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The Greatest Comeback: From Genocide To Football Glory: The Story of Béla Guttman
Before Pep Guardiola and before José Mourinho, there was Béla the first superstar football coach, and the man who paved the way for the celebrated coaches of the modern age.
More extraordinarily still, Guttmann was a Holocaust survivor. Having narrowly dodged death by hiding for months in an attic near Budapest as thousands of fellow Jews in the neighbourhood were dragged off to be murdered, Guttmann later escaped from a slave labour camp. He was one of the lucky ones. His father, sister and wider family perished at the hands of the Nazis.
But by 1961, as coach of Benfica, he had lifted one of football's greatest the European Cup - a feat he repeated the following year. Rising from the death pits of Europe to become its champion in just over sixteen years, Guttmann performed the single greatest comeback in football history.
This remarkable story spans two visions of twentieth-century a continent ruptured by barbarism and genocide, yet lit up by exhilarating encounters in magnificent cities, where great players would strive to win football's holy grail. With dark forces rising once again, the story of Béla Guttmann's life asks the which vision of Europe will triumph in our times?
367 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 18, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 23, 2018
I have to admit I’d never heard of Béla Guttmann before picking up this book about him. I did know that Benfica, the team he coached, had won the European Cup in 1961 and 1962, and as a boy I was very aware of his protégé Eusebio, who was regarded as one of the world’s greatest players. I was intrigued to read the story of a Holocaust survivor who achieved such a spectacular level of sporting success.
Guttmann’s life was a rollercoaster. Born in Budapest in 1899, he was a successful footballer in Central Europe in the 1920s before moving to the United States in 1926. Apparently soccer had a short-term boom in the US in the 1920s, but by the 1930s the League had gone bust and Guttmann was penniless in New York during the Great Depression. His financial position wasn’t helped by having a lifelong gambling addiction. So desperate was he that he returned to Europe in 1938, a decision very few Jews would have made at that time. In 1938-39 he successfully coached the Hungarian club Újpest. During WW2, Hungarian Jews were heavily persecuted but were not subject to actual extermination until the German Army occupied the country in 1944. Guttmann survived partly by hiding and partly by working in a Hungarian slave labour camp. He described the degradation of the camp in a later interview, ending with the words:
“Was I a footballer from the national team, was I a successful coach? Was I a man? Who cared, you had to forget all about it! And how much more humiliation, my friend!”
In an astonishing rebound from the war years, Guttmann once again became a coach, achieving his greatest successes in the late 50s and early 60s with Säo Paulo in Brazil, and then in Portugal, first with FC Porto and then with Benfica, who twice became European Champions.
The author puts Guttmann’s pre-war career within the context of Jewish life in Europe, and thus makes the book into more than just a sporting biography. One chapter featured Guttmann’s time as a player in the 20s with Hakoah Vienna, an all-Jewish team whose philosophy of “muscular Judaism”, was intended to counteract the image of Jews as physically unfit victims who simply put up with daily assaults and insults from the majority population. Hakoah players were encouraged to get in the faces of their opponents, an approach which suited Guttmann’s own personality. The author goes on to describe the later fate of those involved with the club, as well as what happened in other places where Guttmann lived. It doesn’t matter how often you read descriptions of Holocaust massacres, they don’t become any less horrifying.
For all his remarkable life, there were aspects to Guttmann’s personality that were less than admirable. It’s good that the author covered this – when I read a biography I’m looking for neither a hagiography nor a character assassination. I did think that at one point the author tried to excuse his subject a little too much.
On one level this is a sports biography. On another it’s a story about European society, or as the author eloquently puts it, about:
“two conflicting visions of Europe…one of barbarism and genocide, and one of beauty, wonder and romance, of balmy May evenings in magnificent cities, where great players would stretch every sinew before joyous crowds in a bid to win football’s holy grail, the European Cup. At a time of renewed and escalating tension in that continent, as the last remnants of once great Jewish communities pray in their synagogues and study in their schools behind high wire fences and armed guards, the story of Guttmann’s life asks the question: which of these visions will triumph in our times?”
