István Kovács (Romanian: Ştefan Covaci; Hungarian: Kovács István;^[3] 2 October 1920 – 12 May 1995) was a Romanian football player and coach. Having won 15 major titles, he is one of the most successful association football coaches in the history of the game. In 2019, France Football ranked him at No. 43 on their list of the Top 50 football managers of all time.^{[4] [citation needed]}

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Ștefan Kovács

Kovács in 1971
Personal information
Full name	Ștefan Kovács
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
Position(s)	Midfielder
Youth career
1931–1934	CA Timişoara
1934–1937	CA Oradea
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1937–1938	CA Oradea
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[lower-alpha 1]	(5[lower-alpha 1])
1950–1953	Universitatea Cluj	31	(6)
Total		195	(23)
Managerial career
1952	Universitatea Cluj
1954–1955	Universitatea Cluj
1956	Universitatea Cluj
1957–1958	Universitatea Cluj[2]
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
1981–1983	Panathinaikos
1986–1987	Monaco
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Close

Born into an ethnic Hungarian family in Timișoara, Romania, Kovács was an average midfielder, although having both individual technique and tactical intuition. He was never selected to play for Romania unlike his older brother Nicolae Kovács, who was one of the five players who participated at all three World Cups before the Second World War.^[5]

Kovács had his first major coaching success at the helm of Steaua București, where he won between 1967 and 1971 once the championship and three times the cup of Romania.

After this he succeeded Rinus Michels as the head of Ajax in 1971, continuing and expanding on his "total football" philosophy. With Ajax he achieved, in 1972 and 1973, two consecutive European Champions Cups. In 1972, he won the Intercontinental Cup and also the first edition of European Supercup (1973). He led Ajax to the double of cup and championship in 1972 and another national championship in 1973.

After he left Ajax in 1973, he was called up by the French football federation to take the reins of the national side. In this position he raised the young generations of French talents. Journalists of France Football asked him when he arrived how long it would take to make the France team a great team, he replied visionary with structures in eight years, ten years, we can make a good national team. Michel Hidalgo, his deputy and successor, took advantage of this work and continued to lead the team of France to its victory at Euro 84.

After this episode, he returned to Romania becoming its national team coach. Later he had further successes with Panathinaikos and Monaco.

He died on 12 May 1995, twelve days before Ajax won their fourth European Cup.