With a renewed coaching staff, our Superliga women’s team has begun preparations for the league start planned for the end of August. Almost all players continue at FK, and further reinforcements are also expected.

With a renewed coaching staff, our Superliga women’s team has begun preparations for the league start planned for the end of August. Almost all players continue at FK, and further reinforcements are also expected.

On Monday, our senior women’s team — last year’s league runners-up and Romanian Cup winners — gathered for their first session, now under the guidance of Szilvia Szeitl. The strength and conditioning coach is Máté Bátki, who also joined us recently, the assistant coach is Gergő Gohér, already working with the club, the goalkeeping coach remains Levente Ferencz, and the technical director continues to be Ervin Gál.

Born in 1987, Szilvia Szeitl is a well-known name in Hungarian women’s football, 95-time Hungarian international, with 333 top-flight matches, six championship titles with two clubs (1. FC Femina and Ferencváros), and five cup wins — all with Ferencváros. She joined the green-and-whites in 2016 and, as she told us, that’s when she began building her coaching career, earning the necessary licenses, working with youth teams at Ferencváros and its satellite club, serving as interim head coach at Soroksár, and for the last six years she was assistant coach of Ferencváros’ senior women’s team, during which time she also obtained her UEFA A license. This summer, after several new titles won as coach as well she parted ways with Ferencváros and accepted FK’s offer, arriving together with her strength coach from there, Máté Bátki.

The 36-year-old specialist graduated from the Faculty of Physical Education, started working at Soroksár, then moved to the Hungarian Football Academy’s youth teams, and worked at MTK as his first experience with women’s football, where they won a bronze in the league and a silver in the cup. Last year, already alongside Szilvia Szeitl at Ferencváros, he was responsible for the women’s team’s fitness, winning the championship.

“For us it was important that here there are clear goals — it’s not just ‘let’s see what happens with women’s football’, but it’s clearly stated: we want to win the league. That really appealed to us, that there’s a concrete challenge, and that’s why we came — to become champions,” said the head coach.

Not everything in Miercurea Ciuc was unfamiliar to her; she already knew some players from Hungary and had worked with a few, so she more or less knew where she was coming and what to expect. But she only got to meet the whole team on Monday, which she had been looking forward to. “Our first impression of the girls is very good — they are attentive, they try to meet our expectations, and they try to deliver what we ask. The first week’s program was more about getting acquainted, but we already had fitness and on-pitch sessions, focusing mainly on assessments, with tests for the girls. On Friday there will be an intra-squad match, and the weekend will still be free. But this will be the last free weekend, as the schedule afterwards will include three days a week with double training sessions, and matches at weekends. Between August 1–10 we will go to a training camp in Cegléd, where we will play friendlies against three Hungarian first-division teams: MTK, Puskás Akadémia, and Szekszárd,” the head coach outlined.

From last year’s squad, Fanni Haraszti has left, while Réka Demeter (photo) has joined as reinforcement from Hungary. Born in 1991 in Esztergom, the 42-cap Hungarian international played last season for Ferencváros, has 398 top-flight appearances, and is a multiple league and cup winner. Other transfers are also being negotiated, and once finalized, they will of course be announced.

Rédai Attila