Guttmann’s life was a rollercoaster. Born in Budapest in 1899, he was a successful footballer in Central Europe in the 1920s before moving to the United States in 1926. Apparently soccer had a short-term boom in the US in the 1920s, but by the 1930s the League had gone bust and Guttmann was penniless in New York during the Great Depression. His financial position wasn’t helped by having a lifelong gambling addiction. So desperate was he that he returned to Europe in 1938, a decision very few Jews would have made at that time. In 1938-39 he successfully coached the Hungarian club Újpest. During WW2, Hungarian Jews were heavily persecuted but were not subject to actual extermination until the German Army occupied the country in 1944. Guttmann survived partly by hiding and partly by working in a Hungarian slave labour camp. He described the degradation of the camp in a later interview, ending with the words:
“Was I a footballer from the national team, was I a successful coach? Was I a man? Who cared, you had to forget all about it! And how much more humiliation, my friend!”
In an astonishing rebound from the war years, Guttmann once again became a coach, achieving his greatest successes in the late 50s and early 60s with Säo Paulo in Brazil, and then in Portugal, first with FC Porto and then with Benfica, who twice became European Champions.
The author puts Guttmann’s pre-war career within the context of Jewish life in Europe, and thus makes the book into more than just a sporting biography. One chapter featured Guttmann’s time as a player in the 20s with Hakoah Vienna, an all-Jewish team whose philosophy of “muscular Judaism”, was intended to counteract the image of Jews as physically unfit victims who simply put up with daily assaults and insults from the majority population. Hakoah players were encouraged to get in the faces of their opponents, an approach which suited Guttmann’s own personality. The author goes on to describe the later fate of those involved with the club, as well as what happened in other places where Guttmann lived. It doesn’t matter how often you read descriptions of Holocaust massacres, they don’t become any less horrifying.
For all his remarkable life, there were aspects to Guttmann’s personality that were less than admirable. It’s good that the author covered this – when I read a biography I’m looking for neither a hagiography nor a character assassination. I did think that at one point the author tried to excuse his subject a little too much.
On one level this is a sports biography. On another it’s a story about European society, or as the author eloquently puts it, about:
“two conflicting visions of Europe…one of barbarism and genocide, and one of beauty, wonder and romance, of balmy May evenings in magnificent cities, where great players would stretch every sinew before joyous crowds in a bid to win football’s holy grail, the European Cup. At a time of renewed and escalating tension in that continent, as the last remnants of once great Jewish communities pray in their synagogues and study in their schools behind high wire fences and armed guards, the story of Guttmann’s life asks the question: which of these visions will triumph in our times?”
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February 9, 2019Husband started to read but lost interest and gave up.
October 6, 2020
I have to admit to a sense of confusion over this book - at face value it's an interesting story of a Jewish man who used his talents and guile to both avoid the worst possible fate at the hands of anti-Semites and to rise to the top as a football manager across Europe and South America. Usually this is the sort of thing that would fill my cup to overflowing BUT, and yes, it's a BIG but, the author borders on being unsufferable: he comes across as a know-all and one who has, at too many times, such a narrow focus in his research that he ends up speculating (what would Guttmann have said/thought/done? surely this is what Mourinho/Ferguson/et al would have done/thought). The speculation is irritating as the author could, surely, have picked up the phone or emailed some of the people whose minds he professes to read. And this is probably why the book was less of a pleasure than I would have liked as the author is so focused on Guttmann that he basically brushes aside the probability that he killed an innocent teenager in a car incident, dragged his wife around the globe again and again, left teams in the lurch whenever he felt slighted and, basically acted like a prima donna. Clearly he had talent. Yes, his teams won titles and cups. As a human being, neh.
