What We Leave Behind

On May 11th, 1947, the Italian national football team played the Hungarians in a men’s international friendly. Both sides were dominated by players from one team in their respective countries – in the Italians’ case, the Grande Torino side who later died along with Hungarian head coach Erno Erbstein in the Superga plane crash. For the Hungarians, 9 of their players came from Ujpest FC, whose coach at this time was Bela Guttmann. The two men, both Hungarian Jews dominating European football in their day, had met before in very different circumstances. Less than 3 years earlier, the two had escaped a Budapest labour camp together, after being placed on a list for deportation to Germany – jumping out of the window of the converted convent they had been housed in, then hiding out for the remainder of the war.    Guttmann would go on to establish himself as one of the most innovative football coaches of his time, setting several standards which stayed in place for decades, winning trophies in 5 countries and managing teams from Brazil to Greece.   Music and artwork – Metapoint