Hungarian international Milos Kerkez has arrived in Bournemouth, England, United Kingdom. Although the Premier League club announced the transfer on their official Twitter account only this morning, all sports media outlets have been confident for some time in the deal having gone through. The fact that a local journalist posted a picture of Kerkez getting off a jet at the Bournemouth airport on 18 July also did a lot to eliminate all doubts.

The 19-year-old footballer was one of the most sought-after full backs this transfer season. He spent the last season with the Dutch team AZ Alkmaar, and was under contract with them until 2026. Therefore, all clubs interested in signing the young talent had to first agree on a transfer fee with AZ.

For a long time, the prestigious Portuguese team Benfica seemed to be a shoo-in in the bidding contest. However, AZ were not willing to budge on the €20 million price tag proposed by them, so the Lisboans ended up signing the Czech left back David Jurasek from Slavia Prague for €14 million.

Then, Lazio was apparently ‘in the lead’ to get Kerkez in their squad, before, in an unexpected turn,

the Premier League side AFC Bournemouth stepped in, willing to fork up the €20 million (£18 million) transfer fee for the young Hungarian left back.

According to press reports (such as the one included in the tweet above), Kerkez entered a four-year contract with his new club.

‘The Cherries’ finished 15th in the English PL last season, in their first season after being promoted back to England’s top division.

Milos Kerkez was born in Vrbas, Serbia and Montenegro in 2003 into an ethnic Hungarian family. As a teenager, he chose to represent Hungary in the youth national teams instead of Serbia. He has made eight appearances in the Hungarian National Team at the adult level so far.

In February 2021, Kerkez joined the world-famous Italian club AC Milan. However, he never got to make his debut in their first team, and transferred to the Dutch AZ Alkmaar a year later, in January 2022. There, he became a key player. And now, Kerkez has moved on to become a member of a Premier League team.

The English Premier League is by far the highest ranked and most economically successful domestic club competition in the world. Recently, another young Hungarian football talent, Dominik Szoboszlai, was signed by a PL team, Liverpool. The Mersey-side Reds paid a staggering €70 million for his services.

Meanwhile, Wolverhampton Wanderers, the 13th-place finishers in the same league the last season, still hold the player licence of Bendegúz Bolla, yet another player from Hungary. However, he spent the last two years on loan in Switzerland, playing for Grasshoppers, and it is unclear whether he can make it to Wolves’ roster next season. Young goalkeeper Krisztián Hegyi is also signed with a Premier League side, West Ham United, but he too has little chance of getting any minutes on the field—being the third-choice keeper seems to be the best case scenario for him at this point.

Hungarian Players in the Premier League

There have been quite a few players from Hungary who managed to get to the much-coveted English Premier League—however, the inconvenient truth is that most of them did not have long careers there, and some were utter disappointments.

It is important to note that

the last two signings, Szoboszlai and Kerkez, have the resumes to give us all the confidence that they will have at least a decent run in their new clubs. This is also reflected in their transfer fees.

The most successful Hungarian player in the Premier League so far is undoubtedly Zoltán Gera, who played a total of 172 games in the competition for West Bromwich Albion and Fulham, scoring 17 goals and giving 12 assists total. He also made it to the Europa League final with Fulham in 2010.

Second on the list, based on appearances, is goalkeeper Márton Fülöp, who played 44 games in goal (completing eight clean sheets) for Sunderland, West Brom, and even Manchester City. He is sadly no longer with us, having passed away from cancer in 2015, at just age 32.

Another goalkeeper from our country, Gábor Király made a total of 37 Premier League appearances for Crystal Palace and Aston Villa. He is most likely best remembered by English football fans for wearing his signature grey tracksuit bottoms in games.

The rest of the total list of Hungarian players who have played in the English Premier League, in order of the number of appearances is: Ádám Bogdán (26 games, goalkeeper, played for Bolton Wanderers and Liverpool), Ákos Buzsáky (18 games, 2 goals, midfielder, Queens Park Rangers), Péter Halmosi (also 18 games, 0 goals, left winger/left back, Hull City), Tamás Priskin (16 games, 2 goals, forward, Watford), Sándor Torghelle (12 games, 0 goals, forward, Crystal Palace), Péter Kurucz (1 game, goalkeeper, West Ham), and Istán Kozma (1 game, 0 goals, midfielder, Liverpool).