Ștefan Kovács

The native form of this personal name is Kovács István. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Ștefan Kovács (Romanian: Ștefan Covaci; Hungarian: Kovács István; 2 October 1920 – 12 May 1995) was a Romanian football player and coach. Having won two European Cup titles, he is one of the most successful association football coaches in the history of the game. Various football magazines listed him on their list of best football coaches: as in 2013 World Soccer put him on the 36th place, France Football ranked him at 43 in 2019, while FourFourTwo in 2023 placed him on the 62nd place.^[2][3][4]

Ștefan Kovács

Kovács in 1971
Personal information
Date of birth	(1920-10-02)2 October 1920
Place of birth	Timișoara, Romania
Date of death	12 May 1995(1995-05-12) (aged 74)
Place of death	Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Height	1.72 m (5 ft 8 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Youth career
1931–1934	CA Timișoara
1934–1937	CA Oradea
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1937–1938	CA Oradea	9	(0)
1938–1941	Olympique Charleroi	19	(4)
1941	Ripensia Timișoara
1941–1942	CFR Turnu Severin
1942–1947	Kolozsvári AC / Ferar Cluj	93	(8)
1947–1950	CFR Cluj	52[a]	(5[a])
1950–1953	Universitatea Cluj	31	(6)
Total		204	(23)
Managerial career
1952–1953	Universitatea Cluj (player/coach)
1954–1955	Universitatea Cluj
1956	Universitatea Cluj
1957–1958	Universitatea Cluj
1959–1960	Dermata Cluj
1960–1962	CFR Cluj
1962–1967	Romania (assistant)
1967–1970	Steaua București
1971–1973	Ajax
1973–1975	France
1976–1979	Romania
1980	Romania
1982–1983	Panathinaikos
1986–1987	AS Monaco
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Playing career

Ștefan Kovács was born into an ethnic Hungarian family on 2 October 1920 in Timișoara, Romania.^{[1][5][6][7][8]} He started to play football in 1931, aged 11 at local club, CA Timișoara.^[1][5][6] Three years later he went to play for CA Oradea where he was teammate with his brother, Nicolae Kovács.^[1][5][6][8] Starting from 1938 until 1941, he had his only spell abroad, playing for Belgium's Olympique Charleroi.^[1][5][6][8] Afterwards he came back to his hometown at Ripensia but only for a short while as he went to CFR Turnu Severin.^[1][5][6][8]

In 1942 he went to play in the Nemzeti Bajnokság I for Kolozsvári AC, making 68 appearances with seven goals in the competition, then after the Second World War when the northern part of Transylvania went back to Romania he played with the club which was renamed Ferar in Divizia A.^[1][5][6][8] In the 1947–48 season, Ferar merged with CFR Cluj, Kovács playing for the new club, including in Divizia B where the club relegated at the end of the 1948–49 season.^[1][5][6][8] He came back to Divizia A football in 1951 when he went to play for Universitatea Cluj where he made his last appearance in the Romanian first league on 27 September 1953 in a 2–0 away loss in front of Locomotiva Timișoara, having a total of 108 appearances with 12 goals scored in the competition.^[1][5][6][8]

Managerial career

Universitatea Cluj

Ștefan Kovács started coaching in 1952 at Universitatea Cluj while also being an active player, helping the club finish the season on the fifth place.^{[7][8][9][10][11]} He led the club once again in the 1954 season when "U" finished once again on the fifth place, leaving the club in the middle of the following season as he was replaced with Petre Rădulescu.^[10][12] Kovács came back at the club for a third time for the first half of the 1956 season, being replaced with Nicolae Munteanu for the second one, the team relegating to the second league at the end of it.^[10][13] His fourth and final spell at Universitatea took place in the 1957–58 Divizia B season in which the team finished on the first place, promoting back to the first league.^[10][14]

Dermata Cluj, CFR Cluj and Romania assistant

In 1959 he went for one year at Dermata Cluj in Divizia B, then for the following two seasons he worked at CFR Cluj in the same league.^[7][8][9] In 1962 he became the assistant of Silviu Ploeșteanu at Romania's national team, afterwards being the assistant of Ilie Oană, leaving together after a 7–1 loss on May 1967 in front of Switzerland at the Euro 1968 qualifiers.^{[5][6][7][8][9][15]}

Steaua București

Kovács had his first major coaching success at the helm of Steaua București, where between 1967 and 1970 he won the 1967–68 Divizia A title and two consecutive Cupa României trophies, both of them after 2–1 wins in the finals over rivals Dinamo București.^{[7][8][10][16]} He has a total of 194 matches as a manager in the Romanian top-division, Divizia A consisting of 83 victories, 50 draws and 61 losses.^[17]

