Here we go, folks – it’s the 2028/2029 season finale!
In case you missed the previous two chapters, Győr have built a clear lead at the top of Hungary’s first division. Shama Deadman’s side look set to become Nemzeti Bajnokság champions for the first time since 2013… but Újpest are hot on their heels!
Can Shama’s green machine win him a first trophy in management? Or will their lilac rivals leave them crying?
APRIL & MAY 2029
So, we’re five points clear at the top with six games to go. Things are looking good, right? Well… all those final six games are against those half-dozen teams from 2nd to 7th, so if we’re going to hold off Újpest and claim a first title since 2013, we’ll have to do it the hard way.
Our run-in began at MTK – the lowest-ranked, and theoretically easiest of our remaining opponents. We were 1-0 up at half-time, as our young right-winger János Géringer scored a scrappy opener just before the break.
Unfortunately, the Budapest side were masters at coming from behind to beat us. They blew us away with another stunning second-half performance, in which our former loanee Norbert Menyhárt ran the show from midfield. And with Újpest picking up a victory, our lead was back down to two points.
The pressure continued to mount in a tense battle at 3rd-placed Hónved. This time, we were the ones having to recover from a 1-0 deficit, as striker Louie Barry headed in a cross from wing-back Răzvan Onea to save one point… but not all three.
Thankfully, Újpest’s 0-0 draw with MTK meant we stayed top… but with István Gál’s challengers awaiting us after our next fixture, it was critical that we took maximum points at home to Kisvárda.
We battered them… with low-quality shots. Despite dominating play, we only scored one goal – and it was a penalty, from vice-captain Gábor Tamás in the 71st minute. And just for good measure, our defence switched off in the closing stage as Kisvárda equalised with their only shot on target.
To make matters worse, a 3-1 win at Honvéd meant that Újpest had not only closed the gap on us, but had actually taken top spot on goal difference! If we were to take it back, we would need to beat our title rivals at the Szusza Ferenc Stadion.
Things started well enough, as ‘false nine’ László Toman carved in a low shot after 11 minutes. That lead didn’t last, as Onea lost track of Újpest’s left-winger and then watched him power in an equaliser 15 minutes later.
Then, 20 seconds into the second half, Tamás flew in on their right-winger with a reckless tackle from behind. The holding midfielder was sent off, and we had to shut up shop for the closing stages to stop Újpest scoring again. By full-time, we were very lucky that they hadn’t.
The top two remained level on points as we went into our final away game, against a Debrecen side still hunting for Europe. Barry was hunting the Golden Boot – and he thought he’d scored his 14th goal of the league season after converting a Norbert László through-ball in the first minute. Sadly, the offside flag went up, and it all went downhill from there.
Debrecen’s striker broke free from our defence half an hour later to give them the lead, which they then doubled after midfielder Lars Dendoncker conceded a penalty. 17-year-old winger Csaba Katona did pull one goal back with a cheeky chip over the keeper, and then set up László for what appeared to be an equaliser… until we got another offside flag.
We didn’t threaten Debrecen again. We had lost a must-win game, and surely handed the title to Újpest…
…or perhaps not! Ferencváros beat the leaders 2-0 in midweek, which meant it was still all to play for going into the final day!
FINAL DAY
A nine-month battle to become Hungarian champions came down to just two matches. We were at home to Ferencváros, while Újpest also had a home fixture – against mid-table Kisvárda.
To win the title, we would have to better Újpest’s result. Alternatively, if we both got similar results, we would need a two-goal swing in our favour, which would give us the title on goals scored. For example, if Újpest won their match by one goal, we would need to beat Ferencváros by three.
With no guarantees that Kisvárda would help us out, we had to be proactive. We quickly put Ferencváros on the back foot and broke through in the 21st minute, when László’s free-kick resulted in Vitaly Botvinjev heading in his first league goal. Had the bear-hugging Russian midfielder written himself into Győr folklore?
Botvinjev’s goal put us on top… until Újpest broke their deadlock against Kisvárda 13 minutes later. If they retained their 1-0 advantage, we would need another couple of goals.
