Resurrection In Budapest

Gergely Borsi, Hungary

My name is Gergely Borsi and I am 33 years old and play for BAK Respect in Budapest. I used to work for Nemzeti Sport, the Hungarian daily national sports paper, and now I’m working for a PR company. Sport, especially football, has always played a main role in my life from my birth, and later I also studied sports at university. I graduated at one of the most reputable universities in Hungary, ELTE, and got my PE teacher and recreation degree in 2010.

What did you try to show with the photos? Was there any wider meaning with the photos

I wanted to show how important football is in our lives at BAK. We are amateurs, we don’t get paid for it, but we pay a membership fee to play, and we have no training sessions. We play football to have fun, to have a good time together, to relax, to break out of the daily routine. Players are joining the team on an invitation basis, which means everybody is someone’s friend, so a great community has developed over the years. This amateurism is shown by the fact that after a match, not everyone rushes home. We stay to drink a beer or juice, we talk, and this is important for the harmony and the cohesion.

The picture of the injury also shows that we are amateurs, so there is no doctor and we have to help each other when someone gets injured.

There is another interesting thing about the pitch: we don’t have our own home pitch, we rent it, and we have to share with many other teams. For example, one pitch hosts American Football matches too, as you can see from the painted lines. Sometimes our match was still going on, but the American Football teams were already throwing their balls next to the side-line.

What is your favourite photo?

My favourite photo was taken in the locker room at the pre-match team talk. As you can see, both our chairman Bertalan Molnár and our player-coach Tibor Pásztor take everything seriously to achieve success on and off the pitch, and they do their best for BAK Respect. Perhaps it’s strange that the chairman is in the locker room before the game, but we don’t have any problem with that, because he never speaks about the tactics and he doesn’t give advice to Tibor about the formation or the starting line-up. However, he often comes with good news before the game, for example, that we will host a national tournament for amateur teams, we will have new balls, new jerseys, or pullovers.

Can you tell us about your football life?

I started playing football competitively when I went to kindergarten aged 6 - I played for a local team, RTK. Aged 8 I joined BVSC, which was one of the best clubs in Hungary at the time, and I played for the youth teams for many years. Then I went to Ferencváros (the most popular team in Hungary), KISE, Rákoshegy, and Rojik. At Rojik I played for the senior team in NB III (third division in Hungary), but then I realized that I wouldn’t be a professional footballer.

Finally, I signed for Respect, the predecessor of BAK Respect, where I played with friends and colleagues, which I really enjoyed. One of my favourite memories is when we won the championship in 2012, in my first season. Especially because we didn’t have any training sessions, while our opponents trained two or three times a week – that hasn’t changed since. We are currently in Budapest 3rd tier, and this season I became the team’s captain after Péter Csillag retired, so that makes me proud.

I also play on small pitches, indoor football and I also play for the Hungarian National Journalism Team, with which we travel not only the country but also the world. For example, we won bronze medal at the 2012 Journalism European Championship in Poland, a few months before the UEFA Euro 2012.

Are there any good stories connected with the people or teams you photographed?

I’ve been at the club for a long time, so I invited a lot of players to the team, including our player-coach Tibor Pásztor. However, our relationship didn’t start well. I play for the Hungarian National Journalism Team, and Tibor is an actor, so he plays for the Hungarian National Actor Team. We play against each other every year. A few years ago, when I first played against Tibor, he kicked me many times, and finally I got tired of it. At one point I told him, “It’s not the Champions League Final, it’s just a show for the crowd, and I don’t want to get injured.” I told him this constantly until the final whistle. All he answered was “Don’t cry so much, just play football.”

We met again soon after. We played against each other again, and I still remembered how much my ankle hurt last time, and how he wanted to tackle me from behind without any success. He played very well this time. I think he was the player of the tournament. So we sat down to talk after the game, we made peace and shook hands, and after some beers and pálinkas (Hungarian spirit) there was a friendly atmosphere between us, so I invited him to play for BAK Respect and to be my teammate. He was happy to come and after a few friendly games the Board appointed him as a player-coach!

Why is the BAK story so unique and important?

The club was among the first to be founded in Hungary but ceased to exist in 1947. Several generations didn’t even know about the club, but after 70 years the club was resurrected like a phoenix. And it’s quite rare and unique. We want to remember our predecessors and want to preserve traditions carefully.

What role does BAK play in the local community?

We want to be an example for another amateur teams, showing that with attention, work and building a good community, we can achieve success and good results even at this level - while we enjoy football and feel again like when we fell in love with this beautiful game as children.

However, not only at the local level, but also at the national level, the newspapers reported that last year we organized an international amateur tournament in Budapest, the Egri Erbstein Tournament. It was even supported by the Hungarian Football Association, and the referee of the final was Viktor Kassai, who was also the referee of the Final of the Olympic Games in 2008 and the Champions League Final in 2011. And we were also lucky that Corinthian-Casuals, a world-famous amateur team from England, accepted our invitation to the tournament.

What does football mean to you?

Football means relaxation, enjoyment, fun, battles, friendship, freedom, health, joy. Football is one of the most important things in my life.

What is the future for BAK? 

BAK try to show the beauty of amateur football, but at the same time we want to constantly develop, move forward and, of course, achieve success, while we want to establish good relationships with other clubs, and people from other countries.

Why is the connection with Corinthian Casuals so important for the club?

As the original BAK is one of the oldest Hungarian clubs and now we represent amateur football, while Corinthian Casuals is one of the most world-famous amateur teams with a huge history, we would like to build a good, strong relationship with them. But I have to say, even in amateur football there’s a big difference between Hungarian and English football, as last year’s tournament showed us.