbarcikai SC footballers Nemzeti Bajnokság I players Bundesliga players English Football League players Hungarian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in England Hungarian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Hungarian expatriate sportspeople in England 21st-century Hungarian sportsmen