Ștefan Kovács

Ştefan " PISTI " Kovács, Hungarian István Kovács, also known as Ştefan Covaci, ( born October 2, 1920 in Timişoara, † 12 May 1995 Cluj -Napoca ) was a Romanian football player and coach of Hungarian descent. To avoid confusion with surnames cousins ​​, he was sometimes referred to as IV Kovacs out in the Romanian sports press. He was in the 1970s, successful coach at Ajax Amsterdam and managed the national teams of France and Romania.

Playing career

Kovács played in youth at CA Timişoara, CAO Oradea, Satu Mare CFR and Olimpia Satu Mare. In 1938 he accepted an offer from Belgium and was from then on worked for the ROC Charleroi, where in 1939 with the third place in the Belgian championship the best result in the club's history succeeded.

1941 returned the usable both as a striker as well as an external rotor players back to Romania and played for a short time at Ripensia Timişoara. He then moved to CFR Turnu Severin, the Neuaufsteiger in the Divizia A, but the season 1941/42, was not held due to the outbreak of the Second World War. Kovács joined in 1941 Kolozsvári the AC on. Since the northern Transylvania had fallen by the Second Vienna Award of Hungary, played the team from Cluj-Napoca in the Hungarian League in 1944 and reached even the third place. After the return of the county of Romania, the association was dissolved and Kovács moved in 1946 to the newly founded Ferar Cluj, in which his older brother Nicolae played. 1947, joined the club the CFR Cluj, for the Kovács played one season before moving to local rivals CSU Cluj.

With the new club, he reached the Romanian Cup final in 1949, which went but lost to CSCA Bucharest 1-2. At the end of the season 1948/49, CSU had to descend into the Divizia B and change its name to StiinTa Cluj. The club managed but immediately the promotion back to the top flight and Kovács remained loyal to him until his career end of 1953.

Kovács played a total of 111 games in Divizia A, in which he scored 12 goals.

Coaching career

From 1949 took Kovacs trainer tasks, initially for a short time in the youth field from CFR Cluj. When he was StiinTa Cluj 1952 season served as player-coach. He then became full-time coach of the team and looked after them until 1959, when he moved to CFR Cluj again. 1960 merged the club with Rapid Cluj whose coach Kovács stayed at CSM Cluj until 1962.

In 1962 he took a post at the Romanian Association, where he was responsible for the youth team and the B team in the following years. In the spring of 1965, he was assistant coach Ilie Oană with the Romanian national team. The team was forced to retire against Switzerland as part of the qualification for the European Championship 1968, however his work after the 1:7 defeat on 24 May 1967.

Immediately thereafter Kovács received an offer from Steaua Bucharest and could bring the Romanian league title already in the first 1967/68 season. This was followed in the next three years, Romanian cup victories. In European competitions, however, the Bucharest were less successful, and to divide each of the latest in the second round.

1971 left the Rinus Michels success coach his longtime club Ajax Amsterdam where he had built a team that had brought a number of titles and enthusiastic with their Total Football. The election of a successor by the club officials fell surprisingly to the Romanians comparatively little known. In the summer of 1971, Kovács took over a team that was studded with stars such as Johan Cruyff, Johan Neeskens, Gerrie Mühren or Piet Keizer and continued the concept of Michels. However, it is his leadership style differed significantly from that of his authoritarian predecessor, by granting the players a lot more freedom. This meant that Ajax under his leadership, his playing style conformed more to the individual class of the players and brought in two years no less than seven titles, including twice the European Cup, where 1972 Inter Milan defeated in the finals 2-0 and in the final in 1973 against Juventus won 1-0. At the same time such decrease of discipline but also that the team finally broke apart. Mühren Kovács described in an interview with the following words: .. " He was a very good coach, but Rinus Michels was too nice a professional, he was for absolute discipline, very strict, all at the same level at the beginning, in the first year, we played under Kovács even better because we were good players and now had the freedom to realize our fantasies on the field. But after the discipline was lost, and it was over. "

After two years Kovács left the Dutch and accepted an invitation from the French Football Federation to to look after the national team. The Équipe Tricolore had been unable to qualify for the World Cup in 1974 and introduced at this time than the European average represents the following round of qualifying for the European Championship 1976 for the French alike into a fiasco. In a group with Belgium, East Germany and Iceland, there was only enough for a single victory and the third group space. Kovács The team could not bring short-term and also did not spare criticism of the environment or the French football in general. He criticized the attitude of some players to the national team, their unwillingness to go abroad as well as the playing style of many club teams. By the end of 1975 he finished his activity after only six wins in 15 games and concluded: "I brought the players in embarrassment. In the end I gave them discomfort, they wanted an expert on football. Please, I said, I am one. I told them the truth. You would have been a miracle dear, but unfortunately that was not possible. A remarkable people, the French, but in football it has certain advantages, not to be quite so extraordinary. "When one of José Arribas, who came to France at a young age, apart, Kovacs is still the only foreigner, who coached the French.

Then he returned to Romania, where in 1976 he took over the national team and Vice President of the Football Federation was. During his time as acting coach to August in 1979 and again in the short term in January 1980, and in October 1981 the team who qualified for the World Cup in 1982 neither 1978 nor the 1980 European or World Championship. The only countable success during his tenure was winning the Balkans Cup in 1980. Subsequently he remained as an official in the Romanian Association operates.

In 1982 he took over as coach at Panathinaikos Athens and won with the team the Greek Cup. His last stop was the coach of AS Monaco, he 1986/87 led to fifth place in the table, before he was replaced by Arsène Wenger.

Success as a coach

Others

Kovács 1975, the book " Fotbal total" published, which was a great success. He is the younger brother of Nicolae Kovacs.