The curse of Bela Guttman

One of the best coaches in the history of football was born in Budapest en 1,899 into a Jewish family, in what was the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  He won two European Cups with Benfica of Portugal.

Before that he played in chronological order in: Törekvés SE, MTK Hungária, Hakoah Vienna, Brooklyn Wanderers, New York Giants, New York Hakoah, New York Soccer Club, Hakoah All-Stars, Hakoah Vienna  and Hungary NT.  Some part of his career was in USA clubs, evading racial persecution in Europe, before and during WWII.

Moreover he coached: SC Hakoah Vienna, Enschede (NED), Hakoah Vienna, Újpest (HUN), Vasas (HUN), Ciocanul Bucharest, Újpest (HUN), Kispest (HUN), Padova, Triestina,  Quilmes (ARG), APOEL (CYP), Milan, Vicenza, Honvéd (HUN), São Paulo, Porto, Benfica, Peñarol, Austria NT, Benfica, Servette (SUI), Panathinaikos, Austria Vienna and Porto. 

During his career as a coach he was known for being a great psychological motivator and is believed to be the inventor or the precursor of the 4-2-4 system, attributed to the Brazilians; when the normal was the variant of the English WM, with three defenders, two midfielders and five forwards.

He was the one who hired legendary Eusebio, the black panther of Mozambique,  for Benfica and in 1962 after winning two European Cups back to back; beating Real Madrid 5-3 at Amsterdam, he asked for a salary raise to the management (the first European Cup had he won defeating Barcelona 3-2 at Berne).

When he was turned down, he was so indignant, that he threw what came to be known as the Curse of Bela Guttman: " “NOT IN A HUNDRED YEARS FROM NOW WILL BENFICA EVER BE EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS“!!!".

Benfica then went to lose the European Cup finals of 1963, 1965, 1968, 1988 and 1990, and three finals of the UEFA Cup, later to be known as the Europa League in 1983, 2013 y 2014.

In 1990, the day before the final in the Vienna Praterstadion, Eusebio went to his graveyard in the Zentralfriedhof to pray with a bouquet of white flowers trying to conjure the curse.  The following day Benfica lost to Milan 0-1.

 

Guttman died in Vienna on 28 August 1981 and rests in the Jewish sector of the Zentralfriedhof (Tor 1, Gruppe 52, Reihe 1, Nr. 5), where I went in a cold afternoon of the winter 2018, and found rather easily his somehow weather worn tomb.