.JPG) Guttmann in 1953 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Béla Guttmann | ||
| Date of birth | (1899-01-27)27 January 1899[1] | ||
| Place of birth | Budapest,[1]Austria-Hungary | ||
| Date of death | 28 August 1981(1981-08-28) (aged 82)[1] | ||
| Place of death | Vienna,[1] Austria | ||
| Position | Centre-half[2] | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1917–1919 | Törekvés SE | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1919–1920 | Törekvés SE | 17 | (0) |
| 1921–1922 | MTK Hungária | 16 | (1) |
| 1922–1926 | Hakoah Wien | 96 | (8) |
| 1926 | Brooklyn Wanderers | ||
| 1926–1929 | New York Giants | 83 | (2) |
| 1929–1930 | New York Hakoah | 21 | (0) |
| 1930 | New York Soccer Club | 22 | (0) |
| 1931–1932 | Hakoah All-Stars | 50 | (0) |
| 1932–1933 | Hakoah Wien | 4 | (0) |
| International career | |||
| 1921–1924 | Hungary[1] | 4 | (1) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1933–1935 | Hakoah Wien | ||
| 1935–1937 | Enschede | ||
| 1937–1938 | Hakoah Wien | ||
| 1938–1939 | Újpest | ||
| 1945 | Vasas | ||
| 1946 | Ciocanul București | ||
| 1947 | Újpest | ||
| 1947–1948 | Kispest | ||
| 1949–1950 | Padova | ||
| 1950–1951 | Triestina | ||
| 1953 | Quilmes | ||
| 1953 | APOEL | ||
| 1953–1955 | Milan | ||
| 1955–1956 | Vicenza | ||
| 1956–1957 | Honvéd | ||
| 1957–1958 | São Paulo | ||
| 1958–1959 | Porto | ||
| 1959–1962 | Benfica | ||
| 1962 | Peñarol | ||
| 1964 | Austria | ||
| 1965–1966 | Benfica | ||
| 1966–1967 | Servette | ||
| 1967 | Panathinaikos | ||
| 1973 | Austria Wien | ||
| 1973–1974 | Porto | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Béla Guttmann (Hungarian:[ˈbeːlɒˈɡutmɒnn]; 27 January 1899[3] – 28 August 1981) was a Hungarianfootballer and coach. He was born inBudapest,Austria-Hungary, and wasJewish. He was deported by the Nazis to aNazi slave labor camp where he was tortured; he survivedthe Holocaust. Before the war, he played as amidfielder forMTK Hungária,Hakoah Vienna, and several clubs in the United States. Guttmann also played for theHungary national team, including at the1924 Olympic Games.[4]
Guttmann coached in ten countries from 1933 to 1974, and won ten national championships and two consecutiveEuropean Cups withBenfica. He also coached the national teams of Hungary and Austria, having also coached club football in the Netherlands, Italy, Brazil, Uruguay, and Portugal. He is perhaps best remembered as a coach and manager after the war ofAC Milan,São Paulo,Porto,Benfica andPeñarol. His greatest success came with Benfica when he guided them to two successive European Cup wins, in1961 and in1962.
