Hungarians Abroad

Hungary is a small country that exported a large share of football's coaches. The story did not begin with the Golden Team or end with it: Hungarian coaches were working across Europe in the 1920s and 1930s, and after 1956 more left. This chapter follows four careers, Béla Guttmann, Árpád Weisz, Lajos Czeizler and Ferenc Puskás as a coach, and asks what "Hungarian football" meant when it travelled. Career details are well documented in outline, but some individual claims (especially about who "invented" a tactic) are flagged as disputed.

Why So Many Coaches?

Several reasons are usually given. The coffee-house football culture of Budapest (Chapter 2) valued tactical discussion. The Hogan-era emphasis on coaching (Chapter 3) made it a recognised profession in Hungary earlier than in some countries. After the First World War, and again in the 1930s and after 1956, political and economic pressure pushed many Hungarians to work elsewhere. These explanations overlap, and historians weigh them differently.

Béla Guttmann

Béla Guttmann (1899–1981) played for MTK in the early 1920s (the link to the same school as Hogan is noted in Chapter 3) and then for Hakoah Vienna, followed by a spell in the United States. As a coach he moved constantly, which became part of his legend: Hungarian clubs, Italian and Portuguese clubs, and teams in South America all employed him.

Guttmann is also tied to the "curse of Guttmann". The story is that he left Benfica after a dispute over pay and said the club would not win a European trophy for a hundred years. Benfica lost several finals afterwards. It is a good story and a popular one, but it rests on a remembered remark, so treat it as folklore and not as a documented statement.

Árpád Weisz

Árpád Weisz (1896–1944), born in Hungary, played for Hungary and in Italy, and became one of Italy's most successful coaches of the 1930s, winning the Serie A title with Inter and then with Bologna. As a Jew he was forced out of Italian football when Italy introduced racial laws in 1938, and he moved to the Netherlands. In 1942 he was deported, and he died in Auschwitz in 1944, as did members of his family. His story was little known for decades and has been rediscovered by historians, so it is a reminder that Hungarian football abroad had a darker side too.

Lajos Czeizler

Lajos Czeizler (born in Hungary in 1893) became a coach in Sweden and led the Swedish national team to Olympic gold in 1948. He then went to Italy, where he coached Milan to the league title in 1951. He is associated with an attacking, organised style in Italy, and Milan's Swedish forwards of that era, nicknamed "Gre-No-Li", are linked with his time there. Check his birth year and tenures in a dedicated source before quoting them.

Puskás as a Coach

Puskás coached after his playing days in several countries. His best-known result is taking the Greek club Panathinaikos to the 1971 European Cup final, which they lost to Ajax at Wembley. He also coached in Spain, South America and elsewhere with more mixed success. He is remembered far more as a player, a pattern that is common with great players.

What Did the Hungarian Idea Travel With?

Exercises

Next chapter: After the Golden Age: 1957 to Today, which follows Hungarian football from the long decline to the new stadium.