How Becoming a Father Spurred Alen Skribek to a Career-Best Season
Zalaegerszegi Torna Egylet Football Club (ZTE) will be looking to make it back-to-back away wins as they travel to Puskás Akadémia on Sunday, and they’ll be counting on Alen Martin Skribek to deliver the goods and lead them to victory.
Born on April 11, 2001, Skribek began cultivating his footballing skills with Budapest FC and grew up idolizing superstar forwards such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar Jr., and Ferenc Puskás. He made the move to Hungary’s most successful club in 2014 – Ferencvárosi TC – where he spent three years before heading to Puskás Akadémia FC. At 16 years of age, Skribek was going to be leaving his family and starting a new life 40 minutes west in the small village of Felcsút, a pet project of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has initiated a number of construction projects in the town, including Pancho Arena, whose stadium capacity of 3,900 is more than twice the city’s population.
“Growing up in a small city next to Budapest, I started playing at four years of age, before eventually joining Ferencváros at 13, where I played for three years before joining Puskás and progressing through the U-17s and reserves,” stated Skribek in an exclusive R.Org interview. “Puskás Akadémia wanted me when I was younger, and I chose Ferencváros because I wanted to stay home and didn’t want to leave my friends in Budapest. But when I was 16, I ended up saying yes because I wanted to play in the best academy in Hungary.”
Cutting his Teeth in Hungarian Football
After ascending the youth ranks at Puskás, Skrbek was loaned out to Hungarian second-tier side Aqvital FC Csákvár, where he scored a brace on his debut against Monor SE on February 3, 2019. He racked up three goals and one assist in his next 13 matches before returning to Budapest and making the move to Budafoki Munkás Testedző Egyesület on loan. Once again, Skrbek made an immediate impact by scoring in his first two matches against Csákvár and Budaörs, only to be kept scoreless in his next five matches before his momentum ground to a screeching halt following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Skrbek remained put at Budafok and enjoyed a successful transition to the Hungarian top-flight, thriving both on the right wing and the left wing and racking up nine goals and one assist in 30 appearances. He also made his mark on the international level, playing in all three of Hungary’s matches against Germany, Romania, and the Netherlands in the 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, which Hungary co-hosted alongside Slovenia.
Following a promising loan spell at Zalaegerszeg, Puskás repatriated him midway through the 2021/22 season and finally gave him a chance to impress in the first team. Skrbek would register a goal and four assists in 28 appearances for Puskás, but he found minutes increasingly hard to come by under manager Zsolt Hornyák and eventually sought a permanent transfer to Paksi FC, signing a 3.5-year contract on January 26, 2023. As usual, Skribek didn’t take long to announce himself, needing just a few seconds to score an injury-time equalizer in a 2-2 draw at Kisvárda on his debut. This would be his sole goal of the season, apart from a brace and an assist against Monor SE in the Magyar Kupa Round of 16 – Paksi would end up prevailing with their first-ever Hungarian Cup as well as their first-ever major national trophy since the club’s founding in 1952.
Skribek, however, was unable to make his presence felt consistently, scoring six goals and tallying assists in 30 appearances for the ‘Atomcsapat’ before missing the first half of the 2024/25 season with a broken leg. And after returning for the final match of December, Skribek decided to leave Paks and join Diósgyőri Vasgyárak Testgyakorló Köre. Skribek was forced to patiently bide his time, making just one seven-minute cameo across his first six available matches, before playing in five of the next six. And after being left on the bench in the next two games, he came off the bench and scored his sole goal for the club at Puskás. Desperate for a fresh new start, Skribek returned to Zalaegerszeg for the 2025/26 season, signing on loan with an obligation to buy.
“I wasn’t in a good situation at Paksi. I played a couple of preseason friendlies before breaking my leg, and it was really hard to recover from. It was really hard not being able to do what I like, and what makes me feel happy – it was the first time I ever had a major injury like that. But everyone will have something like that happen to them in their career, and I think I came back mentally stronger because of this. I then started to chat with the owners of Zalaegerszeg, who then chatted to the coach, who liked me and really wanted me to come to the club. Everybody wanted me to come here, from the coach to the owners to the sporting director, and I hadn’t felt that feeling in a long time.”