July 28, 2018
This is the fascinating story of Bêla Guttman, a man who should be much better known, especially within the world of football. One of the most successful coaches/managers of the 20th century who pioneered many of the methods more recently adopted by the likes of Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho. However, even if you are not a big football fan, Bela Guttman’s story is a very moving history of Europe in the 20th century and especially of the Jewish experiences of anti-sémitisme and the Holocaust.
September 16, 2018
Outside of football anoraks, few people will have heard of Bela Guttmann, the manager who led Benfica to successive European Cups in the early 1960s. Even those who were aware of his managerial achievements will likely have no idea about Guttmann's incredible past as a Holocaust survivor whose family was wiped out by the Nazis in World War Two.
That Guttmann came through this ordeal to become the pre-eminent football manager in a continent indelibly stained with the blood of millions of fellow Jews is a testament to his remarkable character.
David Bolchover's wonderful biography examines how Guttmann's religion shaped his career and experiences, shining a light on aspects of the great man's life that were rarely touched upon in interviews with Guttmann while he was still alive.
By giving the reader a greater understanding of the prejudice and hatred Jews faced in Europe throughout the 1920s and 30s, Bolchover shows us what gave Guttmann his incredible fortitude and single mindedness.
While Guttmann's football career is more notable for what he did in the dugout, his playing career was arguably even more interesting. While in Austria, Guttmann was captain of the Jewish side Hakoah Vienna, a side that seems to have been forgotten in the annals of football history. That their thrilling successes on the field were followed by a demise that saw most of the players perish in Nazi concentration camps makes Hakoah's story even more tragic.
Guttmann's experiences with Hakoah and their namesakes in New York during a brief, forgotten golden age for football in the USA would provide fertile enough ground for a gripping biography of its own.
Guttmann's story, however, thankfully didn't end during the Nazi's reign of terror. He survived the war thanks to future wife Marianne, a gentile whose family helped hide him in their loft at great danger to their own lives.
His survival would shape the future of football, with Guttmann enjoying success as a fledgling manager in his native Hungary before arriving in Portugal after spells with clubs in Italy and South America. It was with Porto that Guttmann initially enjoyed success but he was tempted away by rivals Benfica with a bigger pay packet, a feature of a career that saw Guttmann never spend more than three seasons in situ at one club.
Racism played a role in this, with Guttmann portrayed as a money-grubbing Jew, but as Bolchover points out Guttmann's gambling addiction also played a key role in his nomadic career.
Triumph and tragedy were bedfellows for most of Guttmann's career, he also narrowly escaped jail in Italy after killing a pedestrian with his car, and that's what makes this book so fascinating.
That Guttmann came through this ordeal to become the pre-eminent football manager in a continent indelibly stained with the blood of millions of fellow Jews is a testament to his remarkable character.
David Bolchover's wonderful biography examines how Guttmann's religion shaped his career and experiences, shining a light on aspects of the great man's life that were rarely touched upon in interviews with Guttmann while he was still alive.
By giving the reader a greater understanding of the prejudice and hatred Jews faced in Europe throughout the 1920s and 30s, Bolchover shows us what gave Guttmann his incredible fortitude and single mindedness.
While Guttmann's football career is more notable for what he did in the dugout, his playing career was arguably even more interesting. While in Austria, Guttmann was captain of the Jewish side Hakoah Vienna, a side that seems to have been forgotten in the annals of football history. That their thrilling successes on the field were followed by a demise that saw most of the players perish in Nazi concentration camps makes Hakoah's story even more tragic.
Guttmann's experiences with Hakoah and their namesakes in New York during a brief, forgotten golden age for football in the USA would provide fertile enough ground for a gripping biography of its own.
Guttmann's story, however, thankfully didn't end during the Nazi's reign of terror. He survived the war thanks to future wife Marianne, a gentile whose family helped hide him in their loft at great danger to their own lives.
His survival would shape the future of football, with Guttmann enjoying success as a fledgling manager in his native Hungary before arriving in Portugal after spells with clubs in Italy and South America. It was with Porto that Guttmann initially enjoyed success but he was tempted away by rivals Benfica with a bigger pay packet, a feature of a career that saw Guttmann never spend more than three seasons in situ at one club.
