Eccentric Hungary keeper Kiraly to set Euro record

Hungary’s Gabor Kiraly, one of the great goalkeeping eccentrics, is poised to become the oldest player to appear at a European Championship in Tuesday’s opening Group F fixture against Austria.

Aged 40 and two months, he will overtake German Lothar Matthaeus’ record, set at Euro 2000.

The balding keeper is universally recognised by his trademark jogging bottoms, first worn to protect his knees from rough surfaces.

Forced one day to change from black ones to grey, he has kept the colour ever since as one of numerous superstitions.

Playing against his country’s long-standing rivals will revive happy memories for Kiraly, although his mind will have to delve back a long way.

It was 18 years ago that he made his international debut against the Austrians and saved a penalty from Toni Polster after just four minutes.

Despite a three-year gap between 2006-09, he has slowly added to his tally of international appearances, becoming the most capped Hungarian with 103 and seeing off challengers for the jersey with heroic performances in the two play-off victories over Norway.

Meanwhile, he has appeared for three German clubs and five in England before coming full circle and returning to his first Hungarian team, Haladas.

Having finished only third in their qualifying group behind Northern Ireland and Romania, Hungary are one of the countries to have benefited from UEFA’s expansion of the finals to 24 teams, enabling them to reach a first major tournament since the 1986 World Cup.

Austria, in contrast, surprised many observers by strolling through their group.

Nine wins and a draw even propelled them into the top 10 of FIFA’s world rankings for June, although they benefited from playing some modest opposition.

Narrow home wins against Malta and Albania and home defeats by Turkey and the Netherlands since qualifying may have dented some of the initial optimism but Swiss coach Marcel Koller is expected to persevere with his high-tempo pressing game.

They will use the versatile Bayern Munich defender David Alaba as a midfielder with licence to go forward in support of Marc Janko, the lanky striker who scored five goals in qualifying.

New optimism

The resurgence of mercurial forward Ricardo Quaresma has raised Portugal’s hopes for Euro 2016 even though it is still far from certain whether he will start against Iceland on Tuesday.

Quaresma was given a rare start in the final warm-up match against Estonia on Wednesday and responded with a virtuoso performance, even overshadowing Cristiano Ronaldo, as Portugal hit seven goals without reply.

There was a “trivela”, a “rabona” and a stunning dinked goal and his exuberance rubbed off on his teammates as Portugal played with a verve that was missing from their qualifying campaign when they ground out seven successive wins by single-goal margins.

Coach Fernando Santos must now decide whether he wants to throw the always unpredictable Quaresma into the Euro 2016 fray, which would almost certainly be at the expense of former Manchester United forward Nani.

An attack featuring Quaresma and Ronaldo would make Portugal one of the most entertaining teams in the tournament but Santos, the wily former Greece coach, was making no promises even after the win over Estonia.

Nani, who in complete contrast to Quaresma often suffers from a lack of self-confidence, remained unruffled as his place came under threat.

“I’ve never had a guaranteed place,” he said. “I’m always prepared to fight for my place.

“It’s not a good sign when you don’t have to fight for your place. Our aim is to win the title and we have to believe in all the players.”

Portugal will need all the creative talent they can muster in the Group F match in St Etienne against an Iceland side who are making their debut in a major tournament and are notoriously hard to break down.

Quaresma was raised at the Sporting Lisbon youth academy at the same time as Ronaldo and many felt then that Quaresma was the more likely of the pair to set the football world alight.

Instead, Ronaldo went on to become three-times world player of the year while Quaresma’s misfortunes have included being kicked out of Turkish club Besiktas for indiscipline and missing out on three successive World Cups.

He has, though, always been a crowd pleaser and Portuguese fans will hope that he will finally get a chance to shine on the big stage on Tuesday.