Coming to Grasps with Fatherhood
At 24 years of age, Alen Skribek found himself at a crossroads in his career. Having represented Hungary at the U16, U17, U18, U19, and U21 levels, Skribek had not played for the Magyars since March 2022, watching from afar as his former international teammates took the leap up to the senior Hungary side. Ever since his impressive debut campaign in Hungary’s top division, which saw him score six goals in the 2020/21 Nemzeti Bajnokság I season, Skribek had since scored three, one, one, and one league goals over the next four seasons. He was in danger of falling off the map, and he needed to step up and deliver. For the first time, it was no longer about pursuing his footballing ambitions – it was about providing for his infant son Liam, who arrived in April.
“When he was born, something happened with me….I needed to grow up fast at a young age. I had a very good preseason, and now, I’m having the best relationship with a coach that I’ve had in my life. He’s given me the minutes, he’s given everything to allow me to play how I want, and he’s found the balance between the tactics and me. Sometimes I play well, sometimes I play poorly, but now, I do everything on one level thanks to the trust of the owners and coach and thanks to my stable environment at home.”
“I was talking to a bunch of different clubs, but I felt that ZTE was the right club for me. I knew the place, the people in and around the club, I have friends here, my wife liked the place, and it was important to find some stability in life for my 9-month-old son, but also in football. This is my best season, and we’re only halfway through…I’ve found the stability here. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, but I think I can keep delivering the same numbers, some good things can happen for me in the summer. My goal is to end up with 15 goals, but we’ll see what happens: if I score more than that, I’ll be really happy, but if I score fewer and provide more assists, then I’ll also be really happy with that.”
Back for a second spell at ZTE Arena, Skribek has been able to lock in and establish himself as one of the top players in Hungary under Portuguese manager Nuno Campos, scoring in three of his first four games before being held scoreless in his next two. Skribek then dropped to the bench for a couple of matches before returning to the score sheet with a goal and an assist at Ferencváros, followed by a goal vs. Debrecen and a goal and an assist vs. VTK Diósgyőr. After kicking off December with an assist vs. Újpest FC and a goal vs. Kisvárda, Skribek was kept under wraps in their final match of 2025, which saw them draw 1-1 vs. MTK Budapest. And after missing out on their first match of the new year, Skribek started in their 1-0 defeat to Nyíregyháza on Sunday, registering three key passes, six shots (three on target), and four recoveries.
Eyes on the Prize
Skribek leads all players in Hungary for shots on target per game (1.7) and big chances created (10), whilst only Barna Tóth (3.6) is averaging more shots per game than him (3.4), and only Paul Anton (2.5) is averaging more key passes per game than him (2.2). Furthermore, only six players have scored more goals than him (7). It’s precisely these performances that have elevated him to the radar screen of not just Ferencváros, but two MLS teams.
“MLS is maybe not the toughest league in the world, but I still think it’s a good league with some of the best players in the world like Lionel Messi. I can see myself playing there one day.”
ZTE currently sits seventh in the 12-team Nemzeti Bajnokság I table, nine points above the relegation zone and nine away from the European spots, and they’ll be counting on Skrbek as they look to make it six wins from nine on Sunday. Only time will tell if Skribek is able to punish his former employers and find the back of the net for the fifth time in nine matches, but one thing’s for sure: if he continues performing at this level, it’s only a matter of time before he leaves Magyarország for greener pastures.
“In the Hungarian league, every match is hard. There are 12 teams, and everybody is fighting to stay in the league, but I think we are playing very well now and know what to do on the pitch. We’ve lost just once in our last eight matches, and whilst we still have some things to improve on, if we can keep performing as we did at the end of the year, I think we can finish in a good position. Before the start of the season, a lot of people doubted us, but now everybody is talking about us and watching us as we play the best football in the league. I’ve really enjoyed my time here, this half-season, and now, I think we can finish in a position that not many people expected us to end up in.”