Extraordinary Life and Times of Bela Guttmann: Part 1 — Early Days
Bela Guttmann’s story is fascinating from the very beginning because it takes you back to a lost time. We are looking at the end of the 19th century when Budapest was home to a vibrant Jewish community. The Hungarian capital, in those years, had the highest Jewish population of any European city after Warsaw. As a group, they found immense success in the city, with a strong influence in business, medicine, media, literature, art, and many other fields.
It was amidst this brief cultural renaissance that Bela Guttmann was born in 1899. His parents, Abraham and Eszter, had migrated from the north-eastern part of the country to settle in the capital. Abraham, who used to work as a clerk in a lamp factory, would go on to set up a dance school with his wife. Growing up with two brothers and one sister, Bela did not have the easiest of childhood. He later recalled going around ‘with empty pockets and a hungry stomach’ when young.
When the First World War broke out, Guttmann was too young to join the Austro-Hungarian army and rather qualified as a dance instructor to work in the family business. During the same period, football was becoming more and more popular within the continent, with the Jewish community of Central Europe taking an active interest in it. Guttmann’s first club was a local outfit called Torekves. For the initial few years, he prioritized time spent in dance school over the football pitch. The major change came when he joined MTK Budapest in 1921 to replace the centre-half Ferenc Nyul.
Founded in 1888, Magyar Testgyakorlok Kore, or MTK, had a massive following among the Budapest Jews. Hungarian football in its early days was defined by MTK’s rivalry with Ferencvaros. Supported by the German-descent working-class population of the city, Ferencvaros was often described as a club with a fighting spirit and representing the Hungarian soul. On the other hand, MTK’s game was seen as more intelligent and calculative.
At the time when Guttmann joined MTK, the club was on a winning run of five consecutive league titles, which would eventually extend to nine. The foundation of this success was laid by Jimmy Hogan, a Lancastrian who came to continental Europe after his ideas were given little heed back in England. Hogan implemented a style of play focused on short passes and tactical awareness, complimented by a rigorous training schedule. He was one of the first coaches to obsess over every aspect of the game from player diets to pitch conditions. The time Hogan spent in Austria and Hungary revolutionized the game in both countries and set them on a path of success for the next few decades. The Austrian Wunderteam of the 1930s and the Hungarian Golden Team of the 1950s (also called the Mighty Magyars), both trace direct links to the Jimmy Hogan School of football. By the time Gutmann arrived, Hogan had left the club. But the system he had set in place was still leading them to success and players like Guttmann imbibed the same footballing philosophy.
Guttmann and MTK won the Hungarian league in the 1920–21 season. They had a fearsome attack led by Gyorgy Orth and Imre Schlosser, which scored 82 goals in 24 games, while their defence conceded only 9. Though Guttmann was key to the team’s success, Ferenc Nyul returned to MTK in the 1921–22 season and started challenging for his spot. Uncertainty in playing time, among other reasons, propelled him to move to Austria.
Life in 20th-century Vienna turned Adolf Hitler into an antisemite, as per his autobiography. This was the social environment under which Guttmann joined Hakoah Vienna in 1922. While MTK was a club favourable for the Jews, Hakoah’s enter identity came from Zionism or Muscular Judaism. Wearing the Star of David on their shirts, Hakoah might have been the most polarizing team of their time. At home, their matches attracted fanatical support from the Jewish fanbase while the away games would be straight-up riots. Such was the degree of hate and aggression directed towards them that Hakoah started employing boxers and wrestlers to safeguard its players.
On the pitch, Hakoah played an intricate passing game that seemed an extension of the Jimmy Hogan philosophy, clubbed with a layer of intensity and aggression that came from their Zionist roots. The club had its best run in the 20s and peaked in the 1924–25 season, winning the Austrian League title. Incidentally, it was also the year the league turned professional, the first one to do so in continental Europe. Guttmann too found his groove as a player at Hakoah. Operating as a centre-half (close to a modern-day central midfielder), his role was to launch the team’s attack while also supporting them in defence. Guttmann’s game had a finesse to it. Quick on his feet, he would provide pin-point passes and formed a strong understanding with inside-forward Max Grunwald. But he also never shied away from a fight when needed. The Hungarian’s skills, tactical awareness, temperament, and negotiating ability helped him become one of the highest-paid athletes in the league.
Guttmann’s international career was rather short. Receiving his first Hungary call in 1921 against Germany, he was primed to deliver with the national team at the 1924 Paris Olympics. But they were humiliated in the second round with a 0–3 defeat to minnows Egypt. While Guttmann complained about the lack of preparation and unsuitable traveling arrangements, back home, his commitment to his country while playing in a foreign league was questioned. Guttmann never played for Hungary again.
Things were going very well at club level though. Due to their identity and style of play, Hakoah found a global fanbase among Jews. They started going on world tours, raking victories against major teams in England, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and British-controlled Egypt and Palestine among others. The turning point for the club was a tour of the United States in 1926. They were welcomed with much fanfare and given celebrity treatment everywhere they went. Hakoah’s matches attracted record attendance in places like New York. As the tour was coming to an end, and the club was already preparing for its return in 1927, many of the first team players decided to defect. Since Europe was becoming increasingly antisemitic, the support that these players, including Guttmann, found in America convinced them to join New York-based sides. In hindsight, this decision allowed a lot of them to survive the war. Hakoah Vienna, though, could never fully recover from this loss.
Guttmann got himself a handsome contract at the New York Giants. The team was boosted by the signing of many former Hakoah players. But they could not replicate the same attitude and sense of belongingness that had brought them success in Austria. After two decent seasons, the team got affected by a tussle between ASL (the league) and USFA (the official governing body) in 1928–29. In what got to be known as the Soccer Wars, USFA formed a breakout league. A new team was created called New York Hakoah that brought the old Central European Jewish footballers together. In this set-up, Guttmann would have the last hurrah of his playing career, winning the 1929 United States Open Cup.
Life in America was not limited to football for Guttmann. With prohibition laws placed in New York, illegal drinking clubs called speakeasies sprung up in the city. Guttmann invested in one such place, which provided a massive boost to his finances. He was having the time of his life during the ‘Roaring Twenties’. That was till the Wall Street Crash happened in 1929.
Suddenly, people lost a lifetime’s worth of savings. This included the Jewish residents of New York, who were the key patrons of football within the city. Attendances started dwindling and teams were making last-ditch attempts to stay afloat. A new team, Hakoah All-Stars, was formed which toured South America in 1930 to raise money. But they failed to capture eyeballs, courtesy of Uruguay hosting the first-ever FIFA World Cup at the same time.
Ultimately, the lack of viable options forced Guttmann to make the tough choice of returning to Europe in 1932. By now, he had seen a lot of highs and lows in his life. But nothing could have prepared him for what was coming next.
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Thank you for reading the article. This is Part 1 of a four-part series I’m covering on Bela Guttmann. You may also like to read the introduction to the same -
See you in Part 2 where Guttmann’s story continues under Nazi-occupied Europe.
Sources:
David Bolchover (2017), The Greatest Comeback: From Genocide To Football Glory
Jonathan Wilson (2019), The Names Heard Long Ago