Guttmann pioneered the4–2–4 formation along withMárton Bukovi andGusztáv Sebes, forming a triumvirate of radical Hungarian coaches, and is also credited with mentoring youngEusébio at Benfica. Throughout his career, he was never far from controversy. Widely travelled, as both a player and coach, he rarely stayed at a club longer than two seasons, and was quoted as saying "the third season is fatal". He was sacked by Milan while they were top ofSerie A,[citation needed] and he walked out on Benfica after they reportedly refused a request for a pay rise, leaving the club with a "curse".[5]
Guttmann was born inBudapest,Austria-Hungary, and wasJewish.[6] His parents, Ábrahám and Eszter were dance teachers.[7][8] He became a trained dance instructor himself, at 16 years of age.[9][7] He obtained a Psychology degree in Austria.[7]
Guttmann was a prominent member of theMTK Hungária team of the early 1920s.[10] Playinghalfback orcenter half alongsideGyula Mándi, he helped MTK winHungarian League titles in 1920 and 1921.[4][11]
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In 1922, Guttmann moved toVienna, Austria, to escape theantisemitism in Hungary of theAdmiral Horthy regime, as during 1919 to 1921 counter-revolutionary soldiers carried out repressive violence to destroy any supporters of Hungary's short-livedSoviet republic and itsRed Terror. Several hundreds of people were killed, many of them were Jewish in a campaign known as theWhite Terror, orchestrated by the Hungarian nationalist government.[12] In Vienna he joined the all-Jewish clubHakoah Wien and played for them as theircentre back from 1922 to 1926 and in 1933.[11][12] For the team's shirts, they wore the blue and white of theZionist national movement, and a largeStar of David was their badge.[12] In 1925, he won another league title when Hakoah won theAustrian League.[4] In April 1926, the Hakoah Wien squad sailed to New York to begin a ten-match tour of the United States.[13] On 1 May, a crowd of 46,000 watched them play anAmerican Soccer League XI at thePolo Grounds, a US record for a soccer game until 1977.[11][14][15] The ASL team won 3–0. At least six of the Hakoah players were later killed in the Holocaust.[15]
Following the tour Guttmann, who was Hakoah's most prominent player, and several of his teammates decided to stay on in the US.[13][14] After initially playing forBrooklyn Wanderers, he signed for theNew York Giants of theAmerican Soccer League (ASL), playing 83 games and scoring two goals over two seasons.[4][11] In 1928, the Giants were suspended from the ASL as part of the "Soccer War", a dispute pitting the ASL andUnited States Soccer Federation.[16]
Guttmann and the Giants joined theEastern Soccer League, but he soon moved toNew York Hakoah, a team made-up of former Hakoah Wien players, includingRudolph Nickolsburger.[11] In 1929, he helped them win theUS Open Cup (then known as National Challenge Cup).[17][18] After a merger withBrooklyn Hakoah, they became theHakoah All-Stars in 1930. In the fall of 1930, Guttmann rejoined the Giants, now known as theNew York Soccer Club, but was back at the All-Stars in the spring of 1931 where he finished his career as a player.[19] When he retired as a player he was 32 years old, and had played 176 ASL games.[11] As well as playing football, while in New York, Guttmann also taught dance, bought into aspeakeasy, invested in the stock market, and almost lost everything after theWall Street crash of 1929.[20][21][22]
Between 1921 and 1924, Guttmann played six times for theHungary national football team, scoring on his debut on 5 June 1921 in a 3–0 win againstGermany. Later in the same month, he also played against a Southern Germany XI. His remaining four appearances all came in May 1924 in games againstSwitzerland,Saarland,Poland, andEgypt. The latter two were at the1924 Olympic Games in Paris. During the preparations for the competition Guttmann objected to the fact that there were more officials than players in the Hungary squad.[23] He also complained that the hotel was more suitable for socialising than match preparation, and to demonstrate his disapproval he hung dead rats on the doors of the travelling officials.[22]
Guttmann coached two dozen teams in ten countries, from 1933 to 1974, and won twoEuropean Cups, and ten national championships.[24][11] He also coached the national teams of Hungary, Austria, the Netherlands, Italy, Brazil, Uruguay, and Portugal.[11] As a coach, tactically he pioneered the4–2–4 formation, and had his teams play fearless attacking football.[25][26] In addition, he required that his players follow his regime of diet, rigorous fitness, and hard training.[26][27][28]
Guttmann returned to Europe in 1932 and in the years before the outbreak of theSecond World War he coached teams in Austria, The Netherlands, and Hungary. He had spells with his former club Hakoah Wien, and then Dutch sideEnschede.[6] He then had his first serious success withÚjpest in the 1938–39 season, winning the Hungarian League and theMitropa Cup (the precursor to theEuropean Cup).[29][12] Shortly thereafter, anti-Jewish laws introduced by the Hungarian government ensured Guttmann lost his job.[12]
