Before the fall of the Iron Curtain, Karoly Kristoff emigrated to Canada. As Csikszereda, he himself played ice hockey in his childhood, but in 2023 he has already recruited Hungarian fans to the Group A Women’s World Championship, so that our fans can feel it. House in Bramptom.
| Despite the elimination, the Women’s World Cup was a great experience for the fans, including Karoly Kristoff (second from left) – author’s recording |
How did they manage to muster so many local Hungarians?heI measure the national hockey teamhesounds?
Many of us from the Hungarian community around Toronto were already looking forward to the tournament with great enthusiasm He told our newspaper Caroline Christophe Contact person for fan groups. – Two or three weeks before the start, the news of the World Cup matches spread on social media. It is great that the Hungarian national team has also reached the highest level, and that it has already been a member of the elite for the third year. People started talking about it and the topic attracted more and more people. The Canadian-Hungarian Entrepreneurs Association (HCBA) and the consulate asked me to help recruit as many fans as possible for the games, because they knew I also loved hockey due to my Csikszereda background. To my honest surprise, so many people accepted the invitation positively, there were already hundreds of us in the first match, and by the Easter weekend there were only a few more.
Although the national team was eliminated, they did not regret being in the CAA position, right…?
It was an amazing experience to be part of the World Cup. In addition to going to the games to have fun, our goal was to do everything we could to make the girls feel at home.
It is popular regardless of the World CupUgh Hockey among Canadian Hungarians?
Because of our European roots, we bring our love of football with us, but many of us are from Transylvania or regions of Hungary where hockey is traditionally loved, such as Székesfehérvár, Dunaújváros or Miskolc. Anyone who hasn’t hit the “ice hockey wind” at home can’t avoid encountering it here in Canada. It is also constantly broadcast on TV, so most people gradually like it.
So they weren’t specifically looking for Hungarian hockey fans, but were trying to get everyone moving?
There are several smaller Hungarian communities in Southern Ontario, we’ve sent them emails, and the HCBA has provided us with several free tickets. I specifically used these to get people into the hall who might not even have watched a live hockey game. I had twenty-four hours to recruit a team of sixty people, but in no time at all, tickets were sold out, so a lot of people were interested. Those who were there against the French almost without exception brought their families with them on Saturday and Monday.
Was the World Cup a force to unite society?
Many of us thirst for programs that somehow connect us with the motherland. Two weeks ago, for example, there was an Ida concert in Toronto. As Áron Tamási says: “We are in the world to be at home somewhere in it”. Although we live abroad, we are fortunately often given the opportunity to feel at home. I argued to the community leaders that we should honor the girls’ win for the right to participate in the World Championships in Group A, and that we are very lucky that the event is being held near us, so we have no other choice but to be there in the hall.
