In 2019, the fashion capital of Milan is unperturbed by the epidemic.
A piece of broken paper was scattered between the tables like drifting snowflakes. In a restaurant, such a scene could not be more common; however, the person who dines at this table today may not be so unusual. Fabio Paratici, Juventus' sporting director, had just dined at this table after inspecting his team's match against Milan.
The scraps of paper also caught the attention of bystanders, and after Paratici left, one of the guests picked up the pieces of paper and tried to piece something together.
The piece of paper reveals a surprising name - Dominic Sobosloi, a young man from Hungary.
The unimpressed guest casually discarded the piece of paper and let it drift away in the wind. However, who would have guessed that two years later, the name Szoboszlai would literally drift like a snowflake to the ears of every club.
"I don't remember having Legos or toys, the only thing I cared about was the ball," Dominic recalls of his childhood.
Some people see it as extreme focus on something, others call it insanity.
Perhaps Szoboszlai's love of soccer is the perfect combination of these two descriptions.
It's hard for elders to get you to put down a motorized toy or a beloved cart when you have it in your hands. But for Szoboszlai, all it takes is for his father to roll a ball on the ground, and he immediately puts down the toy in his hands and kicks it with focus. For him, soccer is the whole world.
From learning to walk, to Salzburg, Austria, to Leipzig, father and son have charted this unique trajectory with a soccer ball.
And the beginning of all this must begin with the city of Szekesfehervar.
When it comes to Szoboszlai's interest in soccer when he first got into it, perhaps we can say that it was the blood in his body that was calling.
And a very caring father.
"My father was a major factor in my development. The time he spent training and coaching me is something I will never forget."
"As a culture, he continued to train me whenever the team's practice was over. Honestly, I always did more than anyone else in my academy."
Zsolt, a former professional athlete and father, is well positioned to help Szoboszlai make even more progress. At his homegrown academy, Fonix Gold, Zsolt helps prepare his son tactically, physically and mentally, in the hopes that he'll be one step ahead of the game.
Even after training, Zsolt always asks little Szoboszlai to stay and train. In Fonix Gold, little Szoboszlai was always the one who did the most.
"If he wasn't in school, he was on the practice field," Zsolt recalled.
Szoboszlai spends his day either at school or at the practice field.
Zsolt has known for a long time that the level of soccer in his home country would not be able to satisfy the talent his son was showing. Therefore, Zsolt added language to the list of "extras", training Szoboszlai in German and English from an early age, and these extra efforts played a crucial role in Szoboszlai's future transfer choices.
Everything is in place to make Szoboszlai seem so natural at every stage.
Like beating Iceland in the Europa League play-offs, said Zsolt in an interview:
"He was mentally prepared for a situation like this. If he can't keep his self-discipline on his thinking, there will be no last-minute goal."
Thanks to his "full" training, the talented player, who grew up in Hungary, is making a name for himself. After 8 years of training with his father, he is making a name for himself.
At Fonix Gold, Szoboszlai led his team to victories over Bayern, Basel, Norwich and Salzburg in the same age group.
Yes, you heard it right, the club that changed his destiny appeared. After beating Salzburg, finally in 2015, the world's top "sports company" found the Hungarian prodigy.
Red Bull, as we mentioned before, has not only succeeded in "beverages" and "extreme sports", but they also have ambitions to take their place in the history of soccer. At this point in time, the most familiar Red Bull in soccer circles is not Leipzig in the lower leagues, Brazil in the Americas, or New York with Henry, but Salzburg in the Austrian headquarters.