We continued to up the ante in the second half. Barry had gone off the boil in recent games, but our English hotshot burst back to life in the 51st minute. László’s deep cross caught ‘Fradi’ unawares as Louie sprang past the last defender and tapped us into a 2-0 lead!
With Újpest still only 1-0 up in their game, we were now just a single goal away from glory. I spurred the boys on with some attacking subs, bringing Nebo on play alongside Barry up front, and then replacing a tiring László with Nemanja Jović. The Bosnian winger struck the crossbar in the 87th minute… but just moments later, he set up an even better opportunity for Barry to win us the title!
OH, LOUIE! We had to settle on a 2-0 lead in the end, though not before Ferencváros had an injury-time goal disallowed for offside. Having done everything we could, all there was left to do was hope that Kisvárda had equalised late on…
They hadn’t. Újpest had beaten us to the championship on goal difference – by ONE goal!
If either Louie or Nemanja had converted their late chances, we would’ve been champions. Turning any of our previous five games into victories also would’ve done the job (remember: we led in three of them)! Frankly, we could only blame ourselves for throwing it away, especially after being SEVEN points clear of Újpest back in March.
2028/2029 SEASON REVIEW
But let’s not lose perspective. This had been another tremendous season of huge overachievement. The board only ever expected a mid-table finish from a team who were given 50-1 odds of winning the league… and we were literally inches away from doing the improbable!
We could also take heart from another lengthy run in the Magyar Kupa, which I sacrificed at the Quarter Finals to keep our championship charge alive. And yes, our Europa Conference League campaign ended very early, but we had a very difficult draw against Sparta Praha.
The chairman is happy that we’re still playing defensively solid football, though he’s still upset that I still haven’t turned into Sean Dyche. Luckily for my job security, he’s given up on his long-ball dream and removed the ‘Play direct football’ objective from our Club Culture for next season.
| Fans’ Player of the Season | Simão Rocha |
| Young Player of the Season | Csaba Katona |
| Signing of the Season | Vitaly Botvinjev |
| Goal of the Season | László Toman (vs Vasas, 26 August) |
| Top Goalscorer | Louie Barry (15) |
| Most Assists | Nemanja Jović (8) |
| Most Player of the Match Awards | Csaba Katona (3) |
| Highest Average Rating | Siniša Tanjga (7.14) |
That’s something you don’t see every year! Our eight end-of-season awards were won by seven different players!
Left-back Simão Rocha won his second Fans’ Player of the Season award – his first since our 2025/2026 debut campaign at Győr. I was quite surprised by that, as his displays weren’t exactly spectacular (2 goals, 4 assists, 7.02 average rating) – though he did play more games than anyone else.
Simão has served us brilliantly over the last four years, but he made some costly defensive errors late in the season and is only considered a “leading NB II player”. The 28-year-old Portuguese has probably hit his ceiling and might need to be replaced with a younger (and better) wing-back. The same perhaps goes for Attila Szabados on the right flank.
Rocha was one of two Győr players in the NB I Team of the Season. Barry also made the cut, despite only scoring 14 league goals rather than the 18 he managed last term. He again fell just one goal short of the Top Goalscorer – Ferencvarós’ Heorhii Sudakov, who hit 15 goals in what was a low-scoring season across the league (2.26 goals per game, compared to 2.76 last season).
Louie had missed a great opportunity to win the Golden Boot, though. The Englishman had the league’s highest xG (12.21) but had several games where he either went missing in action or kept wasting clear-cut chances. I even took him off penalty duties after he missed three out of four spot-kicks.
Mind you, he didn’t get much help from our other attackers. Nobody else reached double figures for goals, while wingers Géringer and László each underscored their xG (the latter by almost half – 4 goals from 7.90 xG!). Meanwhile, Barry’s six assists were only surpassed by Jović, who got eight.
Speaking of wingers, Katona showed plenty of endeavour on either flank in a promising first senior season. Csaba recorded a 6.93 average rating across 17 league games (mostly as a sub) and scored six goals in the Magyar Kupa. He celebrated his 18th birthday just after our season finished, and I’m sure he will become a regular starter next term.
Of our first-team regulars who stayed for the entire season, ball-playing centre-back Siniša Tanjga had the highest average rating. He spent his Győr debut season jostling with Eduard Ciubotaru to partner Hirman in defence, but the Serb’s superior distribution and decision-making has given him the edge. At 25, there’s still time for him to get even better.
