Former Liverpool man says Scottish football ‘a little bit like a time-travel’ and reveals Hibs heartache
The 36-year-old international player for Hungary had stints at Ferencvaros, Bolton Wanderers, and Liverpool during his career, but he spoke highly of his two spells in the capital with Hibs, where he made 18 Premiership appearances. He claims that although he was immediately enamored with Edinburgh, he occasionally thought the league was “funny” because of the contrasts between playing teams like the Old Firm and then going to smaller grounds.
“The Hibernian move is a funny one because I went there, but I didn’t want to go there,” remarked Bogdan, recalling his time spent in Scotland. I had no intention of moving further north than Manchester at the moment, but then I got a call from Neil Lennon. He clarified that he needed someone to step in because his first-choice goalie had an injury that wasn’t healing. Obviously, I was acquainted with him from Bolton.
Upon visiting Hibs, I instantly developed a deep affection for the city. I thought Edinburgh was so ideal and small that we instantly fell in love with it. Playing for one of the best teams in Edinburgh and in such a lovely stadium felt, to me, like the meeting of the two ideal worlds at last in my life. I was on a fantastic squad and playing for a really wonderful city with a wealth of history and culture.
The Scottish league is humorous because it occasionally resembles time travel. It’s true that there was a lot of playing extended games and second balls in some of the venues and games you would go. But then you play in front of 50,000 fans against Rangers and then Celtic, who are more akin to a Premier League squad. After that, you go on to a another game, where the difficulty level is more akin to League One or League Two football. Although everything is available in Scotland, I had a great time when I was there.
The only other major heartbreak I experienced in my career was being demoted with Bolton; everything else was with Hibs. The peculiar thing about my concussion was that, even though it didn’t seem serious at the time, I was unable to recover from it for several months. It suddenly didn’t feel the same after I lost my position on the team and Neil Lennon was fired during that period. Then, for six months, I was without a club. I was ready to wait since I’d received offers, but I didn’t want to accept them because I knew I wanted to live somewhere where the football and lifestyle were equally fantastic.
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