Juninho was so good at Middlesbrough that 20,000 fans turned up for reserve team game

He was known as the Lizard King at Middlesbrough, but Szilard Nemeth says there was only one 'king' during his time on Teesside. The Slovakian forward struck up a good relationship with the Boro faithful in his five-year spell in the North East and always appreciated their backing.

Nemeth bagged 29 goals for Boro after arriving from Inter Bratislava in 2001, playing alongside some big names at the Riverside. One player will always stand out for the forward though, and it'll come as no surprise to anyone to hear him talk so fondly of the one and only Juninho.

The Brazilian playmaker is still something of a cult figure on Teesside, having lit up the region with his array of silky skills and energy. Nemeth became close friends with Juninho and revealed he was part of a 20,000-strong crowd that turned up just to watch him play in the reserves one day.

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"If I had to pick the best player I ever played with then it would be Juninho Paulista," he said. "We were very good friends and the fans loved him. When he was out for six months with a knee injury, me, 10 other players and 20,000 fans went to watch his comeback with the reserve team.

"So it was amazing. He was really a very good player and a very good friend. Also in my top four would be Bolo Zenden, Gaizka Mendieta and Alen Boksic, he was a quality striker. So yeah, I played with lots of players, but I have to pick up one.

"Bolo was also a fantastic player with lots of experience from Barcelona, from Holland, from the national team. Juninho was a very good friend. We had the celebration two months ago in Middlesbrough, so I met him and we had a nice talk. Unfortunately there were only seven players there, but I was happy to see players like Massimo Maccarone, Franck Queudrue, Gareth Southgate and Stuart Downing. It was a very nice reunion and a very nice three days with old friends."

While the likes of Boksic, Zenden and Juninho often grabbed the headlines, Nemeth always had a strong bond with the Boro faithful, and relished his 'Lizard King' nickname.

“I liked my nickname," he told OLBG. "I think it was because my name was quite hard to pronounce correctly. But it was a nice nickname and I enjoyed it. I loved the fans and they loved me even though we had bigger stars in the team.”