Racism played a role in this, with Guttmann portrayed as a money-grubbing Jew, but as Bolchover points out Guttmann's gambling addiction also played a key role in his nomadic career.
Triumph and tragedy were bedfellows for most of Guttmann's career, he also narrowly escaped jail in Italy after killing a pedestrian with his car, and that's what makes this book so fascinating.
July 18, 2018
This book is about one of the greatest football managers of the 20th century but it's also about Bela Guttmann being a central European Jew who survived the Holocaust and end up as a double European champion.
This felt like two books in one. At the start of each chapter the author wrote maybe 2-3 pages about what the Jews in central Europe were going through at that time with some terrible and heartbreaking examples as a backdrop to Guttmann's career. If Guttmann was in Austria at the time, he would talk about the pogroms and massacres suffered by Jews in Austria. If Guttmann was in Hungary, then examples from Hungary. And so on. Whilst I wouldn't say I enjoyed those passages (because reading about such horrors aren't enjoyable) they were the more interesting and informative parts of the book and it then felt insignificant to move on to something as almost trivial as football management. I'm not saying the author was wrong in doing this, the more people know about not just the Holocaust but pogroms throughout Europe before and even after WW2 the better, just personally I felt the balance wasn't quite right.
Whilst I didn't know anything about Bela Guttman before I picked up this book, for a biography I still don't feel like I got a complete overview of the man because there were many places were we have to take the author's opinion on a particular subject or situation due to there not being any concrete evidence to support that claim.
This felt like two books in one. At the start of each chapter the author wrote maybe 2-3 pages about what the Jews in central Europe were going through at that time with some terrible and heartbreaking examples as a backdrop to Guttmann's career. If Guttmann was in Austria at the time, he would talk about the pogroms and massacres suffered by Jews in Austria. If Guttmann was in Hungary, then examples from Hungary. And so on. Whilst I wouldn't say I enjoyed those passages (because reading about such horrors aren't enjoyable) they were the more interesting and informative parts of the book and it then felt insignificant to move on to something as almost trivial as football management. I'm not saying the author was wrong in doing this, the more people know about not just the Holocaust but pogroms throughout Europe before and even after WW2 the better, just personally I felt the balance wasn't quite right.
Whilst I didn't know anything about Bela Guttman before I picked up this book, for a biography I still don't feel like I got a complete overview of the man because there were many places were we have to take the author's opinion on a particular subject or situation due to there not being any concrete evidence to support that claim.
October 26, 2018
Béla Gutmann was born a Hungarian and died an Austrian. A Jew, he survived the Holocaust by hiding in a Budapest attic during the closing stages of the Second World War. Many of his family and friends died in the camps. Those who know about these things rate Gutmann amongst the ten best football coaches ever.
This fine book is in a sense as much about being Jewish as it is about football. Anti-Semitism plagued Guttmann all his life whether in his native Hungary, Austria or in the numerous countries world wide where he worked. Although it doesn't say so, the book suggests that his attitude to football authority was influenced by the way the Jewish people were treated in large parts of Twentieth Century Europe.
David Bolchover has gone to great lengths to paint a picture of this extraordinary and complex man. The result is a biography that leaves you wanting more, particularly about Gutmann's coaching skills. Each section begins with a description of an atrocity against the Jews, perhaps stretching back centuries. When he arrived in Lisbon to coach Benfica in the late fifties, was Gutmann aware of the massacre of the Jews in Portugal four and a half centuries earlier? We shall, of course, never know but here was a driven man of great talent determined to achieve at the highest level.
David Lowther. Author of The Blue Pencil, Liberating Belsen, Two Families at War and The Summer of '39, all published by Sacristy Press.
This fine book is in a sense as much about being Jewish as it is about football. Anti-Semitism plagued Guttmann all his life whether in his native Hungary, Austria or in the numerous countries world wide where he worked. Although it doesn't say so, the book suggests that his attitude to football authority was influenced by the way the Jewish people were treated in large parts of Twentieth Century Europe.