But there is only one candidate for my Player of the Season – the Romanian goalkeeping sensation George Kovács, who was poached by Bayer Leverkusen in January after conceding only seven goals in 15 league games. His successor – loanee Gergely Hutvágner – conceded 19 goals in 16. It’s no coincidence that our defence pretty much fell part when Kovács left.
Incidentally, Leverkusen won the Europa Conference League after a 1-0 triumph in Paris against… Ferencváros. It’s the first time any Hungarian team has reached a European Final since 1985.
PLAYER-BY-PLAYER STATISTICS
THE FUTURE
I’d now been at Győr for four years, in which I’d completely transformed the club’s fortunes. I’d been given a £2.5million transfer budget – and an increased wage budget of £70,000 per week – to complete our transition from chumps to champs.
But could I take this team any further? New champions Újpest were ominously strong in all departments, while Ferencváros would be desperate to bounce back – and both clubs had far more financial clout than us. Frankly, it was a minor miracle that we were competing at the same level as them so quickly.
Having completed my final UEFA coaching course over the past 12 months, I was now ready to take on a bigger challenge before the Győr fairytale threatened to become a nightmare. After the season ended, I applied for the vacant jobs at three sleeping giants who were playing in bigger European leagues.
You may remember that I went for the Genk and PAOK jobs last year, but neither offered me an interview. PAOK turned me down again, but Genk did at least give me a chance. The Blauw-Wit finished 5th in the Belgian Pro League, not 1st (they topped the second play-off group), and were keen to move on from Vincent Kompany’s disastrous tenure.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get past the interview this time. Genk instead appointed Jean-Paul de Jongh, who led FC Utrecht to their first ever Dutch league title in 2027. Fair do’s.
Funnily enough, just as Genk turned me down, I received an offer from another Eredivisie side who had ambitions of breaking the traditional ‘Big Three’ of Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord. And I didn’t even apply for the job!
Vitesse interviewed me as a potential replacement for Michael Frontzeck, who retired after leading them to a top-five finish. Like many Dutch clubs, ‘Vitas’ had an enviable youth academy, so I was quite excited about the prospect of building a new dynasty in Arnhem…
…but Vitesse later phoned back to say that they preferred another candidate. Never mind.
Now, you’re probably wondering about that other job I’d applied for. Basel took over a month to arrange an interview, and you know my feelings about time-wasters. I was ready to tell their president that he should shove his offer where the sun didn’t shine…
…until he promised me the better part of £50million to spend on new players. That was ludicrous money for a Swiss Super League club – especially a club who’d won ONE league title in the last 12 years. It was certainly light years from what I was used to at Győr, where selling our best player for barely £1million in January was a big deal!
I was so flabbergasted by this that I basically spent the rest of the interview saying, “No, really, I don’t need that much money to make your team great again! I’m sure that’s more than enough to work with!”
Yes, I was shamelessly buttering him up, just so he’d see me as an easier appointment. But let me tell you…
…it only bloody worked!
For a club with so much money to throw around, Basel weren’t offering that big a pay rise compared to my £3,300-per-week deal at Győr. But after negotiating my wage up to £4,100-per-week, I was ready to accept their offer.
Győr have been very kind to me, and I hope they’ll build on the strong foundations I’ve left them. But now it’s time to take a huge leap of faith – 900 kilometres west, to Switzerland!
SHAMA DEADMAN AT GYŐR
25 June 2025 – 28 June 2029 (1,463 days)
Played: 167. Won: 101. Drawn: 27. Lost: 39. Win Percentage: 60%.
Goals For: 314. Goals Against: 162. Goal Difference: +152.
Competitions Won: 0. Awards Won: 2.
Shama is leaving Győr without any major honours, but after leading them from second-division obscurity to the brink of national glory, he heads to Switzerland with his pride fully intact!
This story resumes on Monday, when we’ll meet his new Basel team – and look forward to the 2029/2030 Swiss Super League season! I really hope you’ll stick around for the next chapter of this European journey!
Thanks for reading… and viszontlátásra, Győr!
Fuller FM 
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