Player #956 for Aston Villa, Ákos Ónodi, played as a goalkeeper for the club in the 2020-21 season, making his sole appearance in that season’s FA Cup.

Ákos became the 104th custodian of the Villa goal in professional football.

Ónodi was born on 2 September 2001 in Hungary and joined Villa in August 2018 from ETO FC Győr at the age of 16.

Ónodi went straight into the Under 18 squad and in the end-of-season awards for the 2019-20 Under 18 Premier League won the ‘save of the season’ award for a stunning stop against Arsenal.

Ónodi was promoted to the Villa Under 23 squad for the 2020-21 season under Mark Delaney, and Delaney promoted Ónodi to the first team squad before giving him his first team debut in the 2020-21 season, aged 19, in the 1-4 FA Cup defeat to Liverpool on Friday, 8 January 2021.

Ónodi was part of the youngest ever team to ever take the field for Villa in a professional game - aged 18.8 years on average - after the first team squad was forced into isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which had seen a raft of players and staff testing positive for the virus in the week preceding the game.

Ónodi was also one of 16 debutants in the game - the most in a single game in Villa’s history and was also part of the starting XI made up of 11 debutants, the first time this had happened since Villa’s first professional fixture, also in the FA Cup, on Saturday, 13 December 1879 against Stafford Road. Ónodi made his debut appearance under caretaker manager Mark Delaney following Dean Smith having to join the first team in isolation.

The Birmingham Mail described Ónodi’s debut thus:

“Ónodi no chance with Mane’s bullet header which sailed past his near post. The Hungarian international then produced a few outstanding saves, first it was to deny Fabinho’s directed effort on the 20-minute mark, tipping it around the post. Onodi then saved well from Mo Salah. The youngster’s kicking was superb as well as he looked to hit Ben Chrisene on Villa’s left flank as Villa targeted Liverpool’s Neco Williams. Tried desperately to keep Liverpool at bay and was given a shout-out by Tom Heaton after full-time."

Ákos would join Southern League Premier club Bromsgrove Sporting 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 on loan in 2021-22 before being released from the Villa Youth set up under Steven Gerrard in July 2022 aged 20.