Ștefan Kovács

Kovács was born into an ethnic Hungarian family on 2 October 1920 in Timișoara, Romania. He started to play football in 1931, aged 11 at local club CA Timișoara. Three years later he went to play for CA Oradea where he was teammates with his brother, Nicolae Kovács. Starting from 1938 until 1941, he had his only spell abroad, playing for Belgium's Olympique Charleroi. Afterwards he came back to his hometown at Ripensia, but only for a short while because he then went to CFR Turnu Severin. In 1942 he went to play in the Nemzeti Bajnokság I for Kolozsvári AC, making 68 appearances with seven goals in the competition. Following the Second World War when the northern part of Transylvania went back to Romania he played with the club, renamed Ferar, in Divizia A. In the 1947–48 season, Ferar merged with CFR Cluj, Kovács playing for the new club, including in Divizia B where the team was relegated at the end of the 1948–49 season. He came back to Divizia A football in 1951 when he joined Universitatea Cluj where he made his last appearance in the Romanian first league on 27 September 1953 in a 2–0 away loss to Locomotiva Timișoara, totaling 108 appearances with 12 goals in the competition.

Universitatea Cluj

Kovács started coaching in 1952 at Universitatea Cluj while also being an active player, helping the club finish the season in fifth place. He led the club once again in the 1954 season when "U" finished again in fifth place, leaving the club in the middle of the following season as he was replaced with Petre Rădulescu. Kovács returned to the club for a third time in the first half of the 1956 season, but was replaced with Nicolae Munteanu for the second half, and the team was relegated to the second league at the end of it. His fourth and final spell at Universitatea took place in the 1957–58 Divizia B season in which the team finished in first place, promoting back to the first league.

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. 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 to Switzerland in the Euro 1968 qualifiers.

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. He has a total of 194 matches as a manager in the Romanian top-division, Divizia A,…

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

Manager

Universitatea Cluj

Divizia B: 1957–58 Steaua București

Divizia A: 1967–68 Cupa României: 1968–69, 1969–70 Ajax

Eredivisie: 1971–72, 1972–73 KNVB Cup: 1971–72 European Cup: 1971–72, 1972–73 European Super Cup: 1972 Intercontinental Cup: 1972 Romania

Balkan Cup: 1977–80 Panathinaikos

Greek Cup: 1981–82 Individual

World Soccer 36th Greatest Manager of All Time: 2013 France Football 43rd Greatest Manager of All Time: 2019 FourFourTwo 62nd Greatest Manager of All Time: 2023