Béla Gárdos

Béla Guttmann (later Gárdos) was national champion with MTK twice, and once with Hakoah Wien. Between 1921 and 1924, he played four times with the national team and scored one goal. He was a member of the squad for the 1924 Paris Olympics, where he was most unhappy with the fact that the Hungarian delegation had more officials than players and their accommodation was noisy and dirty. To illustrate this, he and his companions hung rats on the door of their room, and he was never capped after this incident.

As Béla Guttmann he later coached 25 teams in 12 countries, but never stayed long in any one place. His greatest triumph was with Benfica, winning the European Cup twice consecutively. His name is remembered for his curse. In 1962, he won the second European Cup in succession with Benfica, and Guttmann demanded a bonus from the club president, who replied that it was not included in his contract. Guttmann quit but was so angry that he cursed the club saying they will “never” again win a European Cup (some sources say 100 years). Since the curse and through 2020, Benfica has lost eight times in European Cup finals.