Damian Pedrosa: The Argentine Businessman Who’s Leading ZTE’s Resurgence
All things considered, it has been a rollercoaster journey for Zalaegerszegi Torna Egylet Football Club. Founded in 1920, shortly after the dissolution of the Austrian-Hungarian empire, ZTE flourished at the start of the 20th century, but the onset of World War II saw their field and equipment confiscated, and it wasn’t until 1957 that they rose from the ashes after merging with two other local teams. They would have to wait another four decades before gaining a solid foothold in the Hungarian top division, eventually reaching the apex by winning their first-ever league title in 2002 and masterminding a shock win against Manchester United.
However, the following decade would bring storm clouds to Zete, who descended to the second division and only returned in 2019. Once again, they worked their way up the pyramid and reached the zenith by defeating Budafok in the 2023 Magyar Kupa Final, but it wasn’t quite a harbinger of long-term success. ZTE finished ninth for the third time in four years before placing 10th in the 12-team league in 2024/25, three points away from relegation. But under the ownership of Damian Pedrosa and Andres Jornet, they’ve managed to turn a new leaf and punch above their weight in the Nemzeti Bajnokság I.
“I want ZTE to be seen as a model club that’s very involved in the community. I want every club in the region – not just in Hungary – to see how good ZTE is and how good its process is,” stated Pedrosa in an exclusive R.org interview. “I want them to see how our net process has made us become a consistently concrete team very week, not just bringing in a top player one year, but from a process that starts from 7-year-old kids in the academy all the way to the first team. That’s how we’re doing it.”
Honing his Skills in Argentina
After graduating with a degree in Sport and Fitness Administration/Management from the Universidad Empresarial ‘Siglo 21’ – later receiving another in Business Administration and Management from the same facility – Pedrosa decided to step into the football industry in 2014. It was a major transition for Pedrosa, whose sole professional experience consisted of replacing windshields with his family business Parautos SA, but he made it work and quickly justified the trust of Club Atlético Talleres. It was here in his native Córdoba that Pedrosa became acquainted with Jornet, who was leading the club’s scouting department.
At the time, Talleres were looking for a guiding hand to lead them out of a decade of financial distress and stabilize their position in the top tier. As the team’s Chief Operating Officer, Pedrosa’s foresight and decisiveness proved essential as the Matadores achieved back-to-back promotions to return to the top-flight after 12 years before qualifying for the Copa Libertadores, South America’s premier competition, in 2019. Under the direction of Pedrosa, Talleres didn’t just achieve success with their first team, but they also emerged as one of the best academies and reserves in Argentina, winning the national Reserves Tournament two times in a row in 2016-17 and 2017-18.
“It was a very successful period. We started in the third division and ended in the first division, playing Libertadores… It was a very busy period where we started building everything from the ground up.
Now, Talleres is a top club with top facilities and employees and everything to work in proper conditions, but at the moment, it was just starting. What I learned is that the football industry never sleeps, and it obliges you to be working 24/7, but if you are able to combine that passion and professionalism, you can achieve very good things.”
After six years with Talleres, Pedrosa decided that he needed to take a break from the football industry, so he launched the events company TEN+ Productions, which quickly snowballed into one of the leading production companies in the Americas. Having started off with events like the Copa Sudamericana Final in Córdoba, Pedrosa quickly expanded to places like Buenos Aires and Montevideo with major spectacles such as the Copa Libertadores Final and the APT Padel Tour. And in 2024, he helped deliver the Copa América in the United States.
Branching out to Hungarian Football
But he always knew that he wanted to return to the football industry one day. It’s why he decided to reunite with Jornet and explore potential opportunities in South America and Europe. After futile pursuits of clubs in Uruguay and Italy, Pedrosa then met ZTE’s outgoing owners in Madrid and started negotiations to purchase the club in April 2025, eventually finalizing the takeover of 100% of ZTE in August. As the only foreign owners in Hungary, the Argentine duo quickly made a splash in the market, adding 14 players in the summer window before signing another 12 in January. Apart from Zsombor Nagy (27), Alen Skribek (24), and José Calderón (25), each of these arrivals was 22 or younger.
“The biggest surprise was how good Hungary’s infrastructure was. I knew it was good, but not that good: it’s much better than the average club from Spain, Italy…anywhere in Europe apart from England. Out of the 12 teams in the top-flight, 11 have top-class stadiums, which was shocking to me. Zalaegerszeg is a small city, similarly to Córdoba…we’re the second city, and we sometimes felt like we were put aside from the country and Buenos Aires.
But we were proud of it, and we had a lot of good things to show the rest of Argentina. And when I arrived at Zalaegerszeg, I felt the same: they’re not Budapest, they’re not the priority, they’re the second or third or fourth city, but they’re proud of their city and want to show what they can offer.”
ZTE kicked off the 2025/26 season with four straight stalemates followed by five defeats in their next six league matches. But after closing out October with a shock win at behemoths Ferencváros, ZTE started to turn the corner under Portuguese manager Nuno Campos and mark their presence in the upper reaches of the division. They didn’t quite end the campaign as they’d have expected, losing four consecutive matches including a narrow extra-time defeat to Ferencváros in the cup final, but they nevertheless did well enough to finish fifth, five points away from the European positions and 20 above the relegation zone.
“We arrived here with a clear vision and said, ‘Okay, we are going to play with young players, we are going to bring the best talents that we can find in our budget.’
It was tough because for the first 9-10 weeks, we were in last place. We were the youngest team in Europe, we were playing in a very physical Hungarian league with Brazilian strikers who were 160cm tall. But we stuck to the plan and fought for it, and the supporters really helped and supported us. At the end of the day, the results came on and off the pitch with a fifth-place finish and record sales, and we have the potential to make some more big sales. But the most important thing is that we have a clear vision, and we are improving and getting deeper and deeper in our philosophy of playing and working.
And whilst our coach has decided to move to a different club [Dinamo București], I’ve told the fans, ‘Don’t be afraid, because our vision isn’t going to change. Players and coaches come and go, but the thing that has to remain strong is our vision.”