Hungary Striker Krisztian 'Nemo' Nemeth's Long and Winding Road to the Euros

Hungary striker Krisztian Nemeth has had a lot to celebrate over the last 12 months.

There was the curling comet of a goal that leveled the U.S. Open Cup final against Philadelphia, which Sporting Kansas later won on penalties. Then there was Nemeth making Major League Soccer history as the only player in the league's 20-year existence to score on all of his first seven shots on goal in a season.

After each of his 11 MLS goals in 2015, Nemeth slid on his knees toward the nearest group of fans and performed his "lightning" celebration—one arm bent toward the closest ear and the other outstretched toward the crowd.

It's an ode to a friend back home in Hungary.

"When I scored my first national team goal in Hungary," Nemeth tells Bleacher Report, "he was injured, and I did this celebration for him. And after, I just kept it."

His successes with Sporting Kansas City in 2015 led to international recognition with Hungary and a key role in qualifying his country for Euro 2016—its first appearance in the tournament since 1972. Hungary will compete in Group F with Austria, Iceland and Portugal.

"It's one of the best feelings for sure. Especially after those 44 years," Nemeth says. "It's a long, long, long time. So for us, for the fans, it's really important. Everybody was very, very happy."

More goals, more smiles, more celebrating. Nemeth insists that now is meant for celebrating, but when tournament time rolls around, he and his teammates will be as focused as ever.

Nemeth's family and friends still live in Hungary, and he makes sure to mention that he misses them. But he also carries them with him through acts such as his goal celebration. Or by remembering how he started playing soccer as a five-year-old, played as a youth for the Hungary national team and always dreamed of playing as a man for his national team.

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There are many things people who aren't from Hungary can't possibly appreciate about the country, Nemeth says. He pulls one example from his sleeve.

"There are a lot of nice girls," he says.

Such as his fiancee. Especially her.

The two met in a hospital when they both happened to be going in for medical check-ups before their respective athletic seasons. She played handball for a Hungarian club.

She is one of the many gifts the game has given him. And in his brief spare time between seasons in early December, Nemeth and his fiancee explored New York. They visited the Empire State Building, which is the poetic thing to do when you feel on top of the world.

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Nemeth grew up in the small city of Gyor, Hungary, which is located about an hour outside of Budapest.

He developed his game with Liverpool from 2007-10 and trained alongside the likes of Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres, Xabi Alonso, Javier Mascherano and Robbie Keane. When he first arrived in England, Nemeth knew barely any English, a language he now speaks with little difficulty.

He bounced from Greek to Hungarian to Dutch clubs. And then he found himself in America's heartland—one in Sporting Kansas City's scoring duo with Dom Dwyer—and he soon was beloved. But on Jan. 29, the MLS club reported that it had agreed to transfer its popular forward to Al-Gharafa SC in Qatar in exchange for two-thirds of the transfer fee.

Fortunately, Nemeth is good at navigating.

In October, before his abrupt departure, Sporting visited the Portland Timbers just three days after winning the U.S. Open Cup in Chester, Pennsylvania. The game was goalless until Nemeth slalomed his way past three opponents and delivered the strike that was named 2015 AT&T Goal of the Year. Sporting Kansas City won 1-0. It was Portland's last loss—thanks to Nemeth—on its run to winning the MLS Cup.

Back home in Hungary the following Monday, Nemeth was shown smiling coyly on the front page of the sports daily Nemzeti Sport.

Is he some kind of celebrity now?

"I don't know," he says with a little laugh. "You'd have to ask family. I guess. Maybe."

On Aug. 12, Real Salt Lake visited Kansas City for a U.S. Open Cup semifinal. In the crowd was a boy celebrating his ninth birthday. After the game, Nemeth joined his teammates in walking around the stadium and clapping. He was one in the pack until his teammates kept walking, and he stopped. He gave the boy his game-worn No. 9 jersey, and the boy hugged him.

It was with that interaction that I saw it: Kansas City had embraced Nemeth as its own, and Nemeth hugged Kansas City back.

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Nemeth has been involved with his national team, in some capacity, since he was a boy. He remembers calling his family when he received his first call-up, though he didn't play in the game. He was only 17 years old. His first cap came about three-and-a-half years later against Germany.

So maybe 2015 was more of a reemergence. Either way, Nemeth recognizes that MLS and Sporting Kansas City played a massive role.

"Before MLS, I didn't play on the national team," he says. "After I started to play here in Kansas City, Hungary started to like me again."

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As things stand, Hungary has some clubs of its own but not a high-quality domestic league.

"The national team's popularity is growing, but the clubs—we have to build it up again," Nemeth says. "Ten or 15 years ago, every stadium had a lot of people to watch. But now, there's not as much as before."

And so Nemeth finds himself playing for Al-Gharafa in Qatar, where the goals are flowing and his journey continues.

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Nemeth likes the film Finding Nemo. Sporting Kansas City fans loved to call him "Nemo." They made signs. They chanted. They alluded to the movie when he scored a goal.

"Now they're coming out with Nemo 2: Finding Dory. Did you know that?" Nemeth asks. He laughs. "But the reason people call me Nemo isn't because of the film. The original reason is because Nemeth—that's just the shorter version in Hungary."

There is no short version of Nemeth's journey. It has taken years of work and doubt and fear and friends and family and triumph and, yes, celebration. A long road led to Kansas City, then on to Qatar and even still to the chance of bringing Euros glory back to Hungary. There's still a lot of road left to travel with a ball at his feet and a soon-to-be wife by his side.

Krisztian Nemeth has been to many places, is exploring many places and still has places he wants to go. But he can't be everywhere. He can't know if he's a celebrity in Hungary, in his home where it all started, and maybe that's the point.

When you're so busy conquering the world, who has time to read about it?