Factfile: All you need to know about Dominik Szoboszlai

The midfielder has completed a permanent transfer to the Reds from RB Leipzig, following Alexis Mac Allister in bolstering Jürgen Klopp’s squad ahead of 2023-24.

Here, we take a closer look at Liverpool’s new No.8…

Szoboszlai is a multiple league and cup winner. He helped Red Bull Salzburg to league and Austrian cup doubles in 2018-19 and 2019-20, with his form during the second of those campaigns earning Dominik the accolade of Austrian Bundesliga Player of the Season. That trophy habit continued following his switch to Leipzig in January 2021, with Die Roten Bullen crowned DFB-Pokal winners in each of the past two seasons. And it was a clinical strike from Szoboszlai that sealed the second of those German cup triumphs, as he found the bottom corner in the 85th minute of last month’s final against Eintracht Frankfurt to confirm a 2-0 victory.

He certainly has an eye for goal. Szoboszlai has scored at least nine goals in all competitions in each of his six seasons as a professional, posting remarkably consistent numbers during that period for Liefering and Salzburg in Austria, then Leipzig in Germany. That tally was achieved despite him missing the second half of the 2020-21 campaign due to an adductor injury.

• 2017-18: 10 goals
• 2018-19: 11 goals
• 2019-20: 12 goals
• 2020-21: 9 goals
• 2021-22: 10 goals
• 2022-23: 10 goals

Eight of those efforts were netted at Champions League level for Salzburg and Leipzig, while Szoboszlai has found the net on seven occasions in 32 games for his country so far.

Szoboszlai already has experience of playing at Anfield. The Hungarian got his first taste of the stadium almost four years ago, when he was part of the dangerous Salzburg side Liverpool clashed with twice during the Champions League group phase of 2019-20. Szoboszlai played 71 minutes of the first of those meetings, which Klopp’s Reds ultimately won 4-3 in a thriller at Anfield. He started the reverse contest in Austria, too, featuring for all but the closing moments as Liverpool secured a 2-0 victory that confirmed their progress to the knockout stage. More recently, he was involved for an hour when Leipzig hosted Liverpool in a pre-season friendly last summer.

Football is in the genes. Dominik’s father, Zsolt, was a professional player himself and later became a youth coach in Hungary, personally honing the football skills of his son from the age of three. “He would carry on training me whenever the team’s training sessions finished,” said Szoboszlai junior. “Except for one year, he was my coach until I joined the Red Bull Academy. He was and still is a huge inspiration and idol for me. My father was the key factor in my development. The [huge number of] hours he has spent practising and advising me are impossible to forget.”

The midfielder was named Hungary captain shortly after his 22nd birthday. Szoboszlai was appointed skipper of his country’s senior team in November 2022, having been chosen for the role by coach Marco Rossi and his national teammates. Two years earlier, he had produced a stunning moment with a 92nd-minute winner as Hungary came from a goal down to defeat Iceland and qualify for Euro 2020. Sadly, though, Dominik was unable to participate in the final tournament.

He will be reuniting with Ibrahima Konate. They never actually took to the pitch together due to the aforementioned injury that ruled Szoboszlai out of the second part of 2020-21 and Euro 2020. But he and Konate were teammates at Leipzig between the former’s arrival in Germany in January 2021 and the latter’s departure to Liverpool following the conclusion of that campaign. And the pair can now look forward to linking up again off – and finally on – the pitch with the Reds.

Szoboszlai’s all-round skillset. Opta Analyst shared data ahead of Szoboszlai’s move to Merseyside that underlined the influences the midfielder can have within his team. In addition to his goals and assists, the Hungarian led the way for Leipzig for involvement in open play shot-ending sequences in the Bundesliga in 2022-23, for example, with 163 (49 shots, 48 chances created and 66 build-ups to a shot). That total was the fourth-highest of all players in the division. He was also first in the Bundesliga for secondary chances created (41), second for open-play passes received in the opposition half (850), fifth among attacking players for ball carries (384) and sixth overall for high turnovers (39).

You can follow the new Red on Instagram. He posts on the platform under the username @szoboszlaidominik and at time of publication is followed by more than 700,000 people.

Dominik will be the third Hungarian-born player to take to the pitch for the Liverpool men’s team. The first was Istvan Kozma, who signed in February 1992 and made 10 appearances across the next seven months, before departing Anfield in the summer of 1993. Goalkeeper Adam Bogdan arrived on a free transfer in 2015 and played six games during his debut campaign on Merseyside. After a couple of loan moves, he bid farewell to Liverpool in 2019. Between times, Peter Gulacsi – with whom Szoboszlai was a teammate at Leipzig – spent five years at the Reds and was named on the bench 51 times, though never featured in a competitive senior fixture. The likes of Krisztian Adorjan, Krisztian Nemeth, Kristof Polgar, Patrik Poor and Andras Simon were also part of the club’s Academy ranks in previous years.