Ajax

After this he succeeded Rinus Michels as the head of Ajax in 1971, continuing and expanding on his "total football" philosophy.^[5][6][7][8] At the beginning, the stars of the team were skeptical of him leading them, Johan Cruyff at one point shot a ball towards the edge of the field where Kovács was talking to one of the assistants, intending to hit him but he saw the gesture with the corner of his eye, so he quickly turned around and made an impeccable stop, after which he returned the ball to Cruyff, saying:"Use the inside more when shooting".^[5][6][7] In his first season he won the league title, the KNVB Cup after a 3–2 win over FC Den Haag in the final and he won the 1971–72 European Cup, getting past Dynamo Dresden, Marseille, Arsenal and Benfica in the campaign, then defeating with 2–0 Inter Milan in the final, courtesy of a brace scored by Johan Cruyff.^{[5][6][7][8][10][18]} He started his second season by winning the Intercontinental Cup with a 4–1 aggregate win over Independiente, then he won the European Super Cup after a 6–3 aggregate victory against Rangers, finishing the season by winning another championship title and once again the European Cup, this time getting past in the campaign by CSKA Sofia, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, winning the final with Juventus after Johnny Rep scored the only goal of the match.^{[5][6][7][8][10][19]} At his last game as coach of the Sons of the Gods, the players gave him a Ford Taunus as a gift because he always came to training riding a bicycle.^[5]

During his spell at Ajax he was known for promoting a more relaxed environment in the team, Johann Cruyff saying:"Ștefan Kovács was a very pleasant coach, but much less strict than Michels when it came to discipline. Kovács let us be ourselves, he was one of us."^[6][7][20]

France

After he left Ajax in 1973, he was called up by the French Football Federation to take the reins of the national side.^{[5][6][8][10][21][22]} In this position he raised the young generations of French talents, giving the debut to 33 players, including Dominique Rocheteau, Bernard Lacombe and Alain Giresse.^[5][21][23] His first game was a 3–1 home win in a friendly over Greece.^[21][24] He led the team at the Euro 1976 qualifiers, failing to qualify as Belgium and East Germany finished on the first two positions.^[22][24][25] Kovács has a total of 15 games in charge of The Blues consisting of six games, four draws and five losses.^{[5][21][22][24][23]} Michel Hidalgo, his assistant and successor, took advantage of this work and continued to lead the team of France to its victory at Euro 1984.^{[5][21][22][23]}

Romania

In 1976, Kovács became head coach of Romania, making his debut on 12 May in a 1–0 loss in front of Bulgaria at the 1973–76 Balkan Cup final.^[8][24] He led the team at the World Cup 1978 qualifiers, earning victories in the first two games against Spain and Yugoslavia but lost the second leg with both of them, thus finishing the group on the second place, behind the Spaniards, failing to qualify at the final tournament.^{[5][9][24][26][27]} He then guided the national team in three games at the Euro 1980 qualifiers, being replaced in late 1979 by his assistant Constantin Cernăianu but remaining as the technical director of the squad.^[5][24][26] He returned to the national team in 1980, his last game for The Tricolours taking place on 27 August in a 4–1 win over Yugoslavia at the 1977–80 Balkan Cup final, having a total of 32 games from his both spells at Romania consisting of 11 victories, 8 draws and 13 losses.^[24][28] During these years he also worked as the vice-president of the Romanian Football Federation.^[5][26]

Panathinaikos and AS Monaco

In 1981 he worked for two seasons at Greek side Panathinaikos, bringing compatriot Doru Nicolae to the team, managing to win the 1981–82 Greek Cup after a 1–0 victory over AEL in the final.^{[5][6][7][8][10]} His last coaching experience took place in the 1986–87 French Division 1 season at AS Monaco, managing to finish on the fifth place.^{[5][6][7][8][10]}

Writing

He wrote one volume about football:^[6]

• Kovács, Ștefan (1975). Football Total. Calmann-Lévy – Paris. ISBN 2-7021-0019-8.

Personal life

When talking abouth his ethnic origins, he said he is:"Romanian by mother, Hungarian by father, Jewish by grandparents and a little Serbian by great-grandparents".^[29] His older brother Nicolae Kovács was one of the few players who participated at all the first three World Cups.^[5][6][7][9] Ștefan Kovács was multilingual, speaking five languages: Romanian, Hungarian, English, French and German.^[5]

Death

Ștefan Kovács died on 12 May 1995 in Cluj-Napoca at age 74, twelve days before Ajax won their fourth European Cup.^{[5][6][7][8][10][22]}

Honours

Manager

Universitatea Cluj

• Divizia B: 1957–58^[10]

Steaua București

• Divizia A: 1967–68^[5]
• Cupa României: 1968–69, 1969–70^[5]

Ajax

• Eredivisie: 1971–72, 1972–73^[5]
• KNVB Cup: 1971–72^[5]
• European Cup: 1971–72, 1972–73^[5]
• European Super Cup: 1972^[5]
• Intercontinental Cup: 1972^[5]

Romania

• Balkan Cup: 1977–80^[24][28]

Panathinaikos

• Greek Cup: 1981–82^[5]

Individual

• World Soccer 36th Greatest Manager of All Time: 2013^[2]
• France Football 43rd Greatest Manager of All Time: 2019^[3]
• FourFourTwo 62nd Greatest Manager of All Time: 2023^[8]

Notes

1. The statistics for the 1950 Divizia B season is unavailable.^[1]