The play-offs have started for all four of our academy teams, and the cup competitions have also begun. Having reached this important milestone, we asked Zoltán Dusinszki, Technical Director of the Székelyföld Football Academy, for a brief evaluation.

The play-offs have started for all four of our academy teams, and the cup competitions have also begun. Having reached this important milestone, we asked Zoltán Dusinszki, Technical Director of the Székelyföld Football Academy, for a brief evaluation.

– We’ve completed the regular season with all four academy teams, and the play-offs have already begun. We can say that the partial objective set at the beginning of the season — that all our academy teams should continue in the play-off — has been achieved this year.
– It must be said that the 2025–2026 season started for us already in May, when we knew we would have to form new technical staffs for our teams, and work began then to refresh the coaching teams in order to meet this goal. From last year’s head coaches, only Bernát Burus remained with the U16 team, while we agreed with Goran Kopunovic to take charge of the U18 team in the Youth League, brought in Szilárd Mitra for U17, and Zoltán Fogarasi joined the U15 team. As soon as preparation began, it was clear that strong staffs were taking shape, good work was being done, and the atmosphere was positive not only on the pitch but also in the coaches’ office and during meetings. It was evident that this season everyone would be heading in the same direction, each trying to get the maximum out of their teams, without any division between staffs or squads.

This was already visible during the preparation period: our academy teams held successful training camps — some in Dunaszerdahely, others in Cegléd, and others at home on very good-quality grass pitches. The schedule also favored us, as in the first three or four matches of the regular season we managed to secure wins, which gave the teams confidence that we were able to maintain throughout the stage, with only minor setbacks. One or two defeats slipped in, which is acceptable at this level, as young players cannot maintain consistent performance over 11 matches, but the fruits of the work were visible — the coaches built their teams well, and the players understood that they needed to give extra effort to achieve results, and they did. All our teams qualified for the play-offs, and all of them are within reach of the podium at the end of the championship, as the points have been halved, creating a new ranking, and we are only a few points behind the top three in every age group. To achieve such results required the self-sacrificing work of the technical staffs — everyone worked hard, as reflected by the very few injuries, allowing us to field our best line-ups every time. The fitness coaches, medical staff, psychologists, and boarding educators also contributed — acknowledging and thanking them all, I can say that everyone played their part in ensuring all our teams are among the best this year.

– Was it easy to achieve this intermediate goal, or did you face difficulties?
– Twelve teams competed for one of the four play-off spots, and in the two older age categories in the western group, Universitatea Cluj stood out slightly, finishing the regular season unbeaten in both categories, while Daco-Getica Bucharest lagged behind, failing to earn a point. The other teams, however, showed similar strength in the championship, which made every match important — there were no large-goal-difference matches like in previous years; every battle was fought on a knife’s edge. Most academies are improving year by year, and, in addition, in previous years the top six teams played the play-off within their own regional group, without merging the eastern and western series, so now a much more difficult league has formed. We had eleven rounds to get into the top four in the group, and the country’s best eight teams continue in the upper league, a common competition, for the two older categories. For U15 and U16 the field is broader — from four 12-team groups, two groups of eight were formed for the play-off, and their winners will play the final. For U17 and U18, however, after the two home-and-away rounds, the champions will be crowned. From this perspective, the league will be healthier, but that also means it will be much harder to win a title compared to our previous U17 and U19 championships, when finishing second in the group meant playing just a semifinal and a final for the title — and in a single match, anyone could beat anyone. Now, however, a 14-match championship must be won, which is much more difficult.

– How difficult? How do you, as Technical Director, see our chances at the end of the season?
– Our U15 team, which advanced from first place in the regular season, is a group still forming; for them, this is their first major challenge together. In this age group, experience shows that it takes half a year to adjust to the rhythm, to gel as a team, to reach the same level, since the players have come from different clubs with different levels of training. I hope that in the first two or three rounds they can achieve success, and with another winter training period added, we can be successful in both U15 and U16 in the spring. But if we consider that in our Youth League team and even in the U17s, the two new head coaches have brought a healthy aggressiveness and team morale, and we have the player quality to reach the podium, I hope that in at least one or two age groups we can finish the season among the top three.

– How are our young players doing in terms of individual development?
– In this respect, we must emphasize that we have relaunched our talent development program, Talent 25, which means selecting five or six players from each age group whom we believe have great potential and trying to provide them with individual training. It should be noted that this group is dynamic — one can enter or leave depending on performance. Young players have also been promoted to our Superliga squad, with four or five of them training regularly with the first team, testing themselves at that level; Bencze Lóránd and Noveli Luca have already debuted in the Superliga, and Bödő Efraim and Máté Simó, regular members of the senior team, are also our academy graduates. If the individual training goes well, I believe more players will have the opportunity to debut in the top flight.

I would also highlight that we have provided players to several national teams: Bödő Efraim was called up to Romania’s U19 squad, Bota Darius and Bencze Lóránd to the U17, Jánosi Zsolt to the U16, and we hope that soon we will have call-ups at U15 as well. I believe the academy is moving in the right direction, the teams are moving in the right direction, and we have talents in whom we can hope to see continue their careers either in our Superliga team or other professional clubs. But they must also contribute through hard work, while we, as coaches and sports leaders, must do our part to support their development.

Rédai Attila
Photo: Zoltán Pál