The father was a member of the Hungarian national team, the footballer son became Swedish

Sebastian Nanasi is a footballer of Hungarian origin, now officially a two-time Swedish national team player, who played for his club, Malmö, in the Champions League in 2021 against Juventus and Chelsea, and last fall, as a loan player from Kalmar, he scored five goals and five assists in 16 matches. in the Swedish forefront. Transfermarkt currently estimates his value at 1.8 million euros, which would make him the third most valuable player under the age of 21 in Hungary, after Milos Kerkez (seven million) and András Németh (two million), who already made their debut in Marco Rossi’s national team in 2022.

Last Monday, Nanasi did the same for the Swedish senior national team as a substitute in the 2-0 win against Finland, and three days later he played 77 minutes as a starter in the 2-1 win against Iceland. The interesting thing is that his father, Dennis Nanasi, still represented the Hungarian national team, albeit in another sport, floorball. Searching for the history of the Nánás family, we reached from Nyíracsád to Kristianstad and got answers to many questions.

The father was a leader in Hungarian colors

Dennis Nanasi’s name resonates well in the world of Hungarian floorball, as he was the leader of the second-placed national team at the 2006 Group B World Championship. Since then, the team has participated in the elite, i.e. World Cup in Group A, in 2012, but it was also facilitated by the increase in the number of participants (the number of participating countries jumped from ten to 16), so in the eyes of many, the 2006 result is at least as much for – it can be said that it represents one of the high points in the history of Hungarian floorball.

– At that time, they tried to develop the sport at home by looking for floorball players of Hungarian origin to be in the Hungarian national team, so they also found Dennis in Sweden – Krisztián Nádor, who was Nanasi’s teammate in the 2006 World Cup team, told our newspaper. – Floorball is a popular game in the north due to its similarity to hockey, and Dennis was a great reinforcement for us, he played amazingly well from the wrist. He behaved sympathetically with us, even though he didn’t speak Hungarian.

We also catch up with Dennis Nanasi, who lives in Kristianstad, in English. – Someone recommended me to the Hungarian national team, they contacted me, and everything went its way. I scored 18 goals and provided seven assists in six games at the World Cup, which is a nice memory, he recalled. As he said, his father – Sebastian Nanasi’s grandfather – József Nánási is from Hungary, but they no longer speak Hungarian. “Unfortunately, I haven’t been to Hungary for a long time, even though Budapest is wonderful,” added Dennis. “My father hasn’t been well lately, so it’s hard to be away from him.”

Nyíracsád roots, questionable Hungarian future

József Nánási is 83 years old and grew up in Nyíracsád, a village near Debrecen. This is of great importance, because if a footballer wants to change countries in such a way that at least one of his grandparents was not born in the chosen country, then he would have to play football there for five years in order for FIFA to allow the change of nationality – this obstacle does not exist in the case of Sebastian Nanasi. . We are not speaking in the past tense, because by introducing himself in the Swedish national team, on paper, the door of the Hungarian national team was not closed to him.

Since it was only friendly matches, Nanasi did not commit to the Swedes permanently, as FIFA relaxed the rules for changing countries, one of the most famous cases of which was produced by Diego Costa, who, as a two-time Brazilian national team player, switched to Spanish colors before the 2014 World Cup held at home.

It can be rightly assumed that Sebastian Nanasi, who played in the Swedish national teams from U16 to U21, and already introduced himself among the adults in an experimental team consisting mainly of players in the domestic league, is satisfied with his current situation and imagines his future as a Swede. but his career may develop in such a way that one day he will change his mind as it is it also happened in the case of Willi Orbán, who was made a German for a long time.

As a footballer, his dream would be Liverpool

This is indicated by the fact that the father, Dennis Nanasi, who also worked as a football coach and trained Sebastian from the age of six, did not want to completely cut off the Hungarian connection, gave an evasive answer to our question about his son’s Hungarian national team, and only spoke in general terms about his son’s future: he has a contract with the biggest Swedish club, but of course his goal is a European career, and his dream is Liverpool – said Dennis, who noted that nobody from Hungary, MLSZ, was looking for them.

Of course, we also asked the Hungarian association about the matter, and we received the following answer: “The career of the player concerned has been monitored for some time by the youth coaches of the MLSZ. In order to change countries, in addition to professional performance, it is also essential that the soccer player in question complies with the recently changed FIFA rules, and that the player himself wants to play for the Hungarian national team and declares it.”

So the question has not been decided yet, but it seems to be.

Cover photo: Sebastian Nanasi in the national team match against Iceland for Sweden (Photo: Jesper Zerman)