Gyöngyösi KK

Aleksandar Tomić spent time between the posts at Gyöngyösi KK, a Serbian international goalkeeper picking up the gloves at a club that has made a habit of sending Hungarian internationals onward rather than keeping trophies for itself. Gazdag Tibor came through the same way between 2011 and 2013, and Dávid Debreczeni wore the shirt for four seasons after him — neither stayed to lift anything with GYKK, because there has been nothing to lift. The men's team has never taken the Nemzeti Bajnokság I title nor the Magyar Kupa, and the closest it came was finishing runners-up in the NB I/B Eastern Group in 2011–12, a result that earned promotion rather than a championship medal.

The club traces back to 1950, though for decades it played under a different name, Gyöngyösi Csépány SE, before switching to Gyöngyösi KK in 1994. What has followed since is a story of staying up rather than going up: mid-table finishes of sixth and seventh place, and a run of twelve straight seasons in the top flight by 2022–23, interrupted only by relegation to NB I/B at the end of 2017–18 and an immediate return the following year.

Matches against Eger-Eszterházy SzSE carry their own name, the Heves megyei derbi, a fixture the town takes more seriously than most on the calendar given the neighbouring rivalry with Mezőkövesdi KC sits alongside it. Under head coach Balázs Bíró and president Attila Nagy, the current job is the same one the club has done for years: hold a place in the NB I, keep developing players who move on to bigger things, and avoid another trip down to the second tier.