During thedestruction of Hungarian Jewry, after the Nazis occupied Hungary in March 1944 and sent most of Hungary's Jews toNazi concentration camps where they were killed, Guttmann initially hid in an attic inÚjpest, aided by his non-Jewish brother-in-law.[30][12] He was then sent to aNazi forced labor camp near Budapest, where he was tortured.[30][12][31] Years later, he reminisced: "Our sergeant ... [had] learned how to torture people... Was I a footballer from the national team, was I a successful coach? Was I even a man? Who cared, you had to forget all about it."[12] He escaped in December 1944, just before he was about to be sent toAuschwitz concentration camp, together withErnest Erbstein, another famous Jewish-Hungarian coach.[4][12][21][30] His 78-year-old father Abraham, older sister Szeren, and wider family were murdered in Auschwitz.[12][30] For many years the story of what happened to him during the Holocaust was unclear, untilDavid Bolchover wrote about it in his biography of Guttman, titledThe Greatest Comeback.[32]
After the war, Guttmann briefly took charge at Budapest sideVasas from July 1945–1946.[22][33] He then joinedCiocanul in Romania in 1946.[34] Due to food shortages, Guttmann insisted his salary be paid in vegetables.[34][33] He subsequently walked out on the Romanian club after a director attempted to intervene in team selection.[20] German journalist Hardy Grune believed that he was frustrated with the corruption in the Romanian soccer world.[33] Guttmann then in early 1947 rejoined Újpest, then known as Újpesti.[33] He won another Hungarian League title.[33] He then succeededFerenc Puskás Sr. as coach at Hungarian sideKispest. In November 1948, Guttmann attempted to take off fullback Mihály Patyi at whose ungentlemanly play he was furious, leaving the team with 10 players.[26][31] Encouraged by the team captain,Ferenc Puskás Jr, Patyi remained on the pitch and Guttmann retired to the stands, reading a racing paper, refusing to coach the team, quitting on the spot.[7][31] This was his final game in charge of the team, and he departed soon after the falling out.[33]
Like many other Hungarian footballers and coaches, Guttmann spent time in Italy. He first coached for spells withPadova andTriestina. Guttmann was then appointed manager ofAC Milan in 1953. With a team that includedGunnar Nordahl,Nils Liedholm, andJuan Alberto Schiaffino, Guttmann had them top ofSerie A 19 games into his second season in charge, when a string of disputes with the board led to his dismissal. He later told a stunned press conference: "I have been sacked even though I am neither a criminal nor a homosexual. Goodbye."[35][34] From then on he insisted on a clause in his contract that he could not be sacked if his team were top of the table.[34]Shortly afterwards, he killed a teenager and injured another teenager in a car crash. He fled and was later sentenced leniently.[1]He subsequently managed a fourth Italian clubVicenza.
Guttmann first went toSouth America on tour with the Hakoah All-Stars in the summer of 1930.[36] In 1957, he returned as a coach with the Kispest team which included Ferenc Puskás,Zoltán Czibor,Sándor Kocsis,József Bozsik,László Budai,Gyula Lóránt andGyula Grosics. During a tour ofBrazil, Kispest played a series of five games againstCR Flamengo,Botafogo, and a Flamengo / Botafogo XI. Guttmann then stayed on in Brazil and took charge in 1957 ofSão Paulo and with a team that includedDino Sani,Mauro, andZizinho, won theSão Paulo State Championship in 1957.[12][34] It was while in Brazil that he helped popularise the4–2–4 formation, which had been pioneered by fellow countrymenMárton Bukovi andGusztáv Sebes, and was subsequently used byBrazil as they won the1958 FIFA World Cup. Before finally retiring as coach, Guttmann would return to South America to managePeñarol in 1962;[30][34] he was replaced in October byPeregrino Anselmo, who guided the side to theUruguayan League title that very year.
In 1958, Guttmann arrived in Portugal and embarked on the most successful spell of his career. He took charge ofPorto and helped them overhaul a five-point lead enjoyed byBenfica to win his first of threePortuguese League titles in 1959.[12] The following season, he jumped ship and joined Lisbon side Benfica.[37] There he promptly sacked 20 senior players, promoted a host of youth players, and won the league again in 1960 and 1961.[13] Under Guttmann, Benfica, with a team that includedEusébio,José Águas,José Augusto,Costa Pereira,António Simões,Germano, andMário Coluna, also won theEuropean Cup twice in a row. In1961, they beatBarcelona 3–2 in the final and in1962 they retained the title, coming from 2 to 0 and 3–2 down to beatReal Madrid 5–3.[38] After the game, he was held aloft by fans.[7]
