The Price of Genius: The Career of Bela Guttmann

A Bonus Unpaid

After the 1962 European Cup final, Bela Guttmann asked for a bonus. His Benfica side had just retained the trophy, beating Real Madrid 5-3 in a classic Amsterdam final. It was their second consecutive European crown, a feat that confirmed their status as the continent’s best. Guttmann, the architect of this success, felt he was due a reward. The Benfica board disagreed. The bonus, they argued, was not in his contract. Guttmann walked out and declared the club would not win another European trophy for a hundred years.

This single, bitter dispute over money has come to define the career of one of football’s most extraordinary figures. It is an instructive tale of a manager who understood his own value and the club directors who repeatedly failed to accommodate it. Guttmann’s story is littered with such conflicts, a constant battle between his singular genius and the financial governance of the clubs that employed him.

His career was a whirlwind tour of European and South American football, taking in more than twenty clubs across nine countries. Born in Budapest in 1899, Guttmann the player won two league titles with MTK Hungaria before the rising antisemitism of the Horthy regime prompted a move to Hakoah Wien in 1922. Even then, finance was a driver. After a successful tour of the United States with the Austrian club in 1926, Guttmann was one of more than half the squad who signed for American teams, tempted by superior wages. He stayed with the New York Giants until the league collapsed following the 1929 stock market crash.

The Whirlwind Manager

Guttmann’s managerial career began in earnest upon his return to Europe. At Dutch side Enschede, he took over a team in the regional relegation places and immediately negotiated a handsome bonus for winning the national championship. The directors, presumably seeing little risk, happily agreed. By the end of his first season, the club was promoted. By the end of the next, they were title contenders. Enschede ultimately fell short, and the board, breathing a sigh of relief at the nine-tenths of the law that is a get-out clause, dispensed with his services.

This pattern of instant impact followed by an acrimonious departure became his trademark. After the Second World War, during which he survived the Holocaust that claimed his elder brother’s life, he surfaced in Romania. To guard against rampant inflation, he insisted his contract be paid in vegetables. The deal worked, until a director attempted to interfere with team selection. Guttmann promptly walked out. Back in Hungary at Kispest, he fell out with the young star Ferenc Puskas. During one match, Guttmann demanded a full-back be substituted for ignoring instructions, ordering the team to play with ten men. Puskas overruled him. Guttmann spent the second half in the stands reading a racing paper and never returned to the club.

He arrived at AC Milan in 1953. After 19 games of his first full season, the team was top of Serie A. It was not enough. In constant dispute with the club’s hierarchy, he was summarily dismissed. At the press conference that followed, he delivered a line that would become legend: “I have been fired, even though I am neither a criminal nor a homosexual. Goodbye.” From that day forward, all his contracts would contain a clause preventing his dismissal while his team was top of the league.

The Third Season is Fatal

Guttmann’s influence extended beyond mere results. In Brazil, he was instrumental in refining the 4-2-4 formation that would deliver a new era of global dominance. He instilled a philosophy of quick, direct passing, a stark contrast to the Brazilian game’s reliance on individual dribbling. His training ground mantras of “tat-tat-tat” and “ping-pang-pong” became the rhythm of a new footballing dynasty. Yet even here, his mercenary nature was apparent. His route to South America was as coach for a Honved touring side, the very club he had abandoned over the Puskas affair.

He was a man who knew his worth and was not afraid to demand it.

His greatest spell came in Portugal. After winning the league with Porto in 1959, he was immediately hired by rivals Benfica. His first act was to sack twenty senior players and promote from the youth ranks. Two league titles and two European Cups followed. He also unearthed a Mozambican teenager named Eusebio, giving him his debut the day after the first European Cup victory in 1961. Guttmann’s success was built on a simple philosophy he often repeated: “the third season is fatal”. He rarely stayed long enough to find out, but at Benfica he lasted three years, an eternity for him. It ended, as it so often did, with an argument over a pay cheque.

After the infamous curse, his career wound down through spells in Uruguay, Switzerland, and Austria, with a brief return to Porto. At one point, he turned down an offer to manage Port Vale. He retired in 1973 and died in Vienna in 1981. The curse on Benfica, however, lives on. They have appeared in multiple European finals since 1962 and lost every single one.