The SUN: High Ful towers
By TONY LITTLE
MARTON FULOP once caught everyone by surprise when he grew SIX INCHES during a summer. Now Coventry’s XL keeper would love to turn today’s FA Cup tie against Premiership Middlesbrough into another whopping shock. Fulop, 22, was just under six foot at the age of 17. Within weeks he was measuring in at 6ft 5in!
The Hungarian star admitted: “It was quite a surprise. I was just average and in one summer I grew six inches. That’s quite a lot. “My father is 6ft and there’s no one taller in the family apart from some distant cousins, so everyone expected me to be about 6ft 1in.” Fulop had already decided to become a goalkeeper before suddenly hitting those new heights. His ability persuaded Tottenham to pick him up from MTK Hungaria in July 2003. After much soul-searching, the move forced the brain-box to cancel all his plans to continue schooling by doing a law degree at university.
Fulop is currently on loan from Spurs at the Ricoh Arena and looking forward to his debut appearance in the oldest cup competition in the world — especially as Boro appear to be ripe for an upset. Tottenham had denied him the chance to make his debut when Coventry faced Brighton in the third round because they did not want him cup-tied. But the North London side were then dumped out in the shock of the round by Championship strugglers Leicester and Fulop is finally free to play.
He said: “This will be the first time I’ve played in the FA Cup. I experienced how special it was last year when I was on the bench at Spurs. “In Hungary they used to broadcast a lot of games in the FA Cup so I know all about the traditions. “If you go out on the pitch you can’t think of anything else but to win. We’ve been on a good run now while Middlesbrough have been on a bit of a shaky run. “Hopefully we can catch them — our confidence is high — and I think anything can happen.