Zoltán Gera: From D*** And A*****l A******* To The Premiership

Frankly, Hungarian football is currently terrible. Despite our glorious past, now we have bad teams and an even worse national team with some clumsy players. Maybe it will change because Hungary's young team is very succesful. But currently there are very few Hungarian footballers who are international stars. However, we have one very great player called Zoltán Gera. He is currently playing in West Bromwich Albion but he has been a target for many Premiership teams.

Gera had a very problematic childhood, he spent more time on the streets and in the gaming-room than in his home or school. He became an a****** and d*** a***** in his teenage years. His trainers, especially József Garami supported him as much as they could but it was not enough to draw him out of the deep trouble he was in. It seemed Gera would go down the sink. Then he turned to religion and it changed his life. His father and his friends helped him as well to return to the football field. At the begining he amazed everybody with his skills and he scored a lot. After his first goals he invented his well-known trademark: the handspring followed by a somersault. No question he became the favourite. He played 115 league games and scored 32 goals. He won twice both the league title and the Hungarian Cup, and not only made his way into the national team but became a key figure in the Hungarian football life.

He scored his first national goal against San Marino that was the first of his hat-trick on that game and was nominated to be the best score of the qualifier by Eurosport. Very soon he became so popular he got offers from a number of European teams. He rejected Galatasaray to play at Ferencváros, Hungary again.

The big change came in the summer of 2004 when he got married and together with his wife, Tímea they moved to Birmingham where he started his career at West Bromwich Albion. Some were sceptical, but he refuted all the doubts. He had a fantastic season. He was one of the eleven players to play on all matches and he got recognition from many professionals. He spent 2845 minutes on the field and scored 6 goals, he made a major contribution to keep his team in the Premier League.

He was nominated in many prizes: he was twice the player of the year in Hungary, he received the Hungarian Golden Ball, he was the best player of West Brom in 2005, Soccernet.com voted him into the Premiership Dream Team of season 2004/2005, etc.

Maybe his example can be followed by many young, ad**** teenagers.

Source: http://www.gerazoltan.com