Legend has it that Guttmann signed Eusébio after a chance meeting in a barber shop.[12] Seated next to Guttmann wasJosé Carlos Bauer, one of his successors at São Paulo. The Brazilian team were on tour in Portugal, and the coach mentioned an outstanding player he had seen while they touredMozambique.[12] Eusébio had also attracted the interest ofSporting CP. Guttmann moved quickly and signed the then 19-year-old for Benfica.[39] To celebrate Benfica's 110th birthday, a statue of Guttmann holding the two European Cups he won with the club was unveiled. The statue made by Hungarian sculptor László Szatmári Juhos was placed at door 18 of theEstádio da Luz.[40]
After the1962 European Cup final, Guttmann reportedly approached the Benfica board of directors and asked for a pay rise.[9][34] However, despite the success he had brought the club, he was turned down.[13][41] On leaving Benfica, he allegedly cursed the club declaring "Not in a hundred years from now will Benfica ever be European champions again".[4] Later, on 6 April 1963, in an interview toA Bola, he stated, "Benfica, at this moment, are well served and do not need me. They will win theCampeonato Nacional and will be champions of Europe again."[42][43] Benfica went on to reach five European Cup finals (1963,1965,1968,1988, and1990) but did not win any.[44] Before the 1990 final, played in Vienna, Eusébio reportedly prayed at Guttmann's grave and asked for the curse to be broken.[34][45]
According toDavid Bolchover, in his biography of Guttmann, there is no documentary evidence on Guttmann saying anything related to a curse and that the first mention of such was in May 1988, by newspaperGazeta dos Desportos, on the day Benfica played their sixth European final.[43] The curse had its origins in March 1968 whenA Bola published a loose and unsigned translation from German to Portuguese of an interview given by Guttmann toSport-Illustrierte five months earlier, in October 1967.[43] Moreover, in November 2011,Eusébio, who was coached by Guttmann, also denied the existence of the curse, calling it a "lie".[43] In 2022, after losing threeUEFA Youth League finals,Benfica's under-19 team became European youth champions by winning the2021–22 edition, thus ending the superstition.[43][46][47]
| Team | Country | From | To | Record | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | D | L | Win % | ||||
| Hakoah Vienna |  | 16 June 1933 | 30 June 1935 | 50 | 15 | 12 | 23 | 030.00 |
| SC Enschede |  | 1 July 1935 | 30 June 1937 | 44 | 27 | 4 | 13 | 061.36 |
| Hakoah Vienna | | 1 July 1937 | 14 March 1938 | 15 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 060.00 |
| Újpest |  | 19 September 1938 | 10 August 1939 | 32 | 23 | 5 | 4 | 071.88 |
| Vasas | | 1 May 1945 | 31 December 1945 | 22 | 18 | 1 | 3 | 081.82 |
| Újpest | | 15 February 1947 | 16 August 1947 | 14 | 10 | 0 | 4 | 071.43 |
| Kispest[note 1] | | 16 August 1947 | 31 October 1948 | 39 | 29 | 4 | 6 | 074.36 |
| Padova |  | 1 July 1949 | 26 April 1950 | 33 | 10 | 8 | 15 | 030.30 |
| Triestina | | 1 July 1950 | 19 November 1951 | 48 | 12 | 11 | 25 | 025.00 |
| APOEL |   | 26 September 1953 | 9 November 1953 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 050.00 |
| AC Milan | | 9 November 1953 | 15 February 1955 | 44 | 25 | 11 | 8 | 056.82 |
| Vicenza | | 1 July 1955 | 9 April 1956 | 26 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 026.92 |
| Honved[note 2] | | 1 August 1956 | 23 March 1957 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 066.67 |
| São Paulo |  | 23 March 1957 | 17 July 1958 | 97 | 46 | 28 | 23 | 047.42 |
| Porto |  | 2 November 1958 | 19 July 1959 | 28 | 21 | 4 | 3 | 075.00 |
| Benfica | | 20 July 1959 | 20 June 1962 | 124 | 89 | 20 | 15 | 071.77 |
| Peñarol[note 3] |  | 20 June 1962 | 8 October 1962 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 033.33 |
| Austria | | 12 April 1964 | 11 October 1964 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 060.00 |
| Benfica | | 1 July 1965 | 30 June 1966 | 38 | 25 | 7 | 6 | 065.79 |
| Servette | | 1 October 1966 | 13 March 1967 | 16 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 050.00 |
| Panathinaikos |  | 6 August 1967 | 11 October 1967 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 033.33 |
| Austria Wien | | 16 March 1973 | 1 August 1973 | 13 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 030.77 |
| Porto | | 1 August 1973 | 30 June 1974 | 34 | 21 | 7 | 6 | 061.76 |
| Total | 742 | 412 | 143 | 187 | 055.53 | |||
MTK Hungária
Hakoah Wien
New York Hakoah
Újpest/Újpesti
São Paulo
Porto
Benfica
Peñarol
O Benfica, nesta altura, está bem servido e não precisa de mim. Vai ganhar o Campeonato Nacional e voltará a ser campeão da Europa.
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| International | |
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| Other | |
