Lajos Baróti, born Kratochfill, came into the world in Szeged on 19 August 1914 and died on 23 December 2005. He played for Szegedi AK for eighteen years and then for Győri ETO, winning two caps for Hungary. As a coach he became the defining figure of Hungarian football after the Golden Team: he ran the national side from 1957 to 1966 and again from 1975 to 1978, took Hungary to four World Cups, in 1958, 1962, 1966 and 1978, and won the Olympic gold medal in Tokyo in 1964. With Újpesti Dózsa between 1967 and 1971 he won three championships and two domestic doubles, and he later coached Peru and won the Austrian cup with Wacker Innsbruck.

He arrived at Benfica in the summer of 1980, aged sixty-five, and stayed two seasons and 94 matches, winning 65. His first season delivered the league and cup double of 1980/81, together with the Supertaça; in 1981/82 Benfica finished as runners-up and he also won the Lisbon honour cup. His first match was a 4-0 win over a Greek side in a tournament in Toronto in August 1980 and his last a 1-0 defeat by Argentina in Buenos Aires in May 1982.

He coached in the Hungarian manner, with two constructive midfielders behind a front four, wingers held wide and the ball moved early along the ground, and he was a calm and paternal presence rather than a disciplinarian, which suited a squad that had grown used to sterner men. He returned to Hungary after leaving Lisbon and lived to ninety-one, remembered as the most experienced international coach of his generation.