Hungary Sports – Top 5 Most Popular Sports in Hungary
Wondering what sports the Hungarians like to play?
Discover everything about the most popular sports in Hungary in this post. ⚽️
The Most Popular Hungarian Sports
Find below Hungary national sports, ranked by popularity:
| Rank | Sport |
|---|---|
| 1 | Football |
| 2 | Water sports |
| 3 | Basketball |
| 4 | Ice hockey |
| 5 | Rugby union |
So there you have them, the most popular sports in Hungary! Keep reading below for more information about each sport in Hungary.
What is the National Sport of Hungary?
The national sport of Hungary is water polo. Unlike many other countries, Hungary’s national sport is not football, but something much less popular overall. Water polo is very popular in the country, and it is played in teams of 7, with 6 field players and a goalkeeper. The rules are overall quite similar to football.
Learn More About Hungary Popular Sports
Hungary is a landlocked country located in Central Europe. It is bordered by Slovakia, Ukraine, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, and Austria, and its capital city is Budapest, which counts more than 1,752,000 inhabitants (but more than 3,011,000 if you include the metropolitan area).
An interesting part of the country that I wanted to tackle is its most popular sports. In light of that, I have listed all of Hungary popular sports, and I hope you will love them:
Football
Like in most countries around the planet, football is the most popular sport in Hungary.
The Hungarian national team, while it is not very successful nowadays, used to have a golden age during the 1950s, and they were even named the “Golden Team”. They were led by one of the most successful players of all time, Ferenc Puskás, and just fell short of winning the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland, after controversial finals against West Germany, allegedly helped by the referee, and doped. The FIFA Award for the most beautiful goal of the year is named in his honor: the FIFA Puskás Award.
Famous Hungarian Football players: Ferenc Puskás, Gyula Grosics, Flórián Albert, Zoltán Czibor, Nándor Hidegkuti, Péter Gulácsi, Sándor Kocsis, György Sárosi, Ádám Szalai, József Bozsik, Zoltán Gera
Water sports
The second most popular sport in Hungary is water sports, mainly made of water polo and swimming. While Hungary is a landlocked country, which means it does not have access to the sea or the ocean, the country is very well-known for its prowess in water sports, especially water polo (the national sport) and swimming. Canoeing is also fairly popular and has given the country great international success.
Generally speaking, Hungary is just incredible at the Olympic Games, ranking 9th for the total number of medals, 8th for the total number of gold medals, and 2nd for the total number of gold medals per capita.
Famous Hungarian Water sports players: Tamás Faragó, Dezső Gyarmati, Olivér Halassy, Márton Homonnay, György Kárpáti, Dénes Kemény, Béla Komjádi, Dezső Lemhényi, Kálmán Markovits, Mihály Mayer
Basketball
The third most popular sport in Hungary is basketball. Similar to football, Hungary used to have one of the best basketball teams in Europe a while ago, from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s. This team won many medals at the European Basketball Championship and often qualified for the Summer Olympics. Now, it is not as good as it used to be.
The most famous Hungarian basketball player is the only one currently playing in the NBA, Dávid Kornél.
Famous Hungarian Basketball players: Dávid Kornél, Ádám Hanga, Benedek Váradi, János Eilingsfeld, Zoltán Perl, Csaba Ferencz, Dávid Vojvoda, Ákos Keller, Marcell Pongó
Ice hockey
The fourth most popular sport in Hungary is ice hockey. Ice hockey is quite popular in Hungary, and the national team has participated in the IIHF European Championships, the IIHF World Hockey Championships, and the Olympic Games since 1928. They are consistently participating in the annual World Championship, and are currently ranked 19th in the world by the IIHF.
The Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation oversees everything related to ice hockey in the country, and there are almost 8,000 licensed players. There are no Hungarian players in North America’s NHL though.
Number of Ice hockey licensed players in Hungary: 7,802
Famous Hungarian Ice hockey players: Andrew Sarauer, Krisztián Palkovics, István Sofron, Béla Háray, István Bartalis, János Vas, Levente Szuper, Tamás Gröschl, László Schell, Artyom Vaszjunyin
Rugby union
The fifth most popular sport in Hungary is rugby union. Last on this list, rugby union is a minor sport in Hungary, but it is still growing nonetheless. The reason for that is that the national governing body, the Hungarian Rugby Union, was only founded in 1990. Compared to other countries like England, it is very, very recent.
However, the sport has been present in the country since 1875, when British Embassy employees played rugby in Budapest. It took a while for the sport to take off in the country though.
Number of Rugby union licensed players in Hungary: 2,100
Famous Hungarian Rugby union players: Zoltan Heckel, Gabor Biró, Roland Nagy, Attila Refi, Mate Toth, Attila Jambor, Zoltan Koller, Gabor Bartus
So there you have them, these were all the most popular sports in Hungary. I hope you enjoyed them and that you learned something new today.
In case you want to learn more about sports in other countries, feel free to keep reading, as I still have lots of things to tell you about:
More Sport Facts!
Loved these Hungary sports facts? Want to see what sports are the most popular in other countries?
Then check out these posts:
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