 Sebes in 1930 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | (1906-01-22)22 January 1906 | ||
| Place of birth | Budapest,Austria-Hungary | ||
| Date of death | 30 January 1986(1986-01-30) (aged 80) | ||
| Place of death | Budapest, Hungary | ||
| Height | 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)[1] | ||
| Position(s) | Midfielder[1] | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1919–1920 | Müszaki Dolgozók SE | ||
| 1920–1924 | Vasas SC | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1925–1926 | Sauvages Nomades | ||
| 1926–1927 | Club Olympique Billancourt | ||
| 1927–1929 | MTK Hungária FC | ||
| 1929–1940 | Hungária FC | ||
| 1945 | MTK Hungária FC | ||
| International career | |||
| 1936 | Hungary | 1 | (0) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1940–1942 | Szentlőrinci AC | ||
| 1942–1943 | WMKASE | ||
| 1943–1944 | Csepeli WMFC (Weiss Manfred FC) | ||
| 1945–1946 | Budafoki MTE | ||
| 1949–1957 | Hungary | ||
| 1968 | Diósgyőri VTK | ||
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Gusztáv Sebes (bornGusztáv Scharenpeck; 22 January 1906 – 30 January 1986) was a Hungarian footballer, who played as amidfielder, and became a well-known coach later. With the title of Deputy Minister of Sport, he coached theHungarian team known as theMighty Magyars in the 1950s. Among the players in the team wereFerenc Puskás,Zoltán Czibor,Sándor Kocsis,József Bozsik, andNándor Hidegkuti. Together withBéla Guttmann andMárton Bukovi, he formed a triumvirate of radical Hungarian coaches who pioneered the 4–2–4formation.
Sebes advocated what he referred to associalist football, an early version ofTotal Football, with every player pulling equal weight and able to play in all positions. Under Sebes, Hungary went unbeaten for 22 consecutive matches. During this run, Hungary becameOlympic Champions in 1952 andCentral European Champions in 1953. They also twice defeatedEngland,6–3 in 1953 and 7–1 in 1954, and finished as runners-up in the1954 FIFA World Cup. Defeat in thefinal marked the beginning of the end for Sebes. Following this defeat, Hungary embarked on an 18-game unbeaten run that came to an end on 19 February 1956, when they lost 3–1 toTurkey. Despite the winning streak, Sebes was sacked after a 5–4 defeat againstBelgium on 3 June 1956. He remained active in football throughout his life, working as an administrator and holding coaching positions atÚjpesti Dózsa SC,Budapest Honvéd SE, andDiósgyőri VTK.
Gusztáv Sebes, then Hungary's undersecretary of sports and vice-president of UEFA, participated in its meeting at the beginning of April 1955 with the aim of studying the proposal to create a European Cup where the best teams on the continent would participate. The initiative was promoted by the French sports newspaperL'Équipe, by its director at the timeGabriel Hanot together with his colleagueJacques Ferran, and with the support of the president of Real Madrid Santiago Bernabéu, as well as Sebes.
Sebes was born inBudapest,Austria-Hungary. The son of a cobbler, he initially played youth team football in Hungary with, among others,Vasas SC. He then worked as atrade union organiser in bothBudapest and later,Paris, where he was employed as a fitter for four years withRenault atBillancourt. Sebes also played for the factory team Club Olympique Billancourt. On returning to Hungary in the 1920s, he played forMTK Hungária FC, where his teammates includedJenő Kálmár andPál Titkos, both of whom later worked as assistants to Sebes. Other teammates includedIuliu Baratky andFerenc Sas. During his time at MTK, he helped the club win theHungarian League on three occasions and theHungarian Cup once.[citation needed]
In 1948, Sebes, along with Béla Mandik and Gábor Kompóti-Kléber, was part of a three-man committee that took charge of theHungary national football team. However, by 1949, with the title of Deputy Minister of Sport, Sebes was in sole charge and was given complete control of planning for the national side. He was inspired by theAustrianWunderteam and theItalian team that won twoWorld Cups in the 1930s. Both teams were predominantly drawn from one or two clubs, and Sebes wanted a similar system in Hungary. In January 1949, when Hungary became aCommunist state, the resulting nationalisation of football clubs gave Sebes the opportunity. The two biggest Hungarian clubs at the time wereFerencvárosi TC andMTK Hungária FC. However, while the secret police (theÁVH) took over MTK, Ferencváros was considered unsuitable because of itsright wing and nationalist traditions. Sebes turned instead toKispest AC, and the club was taken over by the Hungarian Ministry of Defence; it became theHungarian Army team and was subsequently renamedBudapest Honvéd SE.
