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The Hungarian national team today announced their foreign based contingent of players called up for a pair of friendlies in early June. Named to the full national team roster is Sporting Kansas City homegrown player, Daniel Salloi. Salloi, who has represented Hungary at the U18 and U21 levels was called up to the full national team for the first time for friendlies on June 6th against Belarus and June 9th against Australia. Both games will take place in Hungary.
In March of this year, Salloi had represented the U21 team in Euro qualifying, starting both their 4-0 win over Cyprus and their 3-0 loss to Belgium. Salloi recorded an assist in the win over Cyprus.
Salloi has had a strong start to the season, having cemented himself in Peter Vermes’ starting 11, scoring three goals and adding four assists so far this season. All three of his goals and two of his assists so far this year have been game winners for Sporting.
Of the 22 players named, Salloi isn’t the only MLS player called in, also called in is former Kansas City forward, Krisztian Nemeth and DC United forward Zoltan Stieber.
Like with the Russell call up though, this pair of games is not during a FIFA international break, meaning that Kansas City is not required to release it’s players for the games. KC could tell the Hungarian FA that they are not going to release Salloi for the games, or only release him for one like they’re doing with Russell. Outright refusal isn’t something that KC has done, they’ve usually been quite accommodating to call ups for national team games.
If Salloi does go to the games, he’ll miss at least two games. He’d miss Sporting’s first game in the 2018 US Open Cup which is currently schedule to take place on June 6th. He’d also miss Kansas City’s trip to play the Portland Timbers on June 9th. It’s great for Salloi to be recognized for his strong start to the league season by his national team and earn the call up, but with him and Russell gone at different times it opens a window for Gerso Fernandes to get a consistent set of games to start.