Ahead of a meeting with Scotland at Euro 2024, the Barnsley midfielder remembers his triumph over the Three Lions
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Callum Styles could face Scotland during the group stage of Euro 2024 – after shocking his mates two years ago by helping Hungary beat England, the country of his birth.
Born in Greater Manchester, the 24-year-old qualifies for Hungary via a grandparent and reached 20 international appearances this March.
Not long after his debut in early 2022, the Barnsley midfielder faced England in the UEFA Nations League – after helping Hungary win 1-0 in Budapest, he then started as they stunned Gareth Southgate’s side with a 4-0 triumph at Molineux.
“That was crazy,” Styles told FourFourTwo. “I came on in the first game, then started the second.
“England are really strong and to beat them twice, in my first year, was unbelievable. Friends were messaging me saying, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe you just beat us!’”
Niall McGinn chases Callum Styles
Styles then helped Hungary win their Euro 2024 qualifying group, ahead of Serbia.
“As a national team, we've improved so much over the past couple of years,” he said.
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“We had an excellent Nations League campaign, which meant we secured a favourable seeding for the qualifiers. I can’t wait for the tournament – it’s exciting and we want to progress as far as we can.
“We’re getting stronger and stronger, so the pressure’s mounting. We can’t simply be happy to be there – to get through the group stage is kind of a must because there’s pressure from the whole nation. We’ll put that on ourselves, too – we’re good enough.”
Styles has been confirmed in Hungary’s 26-man squad for the tournament, having spent the second half of the 2023-24 campaign on loan at Sunderland in the Championship.
Hungary's squad (Image credit: Getty Images)
The midfielder previously starred for Barnsley in the second tier, but their relegation was followed by a loan spell at Millwall in the Championship.
When he found himself back at Barnsley in League One for the first half of 2023-24, he was grateful to Hungary boss Marco Rossi for continuing to select him.
“We had a conversation and he said, ‘As a player, you don’t change, it’s just your situation that has changed’,” Styles explained.
“He really likes me as a player but said, ‘You need to get back to playing at a higher level’. Had I stayed at Barnsley all season, I don’t know if he would have picked me for March or the Euros.
“I want to play at the highest level anyway – I feel like I should be playing in the Championship or possibly higher, so going to Sunderland in January was giving something back to him.”
Chris joined FourFourTwo in 2015 and has reported from 20 countries, in places as varied as Jerusalem and the Arctic Circle. He's interviewed Pele, Zlatan and Santa Claus (it's a long story), as well as covering the World Cup, Euro 2020 and the Clasico. He previously spent 10 years as a newspaper journalist, and completed the 92 in 2017.