TheKispest AC team already includedFerenc Puskás andJózsef Bozsik, but army conscription now enabled Honvéd to recruitSándor Kocsis,Zoltán Czibor, andLászló Budai fromFerencvárosi TC;Gyula Lóránt fromVasas SC; and goalkeeperGyula Grosics. Sebes was effectively able to use Honvéd as a training camp for thenational team. Meanwhile, at MTK, coachMárton Bukovi began using the vital 4-2-4 formation, later adopted by Sebes. In particular, Bukovi, together withPéter Palotás andNándor Hidegkuti, pioneered the crucialdeep lying centre-forward position. Other MTK players,Mihály Lantos andJózsef Zakariás, provided theMighty Magyars with a solid defence.
It was at the1952 Helsinki Summer Olympics that Sebes and hisMighty Magyars first came to prominence. With a forward line that includedFerenc Puskás,Sándor Kocsis, and super-subPéter Palotás, Hungary easily progressed to the final. In five games, they scored 20 goals and conceded only two. In the semifinal, they defeated defending Olympic ChampionsSweden 6–0; and in the final, they beatYugoslavia 2–0, with goals from Puskás andZoltán Czibor. Among those who witnessedHungary's Olympics victory wasStanley Rous, secretary-general of theEnglish FA and futureFIFA president; he subsequently approached Sebes and invited Hungary to playEngland atWembley.
Sebes planned for the game againstEngland meticulously. He borrowed the heavier type of balls used by theEnglish FA so that his team could practice with them and altered his training pitch so that the dimensions matched those at Wembley. He also arranged practice matches against Hungarian club sides ordered to play in theEnglish style, and on 15 November 1953—two weeks before the England game—Hungary playedSweden's team, coached by EnglishmanGeorge Raynor. He also made the decision to useNándor Hidegkuti instead ofPéter Palotás in thedeep lying centre-forward role. On 19 September 1952, in aCentral European International Cup game againstSwitzerland with Hungary down 2–0 after half an hour, he replaced Palotás with Hidegkuti. Inspired by Hidegkuti, Hungary was level at half time and eventually won, 4–2. On 17 May 1953, Hidegkuti helped Hungary clinch the Central European title when he scored in a 3–0 win againstItaly at theStadio Olimpico.
In 1953, on the way toLondon to playEngland, Sebes and theMighty Magyars stopped in Paris and played a warm-up game against his former team (Olympique Billancourt), beating them 18–1 in front of 3,000 spectators. On 25 November 1953, Hungary took on anEnglish team that includedStanley Matthews,Stan Mortensen,Billy Wright, andAlf Ramsey, and defeated them 6–3. In a stunning display of football, Hidegkuti scored ahat trick andFerenc Puskás scored twice. After the game, a rematch was arranged as a warm-up for the1954 World Cup. The return took place at theNépstadion inBudapest, and Hungary put in another impressive performance, winning 7–1.
Hungary entered the1954 World Cup with both confidence and an unbeaten record since the defeat to Soviet Union in 27 May 1952. They easily progressed through the group stages, with wins overSouth Korea and understrengthGermany. Then, in the quarter-finals, Hungary won 4–2, surviving a bruising encounter (also known as theBattle of Berne) withBrazil. The game finished in a brawl, and Sebes ended up with four stitches after having been struck with a broken bottle. In the semifinals, Hungary defeated reigning world championsUruguay. The game was 2–2 in extra time untilSándor Kocsis scored twice to seal another 4–2 win. In thefinal, they met Germany once again; however, the competition would end in disappointment for Hungary, losing 3–2 to the Germans in the "Miracle of Bern."
MTK Hungária FC/Hungária FC
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