David Bolchover has gone to great lengths to paint a picture of this extraordinary and complex man. The result is a biography that leaves you wanting more, particularly about Gutmann's coaching skills. Each section begins with a description of an atrocity against the Jews, perhaps stretching back centuries. When he arrived in Lisbon to coach Benfica in the late fifties, was Gutmann aware of the massacre of the Jews in Portugal four and a half centuries earlier? We shall, of course, never know but here was a driven man of great talent determined to achieve at the highest level.
David Lowther. Author of The Blue Pencil, Liberating Belsen, Two Families at War and The Summer of '39, all published by Sacristy Press.
September 16, 2019
Bela Guttman is known as the manager who led unfancied Benfica to win the European Cup in two consecutive years before walking out on them, allegedly cursing them to never win it again for 100 years. David Bolchover has managed to unearth a far more interesting person who deserves wider recognition for his footballing achievements, and for his personal battles. A Hungarian Jew he survived the Nazi holocaust, and the story of how he managed this was something Guttman never spoke of. He also had to endure anti-Semitism throughout his career, but here and in other areas the author has to rely on phrases such as "I would like to think that he" and "I suppose" which starts to blur fact from opinion. Opinion comes more to the fore as we progress and Bela Guttman starts to vanish from our grasp again, which is a shame, as the author had earlier upbraided previous writers for not digging deeper to find out about his wartime years.
February 21, 2022
Só me fico pelas quatro estrelas porque o livro é “brutalizado” por José Mendonça da Cruz num Português indigente e, portanto, indigno da extraordinária história que encerra. A história de um pioneiro do futebol e da forma como viveu por esse Mundo fora e como sobreviveu ao selvagem regime na nazi na Hungria e na Áustria (e, depois da Guerra, ao estalinismo). Enfim: uma história contextualizada e o contexto é primordial e arrasador.
January 16, 2025
Metade do livro é sobre o holocausto (tudo bem, é um tema importante, mas não foi por isso que comprei este livro). Se querem saber algo realmente sobre Bela Guttmann, saltem para o capítulo 8.
David Bolchover é claramente fã de Bela, o que foi um excelente treinador mas deixou muito a desejar fora de campo. Em muitas partes o autor perguntava: "o que terá feito Bela?"; "o que diria Bela?". Os unicos factos neste livro que podemos dar como certos foram as suas passagens e conquistas pelos clubes, algo que facilmente se encontra em outros locais além deste livro.
David Bolchover é claramente fã de Bela, o que foi um excelente treinador mas deixou muito a desejar fora de campo. Em muitas partes o autor perguntava: "o que terá feito Bela?"; "o que diria Bela?". Os unicos factos neste livro que podemos dar como certos foram as suas passagens e conquistas pelos clubes, algo que facilmente se encontra em outros locais além deste livro.
March 23, 2025
Livro muito bem estruturado, com uma ótima contextualização histórica. Ler sobre o que foi a Europa na primeira metade do século XX devia ser obrigatório para todos, e este livro é uma boa forma de conhecer (recordar) tempos tenebrosos, que nos ajudam a entender o presente.
Guttmann foi um pioneiro no mundo do futebol e é uma pena que seja mais referenciado por causa da "maldição" do que por causa do muito com que contribuiu para o futebol.
Guttmann foi um pioneiro no mundo do futebol e é uma pena que seja mais referenciado por causa da "maldição" do que por causa do muito com que contribuiu para o futebol.
March 20, 2024
Impressive
February 5, 2025
A incrível história de um homem quase desconhecido entre os torcedores de futebol, exceto pelos torcedores do Benfica — o treinador que levou o Benfica a conquistar 2 títulos da Liga dos Campeões, que descobriu o 'Pérola Negra', Eusébio, e lhes deixou uma maldição. Um pioneiro como treinador de futebol, sua história pessoal além do esporte é um relato de coragem diante da tragédia.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews