Dominik Szoboszlai is receiving no sympathy from across the Irish Sea over Hungary’s failure to qualify for the 2026 World Cup in North America.
The Liverpool midfielder was left heartbroken after his nation, needing only a draw at home to Republic of Ireland on Sunday to clinch a play-off berth, twice relinquished a lead before losing out to Troy Parrott’s 96th-minute sucker punch.
Candid footage showed Irish pundit Kevin Doyle shouting a derogatory term at the 25-year-old as the former Wolves striker celebrated the stoppage-time winner, and the Hungary captain has continued to be kicked while already down.
Dublin Airport brutally mocks Szoboszlai
Shortly after Ireland’s heroics on Sunday, Dublin Airport changed its name on X to Troy Parrott International Airport, and they rubbed it in further with an unsubtle dig at Szoboszlai in a post on Monday evening.
Posting a photo of signage for the U.S. pre-clearance facility, with an image of the Liverpool midfielder in tears pasted over it, they added the caption: ‘U.S pre-clearance. Some have it, some don’t.’
Szoboszlai now turns his attention to reviving Liverpool
Irish celebrations at their national team’s dramatic passage to the play-offs (and the continuation of their hopes of a first World Cup appearance since 2002) are entirely understandable, especially given the circumstances in which they secured improbably back-to-back wins over Portugal and Hungary.
However, the trolling of Szoboszlai was rather crass, particularly when the Reds’ number 8 didn’t exactly sink without trace in Budapest on Sunday. In fact, it took an outstanding save from ex-Anfield teammate Caoimhin Kelleher to deny him a match-deciding late goal shortly before Parrott completed his hat-trick.
The World Cup dream is over for the midfielder and LFC teammate Milos Kerkez, but they’ll need to swiftly put that disappointment behind them and refocus their attention on trying to inspire a turnaround in fortunes for their club after a largely dismal autumn for the Premier League champions.
Liverpool’s woes would be even more severe if it weren’t for the 25-year-old, who’s been one of very few players in Arne Slot’s side to play to a consistently high level during what’s been a difficult season for the Reds so far.
How wonderful it’d be to witness Szoboszlai celebrating gleefully at scoring an all-important winning goal against Nottingham Forest on Saturday, in stark contrast to the anguish he’s felt over the past couple of days after Hungary’s failure to qualify for the World Cup.
You can view Dublin Airport’s post mocking Szoboszlai below, via @DublinAirport on X:
U.S pre-clearance. Some have it, some don’t. pic.twitter.com/oHsbiNIc7y
— Troy Parrott International Airport 🦜 (@DublinAirport) November 17, 2025
You can watch Slot’s full post-Man City press conference via Empire of the Kop on YouTube:
Didn’t Thierry Henry receive similar over his referee-allowed handball ?
There was plenty of annoyance, but this harsh ?
Reacting rather ungracefully over a cut’n’pasted “crying eyes” meme/fake pic maybe ?
Maybe Trump’s America will sell a lot more Guinness than Goulash now ?
It certainly shows the power and responsibility the media and those who use it should exercise.
One feels sure that the Irish people haven’t lost their empathy with those who come close, but fail at the last hurdle when it comes to World Cup qualifying.
As far as I’m aware they don’t have any historic beef with the Hungarians.
Are they trying to create some ?
It’s good news for Liverpool. Our players can focus on club football.
Well, the bigger picture for the moment is that there appears to be some fair amount of antipathy towards LFC in Irish society, due to one seeing no censuring in the media of Mr. Doyle (perhaps one has just missed it ?).
One’s just wondering if somebody like Robbie Keane, Ray Houghton, Finnan (or a Seamus Colman ?) would like to come forward and clarify how the Irish really view LFC and the people of this city.
Dom’s one of ours.
We enjoy the craic and we’re not all c****.
The Emerald Isle and Liverpool do back a long way together..
Upon further inspection of the dailies, it appears Mr. Doyle has apologised and if sincere, all’s well, though the level of venom towards LFC in his expletive should be of concern to him.
Will Dublin Airport be taking down their take on the issue now ?