The academy is designed to train young athletes as well as to host international tournaments, he said, and called on Pécs University to include the athletes in its grants scheme. It is important to keep talented young athletes home “so they don’t go to America to study”, he said.

Next to three basketball courts with stands seating 400 that can be extended to accommodate 1,900, the complex also houses offices and lecture halls, as well as a dormitory for 60.

László Rátgéber, the former trainer of the Hungarian national men’s and women’s teams, will lead the academy, Orbán said. In Hungarian public life as in sports management, “there is a pressure to sell ourselves small after victories,” Orbán said and added that “we should be proud of what and of whom we have reason to be proud”.

MTI Photo: Koszticsák Szilárd