Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szobozslai speaks exclusively to the ECHO at the Football For Change Easter lunch
16:00, 03 Apr 2026Updated 15:33, 07 Apr 2026
Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai at the Football For Change Easter lunch event on April 2, 2026
It speaks to Dominik Szoboszlai’s competitive spirit that a private video message from Steven Gerrard, which features a playful request for a game of padel, quickly takes on a more serious edge.
“If he wants to play then I need to start training for that now,” the Liverpool star says as he stirs his latte next to his wife, Borka, at the city’s plush Titanic Hotel on Thursday. The Gerrard challenge, it seems, has been accepted.
It was that same will to win that meant Szoboszlai never countenanced losing his place in the team last summer when the club embarked upon the biggest spending spree in their history, laying out around £440m on new recruits that included Germany playmaker Florian Wirtz for £116m.
When Wirtz arrived from Bayer Leverkusen, many believed Szoboszlai’s place would be most threatened, but the Hungary skipper has elevated his game further, despite a collective dip that has been inescapable for Arne Slot’s squad.
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It’s nearly three years now since Liverpool completed a £60m deal for Szoboszlai as his release clause entered its final hours with RB Leipzig. It was a whirlwind deal that was wrapped up quickly, but Szoboszlai’s first interactions with his new boss, Jurgen Klopp, didn’t initially get off to the most ideal start.
“It was really weird,” Szoboszlai tells the ECHO in an exclusive interview. “Because always when I am close to a new deal or something is about to change, my agent tells me only at the end. So I don’t know anything about it until I have to decide about something.
“It was really quick, he said they were interested, I said let’s go, Jurgen called me and then I signed. But yeah, that is true, unfortunately, I missed [Klopp’s call]. But he was sitting in a car, so I called him back quickly, I apologised that I couldn’t get on the first phone call and he was OK with that.
“I remember being on holiday with my friends and then my agent called me to be available in maybe two or three hours because Jurgen is going to call you.
“I then forgot and I was in the sea, so my friends are running out saying: ‘Your phone is ringing and Jurgen is calling you!’ So I was running back to the place and I had to call him back. I had to say sorry I forgot it. And then we started to speak and obviously he told me he would like to have me here and I said I am ready to come.”
Having listened to You’ll Never Walk Alone on repeat on the flight to Merseyside for his medical, Szoboszlai was determined to immerse himself in his new club’s culture as much as possible prior to making his Anfield bow.
“I knew [how big Liverpool was], actually, but once you are inside you realise properly what it does mean to be a Liverpool player. It was unbelievable because I still remember I had to choose my shirt number and I knew that Naby [Keita] was no longer here, so No.8 was free.
“So that was an easy choice. Then, when I stepped into the training ground, seeing how everything is there and what kind of players are playing here, it was just a dream come true for me.”
The idea of taking the No.8 might have been one many players – particularly those arriving for big-money fees – would have been keen to avoid but Szoboszlai was drawn to the shirt because of Gerrard and his Anfield legacy.
And while comparisons between the pair have been aired a few times during an impressive personal campaign for the current No.8, Szoboszlai says he is not looking to replicate what the iconic former skipper did at Liverpool, insisting he can become a totem of the team in a different way.
“It is a big compliment,” he says, speaking at the Easter lunch of Merseyside charity Football For Change, which is chaired by Jamie Carragher.
Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher chats to Dominik Szoboszlai at the 2026 Football For Change Easter lunch at the Titanic Hotel
“But I’ve many times that I just try to do my own story and sometimes we struggle as a team but we always try to put everything on the pitch and then this season I do stuff off the pitch, trying to help the new guys, coming from different leagues.
“I know how it feels to be new and I know how hard it is to come to the Premier League and especially Liverpool where you are always expected to win trophies.
“I hope [I am becoming a leader] but you have to ask someone else how they see it but I try to do my best on and off the pitch, try to keep everyone [together], try to be a leader [with] what I am doing on the pitch and that is the most important thing for me. Hopefully we can change this season in a good way.”
Twelve goals – many of them spectacular – and eight assists in a difficult campaign that has seen Szoboszlai often asked to fill in at right-back is testament to how well he has performed and the consistency of his displays even led to Mohamed Salah branding his colleague as one of the world’s best players back in February.
“It’s a great feeling that one of the greatest players who has ever played for Liverpool talks about you like this,” Szoboszlai says. “I am close with him but I know he doesn’t say that because we are close. He says it because he means it and I am really thankful for him.”
Ten Premier League defeats leave Liverpool battling to secure Champions League participation next season, but at the start of April, the Reds still find themselves fighting it out on three fronts, with two huge quarter-finals to come in the coming days, against Manchester City in the FA Cup, on Saturday lunchtime, and Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League next week.
Szoboszlai admits the prospect of winning the Champions League in the Hungarian capital of Budapest is a dream that is fuelling the coming weeks, saying: “I don’t like to talk about it but it is impossible not to think about it.
“So sometimes I just have a little hint in my head and talk with my wife sometimes how it will be and I cannot imagine it to be honest, to be there in Budapest, to play the final, it is what I am working for every day.
“Especially in Hungary in my country, everyone knows what it means to be Hungarian and my biggest dream was to win the Champions League in my whole career. So if I could win it there, I would sign it now.
“We haven’t given up on anything, we are just realistic and we go for two more trophies and what we can achieve. It is the FA Cup and the Champions League and hopefully at the end of the day we can take something.”
Szoboszlai is settled on Merseyside with his wife and their daughter, who was born in August last year, and the 25-year-old attributes his growth in stature and importance at Anfield to how his outlook has changed since embracing fatherhood.
“It has changed me a lot,” he says. “You know, I was a really angry person after games if something didn’t work as much as I wanted it to, but since she was born I get angry now for two minutes and then I think about her and then I realise what the most important thing in life is.”
The prospect of his Liverpool future has populated the discourse around Szoboszlai in recent months and the club remain in talks with his representatives EM Sports to secure a deal that is in line with the progress he has made since he joined in the summer of 2023.
Szoboszlai was keen to steer clear of muddying the waters further on that front but negotiations are ongoing and it is understood he is eager to extend his stay for the long term at the place he now calls home with his young family.
“I love being here,” he says. “My family is happy, I love the club, I love the fans, I love to play for this club and that is it.”
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