It was indeed the official title of Dunaújváros during the late 90’s as basically all the cities’ teams were competing in the highest divisions of national leagues. And not just competing! They become champions under the name Dunaferr Sportegyesület; football, volleyball, ice-hockey, both men’s and women’s handball, woman waterpolo.

Unfortunately the tide is turning; after the privatizing of the steel factory that used to be the main sponsor of our teams, the previous big successes failed to come about. Many of our teams just disappeared from the scene. Fortunately the current municipality hand in hand with our university and some committed local entrepreneurs took the town’s sport life under their wings to be able to return to the elite again. At the moment Dunaújváros has three teams which roots are leading back to the local university. Each of the three teams achieved at least one huge success in the season 2015/2016.

“Ladies first” – they say and luckily we immediately have two teams their achievements are worth to mention. Our women handball team, Dunaújvárosi Kohász KA was playing their biggest international game for a long time a month ago. It was the return match of the EHF Cup final against a German team, TuS Metzingen. The match took place in Veszprém, in front of 4500 people, and with their victory, our girls took their place on the top of Europe. Due to the unfair play-off stage in the Hungarian league, DKKA got only to the 5th place (after normally finishing on the 3rd place). Still it is a huge success not just for the team, but to the city to the University of Dunaújváros as well. And what is more, that the academy’s team has achieved the results 100% with just Hungarian players on the pitch which is unique nowadays in any kind of team sport.

Still strong handed were our girls in the water. The university’s water polo team, DUE-Maarsk surprisingly came second in the Hungarian premier division. By no chance it is a negative surprise, compared our team to the others it is clear, that our team is the youngest among all of them. They managed to beat the heavy favorite BVSC in the semifinals, but then to beat the previous champion, UVSE was a difficult task. The other team standardly gives 7-8 players to the Hungarian national team compared to our “just” 4-5 players from which all of them are talented youngsters. Although their experience was clearly visible, yet we played three really strong ties against them. Finally the young lust could not keep up with the professionalism gained with age, but the silver medal is still a great result from the youngsters. Now it is the responsibility of the team management, to keep these talented ladies at the club and come back in full force. But before that, as for the summer, don’t forget to support them in Rio.

Last but not least let’s praise the men futsal team of our university who also earned the silver medal with their second place finish this season. The team, Dunaferr DUE Renalpin FC itself was founded three years ago, and this was their second season among the best teams of Hungary. If we dig into deeper the current balance of power in the Hungarian premier division, we clearly see, that behind Győr there is a huge gap. They consist of mostly Brazilian and Spanish players who are masters of this art sport and both professionally and financially are in front of other teams, they aim to achieve results in international level. Behind their team Dunaferr achieved two second places, one in the first division, and another in the Hungarian cup. Just like in case of our other teams, they were competing with talented young Hungarian players in the league. Dunaújváros has already three players who are constant members of our national team, they also took part in the Futsal European Championship in 2016. If this years’ convincing performance can be kept up, I am sure, soon for the others members of our team opportunities will open up to represent our team in international level.

Beside the teams above it is important to mention that three young athletes of the Dunaújváros are going to Rio for the Olympic Games this year; Zsófia Kovács gymnast, Jonatán Hajdu canoeist and Krisztián Takács swimmer (and by the way also a student of our University) will represent our city among the best athletes of the world. One thing for sure, these brilliant results and achievements show that our city fight fiercely to prove that they are worthy of holding the title “National Capital of Sport”.