The Greatest Comeback: From Genocide to Football Glory

Before Pep Guardiola and before Jose Mourinho, there was Bela Guttmann: the first superstar football coach, and the man who paved the way for the celebrated coaches of the modern age.

He
was also a Holocaust survivor. In 1944, much of Europe had wanted Guttmann
dead. He hid for months in an attic near Budapest as thousands of fellow Jews
in the neighbourhood were dragged off to be murdered. Later, he escaped from a
slave labour camp before a planned deportation and almost certain death. His
father, sister and wider family were murdered.

But
by 1961, as coach of Benfica, he had lifted Europe's greatest sporting prize,
the European Cup, a feat he repeated the following year.

This
biography spans two contrasting visions of Europe: one of barbarism and
genocide, and one of beauty, wonder and romance, of balmy evenings in
magnificent cities, where great players would stretch every sinew in a bid to
win football's holy grail. With dark forces rising once again in that
continent, the story of Bela Guttmann's life asks the question: which vision
will triumph in our times?