|
 On
April 17, 1926 when Bela Guttmann sailed into New York
harbor aboard the liner Berengaria, with the famous Hakoah
team of Vienna, he was already a star in Europe.
As
a member of the great MTK team of Budapest in his native
Hungary he had won the championship in the 1920/21 and
1921/22 seasons. He then crossed the border into Austria
in 1922 where, with Hakoah, he won the Austrian
championship in 1924-25.
However,
before then he had made his international debut for
Hungary against Germany in Budapest and scored one of the
goals in a 3-0 victory. Surprisingly he didn't play again
for Hungary, perhaps because he was playing in Austria,
until May 18, 1924 when he was in the line up against
Switzerland in Zurich. He played twice more in
that year against Poland and Egypt, during the Olympic
Games in Paris.
Like many
of the Hakoah players he chose to remain in the U.S.
following the 1926 tour, and signed for the New York
Giants of the American Soccer League. He played for the
Giants for two full seasons appearing in 83 games and
scoring two goals. He then moved on to play for the Hakoah
All-Stars, a team formed by the members of the former
Hakoah club who remained in the U.S., New York Soccer
Club, and then Hakoah again in the spring of 1931. All
told he played in 176 games in the ASL from 1926 to 1932
when he seems to have retired at the age of
32. In the spring of 1929 he won a U.S. Open Cup medal
when Hakoah defeated Madison Kennel Club of St. Louis in
the final. In the summer of 1930 he went on tour to South
America with Hakoah.
Then in
1933 he returned to Austria and began a new career as a
coach. Not just an ordinary coach, but one of the greatest
coaches in the history of the game. At first he coached
his old club, Hakoah in Vienna, then Enschede in the
Netherlands, and then home to Budapest to take charge of
Ujpest Dozsa, leading them to the championship in
1938-39.
After the
World War Two he was in charge of Kispest in Budapest in
1947 and 1948 conducting training sessions with Ferenc
Pukas and company before the club became known as Honved
and became recognized as one of
the greatest of all time.
From 1949
to 1956 he was coaching in Italy, at first with Padova,
then Triestina, Milan and Lanerossi Vicenza. Then Brazil
called and he coached Sao Paulo in 1957-58.
After
that, perhaps naturally, it was Portugal, at first with
Porto and then the Portuguese national team. Then came the
move that made him famous. In 1959 he was appointed coach
of Benfica and under his management the Portuguese club,
almost unknown beyond its own border at the time, won the
Portuguese championship twice, and in 1961 and 1962 won
the European Champions Cup, until then almost the
exclusive preserve of Real Madrid.
That
wonderful Benfica team included of course Eusebio, Mario
Coluna, Costa Pereira, Jose Aguas and Mario Simoes.
Guttmann was said to have been a high spirited, charming
man, who quickly gained the confidence
and respect of this players. It is also said that he got
the best out of them, building his tactics on their
strengths and strengthening their weaknesses.
He stayed
with Benfica, from 1959 to 1962 when he clashed with the
clubs new president and moved on to Penerol in Uruguay.
Meanwhile Benfica were now one of the world's great clubs.
They played Penerol in 1961 for the World Club Cup winning
the first leg in Lisbon, but losing in Montevideo. One
year later they played Santos and Pele,
without Guttmann and lost both legs.
His long
coaching career then took him to the Austrian national
team, back to Benfica in 1965 and 1966, then on to
Servette in Geneva, Panathinaikos in Athens and finally
back to Portugal to coach Porto. He won the
Portuguese championship three times, and the Portuguese
Cup once, then the championship of Uruguay in 1962. Bela
Guttmann, once a star in American soccer, and then a world
class coach, died in Vienna on August 28, 1981 at the age
of 81.
History by Colin
Colin Jose, who is North
America's preeminent soccer historian gives you an insight
of soccer history that is not known by the average soccer
fan. Colin has been researching soccer for over 40 years
and has a real passion for the history of ' The Beautiful
Game'. |
