Last Saturday was a banner day for Sporting KC striker Daniel Salloi. Not only did he score his second MLS goal of the year with an incredible solo effort, but he also had the opportunity to play against a countryman that he has admired for so many years.
According to Peter Hirdt at the Elias Sports Bureau, only four players born in Hungary have played a game in Major League Soccer: Istvan Urbanyi (1997), Zoltan Hercegfalvi (2009–10), Krisztian Nemeth (2015) and Salloi (2016–17). That does not include Chicago Fire forward Nemanja Nikolic, who was born in the country formerly known as Yugoslavia but represents the Magyars on the international scene due to the fact that his mother was born in Hungary.
Salloi relished the opportunity to play - and score - against Nikolic, a player who has experienced immense success in his first year in MLS.
“I’m the Hungarian in this League now, not him,” Salloi joked with reporters after the match. “It’s a good feeling to be able to play against him. We spoke after the game and I told him that I won this one, so he can start preparing for the next one.
“He’s had an awesome season and I’m happy that he couldn’t score against us. It was great to see him and actually speak Hungarian with someone other than [Sporting KC Manager] Peter [Vermes].”
Nikolic’s impressive season should come as a surprise to no one. The 29-year-old striker entered the year with 171 goals in 287 career appearances. In 21 appearances with the Fire, Nikolic has 16 goals and three assists. He was also voted to the MLS All-Star Team and played 45 minutes Wednesday night against reigning UEFA Champions League winner Real Madrid.
While Nikolic is experiencing success in Chicago, Salloi is beginning to come into his own in Kansas City. After spending the bulk of 2016 on loan to a first division team in Hungary, Salloi has scored four goals in all competitions for Sporting KC this year, including the game-tying goal in a 1-1 draw against Portland Timbers last month.
Salloi believes the success that he and Nikolic are enjoying will lead to more Hungarian players making the choice to play in Major League Soccer.
“I think [former Sporting KC forward] Krisztian Nemeth started the whole thing a couple years ago,” he said. “He started scoring the goals and people started watching MLS. Now, it’s just exploded. People stay up and watch it. They like it and not just because of the Hungarian guys because they like the other players on the field. We are obviously helping because Nikola is scoring some goals, and I’m scoring some goals so we are definitely catching people’s attentions.”
