Hungary’s Euro 2024 got off to a rocky start, as the team lost their first group game against Switzerland, disappointing many of the fans at home. As for international football fans, however, one man soaked up all the attention in the post-match discussion on social media. It was not Michel Aebischer, who set a goal up and scored one himself, or any of the players with great performances out there.
Rather, it was a man who was only subbed in the 79th minute, and did not score or make any memorable contributions to the game.
Hungary’s number 9 Martin Ádám went viral after the game, with football fans making memes and jokes about his sturdy appearance.
The most common joke about him is that he does not look ‘Hung(a)ry’, an overused pun about his home country’s name. Many also compare him to the character of Kratos from the video game God of War or English soul singer Rag’n’Bone Man; while others are simply calling him ‘an absolute unit’.
Ádám, who currently plays for the South Korean champions Ulsan HD, told the press that he had seen a few of the memes made about him, and he usually ‘gets a good laugh’. He then elaborated: ‘This is my physique, this is the way I was born. I am not saying I was this big when I was born, but this is my genetics, I cannot change it.’
He is 6’3 (190 centimetres) and weighs 190 pounds (86 kilograms) according to his Google info panel. His unusually broad shoulders and big, red beard do make him stand out of the crowd. However,
unlike what some of the memes suggest, Martin Ádám is not fat or even overweight.
The confusion comes from the fact that professional footballers do not tend to build excessive muscle mass on their delts and shoulders, because the effort put into it would outweigh the potential benefits during their careers. In fact, that would likely slow their running pace down, and cause them to lose stamina quicker during games. The limited potential upside would be some advantage during aerial duels and shoulder-to-shoulder bumps. However, of the two, the former can also be improved with better vertical jumping skills.
Apart from Ádám, Spanish international Adama Traoré, a winger (who has not been called up for his national team for Euro 2024), and English lower-league striker Adebayo Akinfenwa are known for having an unusual amount of muscle mass on their delts and shoulders in professional football.
Based on what Ádám told the press, he had not been working specifically to build unusually wide shoulders either, he is just genetically more prone to build muscle in that part of his body.
The 29-year-old Ádám made his professional debut for Vasas in 2014 in the Hungarian second division. His team got promoted at the end of the season. In 2019, he was signed by Kaposvári Rákóczi, but only stayed there for one season before transferring to Paks. There, he was the Hungarian league’s top scorer in 2022 with an outstanding 31 goals, the most any player scored in the league since 1980. This not only earned him a call-up for his National Team, but also a contract with the South Korean top division club Ulsan Hyundai (which has since been renamed Ulsan HD). He won the South Korean league twice in a row with his current team.
The Hungarian National Team will be playing hosts Germany next on Wednesday, 19 June; then will finish their group games against Scotland on Sunday, 23 June.
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