Teams, tales and tips – a guide to the local game
Mention Felcsút, Puskás Akadémia and the Pancho Aréna – hamlet, club and stadium – and Viktor Orbán must come into the conversation. Among the many stadiums Hungary’s football-obsessed prime minister has built, a spectacular one stands in this one-road village where he spent part of his childhood.
Here, beside the nearest town of Bicske, Orbán played for the village team before helping set up a football academy in the name of Hungary’s greatest player. Orbán had the country’s greatest architect, Imre Makovecz design a cathedral-like arena. Its first match was the final of the Puskás Cup for youth teams in 2014, the winners Real Madrid, whose legendary Hungarian star they nicknamed Pancho.
Running to the Pancho Aréna is a newly built narrow-gauge rail, the Vál-völgyi Kisvasút. It sets off from the village where Orbán’s other grandfather lived, Alcsútdoboz, site of the Puskás Ferenc Sport Hotel.
Initially a feeder club for Fehérvár Videoton in nearby Székesfehérvár, the Felcsút side Puskás Akadémia came within a penalty shoot-out of cup silverware in 2018. Regular top-three finishes since have ushered in consecutive European campaigns, including taking Fiorentina to penalties at the Pancho Aréna in August 2024.
It was some 20 years earlier that a Felcsút youth academy was first set up, partly overseen by ex-player, Székesfehérvár-born Lőrinc Mészáros, who had installed the gas supply for the village and nearby settlements. Taking an interest in his former club, Mészáros became acquainted with Orbán, and between them, they developed the facilities now in place, the academy, other schools, the hotel and the arboretum.
Things had already started to happen at Felcsút. There had been a local club here since 1931. In 2004, as Mészáros was sending out his vans to bring gas to the good people of Fejér County, and Orbán was licking his wounds after losing the parliamentary elections, the little team they both used to play for topped the Danube division of the fourth-tier NBIII.
The following year, Felcsút achieved back-to-back promotions and league titles, topping the NBII West division. One flight up, the club finished second or equal second three years running, putting them within touching distance of the top tier.
Taking control of the newly named FC Felcsút in 2008, Mészáros gained ever more influence in the village, becoming mayor in 2011, a position he held until 2018. By then, his business interests were ballooning to encompass industry, agriculture, media, tourism, energy and wine, to name but a few, allowing him to become a dollar billionaire and the richest man in Hungary.
The Puskás project was initiated in 2007, on the 80th anniversary of the birth of Hungary’s greatest footballer, who had died the previous November. The first step was to set up an annual Puskás Cup for youth teams, featuring his previous clubs Honvéd, Real Madrid (as academy team La Fábrica) and Panathinaikos, as well as other prestigious invitees.
After the inaugural event co-hosted with Videoton in 2008, each June the stadium complex would take further shape. While Imre Makovecz was still alive, a central dormitory, medical centre and training halls in the architect’s signature style overlooked a growing number of pitches – and soon, more than a hundred teenagers were studying and training in Felcsút.
As for the seniors, they morphed into Fehérvár Videoton B before becoming the fully fledged Puskás Akadémia in 2012, gaining promotion to elite league NBI by winning NBII in 2013.
The Pancho Aréna opened in 2014, its first league game between Puskás Akadémia and Fehérvár Videoton. As well as subsequent Puskás Cup tournaments, the ground staged Videoton’s European games while their own stadium was being rebuilt between 2016 and 2018, and more recently welcomed fans from Italy, Portugal and Latvia as Puskás Akadémia ventured onto the international stage.
It also acted as the home ground for part of Israel’s Euro 2024 qualifying campaign and as the site of Bulgaria’s friendly with Kazakhstan in 2018, the attendance a grand total of 100.
Mészáros remains chairman of Puskás Akadémia, who led NBI going into the winter break of 2024-25. The U-19 side not only won their national title in 2024 but progressed in the UEFA Youth League. Putting Aberdeen and Genk to the sword, the Felcsút youngsters were rewarded with a home tie against Aston Villa in the Round of 32.
Getting Around
Arriving in town and local transport
Budapest Airport is 80km (50 miles) from the nearest station of Bicske alsó, served by half-hourly trains from Budapest Déli station (Ft745/€1.85, journey time 35mins), which arrive at beneath a road bridge.
Above, from the Bicske, vasútállomás bejárati út stop, buses run every 30mins-1hr to Felcsút 10mins away. Bicske itself is a 5-10min walk away, turning right on the bridge.
The nearest taxi firms are in Tatabánya, such as Turul Taxi (+36 34 317 317), with its own apps for Apple and Android phones, and transfers to/from Budapest, Bratislava and Vienna airports.
Where to Drink
The best pubs and bars for football fans
In Alcsútdoboz, the Hegedűs Étterem on main Szabadság utca exudes Hungarian tradition, offering classic Magyar drinks and dishes, with a pool table thrown in and Puskás Akadémia fixtures on the wall.
On the southern tip of Felcsút, the more contemporary Tó Étterem overlooks the lake it is named after and the recently opened Swan Bridge. There are no other bars and restaurants to speak of in Felcsút except for around the stadium – see Puskás Akadémia.
In Bicske, the colourful Homály on Kossuth tér is terrace café, bar, kitchen and nightspot in one, and a very pleasant place to watch the game. Round the corner on main Szent István út, the Korona is a prominent, spacious pub/pizzeria by the Műszaki áruház bus stop for Felcsút.
At Bicske also station, the stand-alone Bakterház serves standard Hungarian drinks to travellers waiting for their train, gossip shared in the dowdy interior.
Where to stay
The best hotels for the stadium and nearby
Within the stadium complex, the four-star Hotel Pancho has been done out in the same Makovecz style as the namesake arena, with a spa, pool and restaurant. While two meals a day are integral to the standard room rate of Ft56,000/€138, admission to the wellness area costs an extra Ft5,500/€13.60.
By the arboretum in Alcsútdoboz, at the opposite end of the narrow-gauge rail from the stadium 35mins away, the rustic three-star Puskás Ferenc Sport Hotel also runs a popular terrace restaurant. Sixteen rooms, some with balconies, overlook greenery, with horse riding next door.
The only hotel in Bicske, A Fogadó stands at the other end of town from the train station, on Szent László utca, across the main road from the lake. Another rustic hideaway, it has undergone a significant makeover since the pandemic, its staircase no longer lined with an extensive collection of football pennants.
It now comprises three single rooms and ten doubles, as well as a triple and family room. The restaurant has gone up several notches under the capable oversight of chef, Roland Váradi while wines from nearby Etyek still feature. There’s an outdoor pool in summer and a children’s playground.
