The Rise of Hungary and the Carpathian Brigade

Hungary’s ‘Carpathian Brigade’ before a recent game against Bulgaria 
“As a Hungarian, who is infatuated with the national team, growing up in the late naughties  and early 2010’s, I was not exactly accustomed to seeing my beloved reds represent the  country of roughly 10 million people, at a national tournament. Let alone three  consecutive tournaments. As a matter of fact, none of us Hungarians, who were alive  between 1986 and 2016, were used to seeing the ‘Mighty Magyars’ on the TV, whenever  the World Cup was on. In the aforementioned timeframe, the team failed to qualify for a  single international tournament. This meant, that, back then, if you were Hungarian, and  an avid follower of football, like such a big chunk of this nation’s population happens to  be, you had to settle for a different nation’s team, come the World Cup or the Euros. …”
Football Paradise (Sep. 10, 2024)
NY Times/The Athletic: Hungary, Viktor Orban and the weaponisation of a national football team (June 13, 2024)