Béla Guttmann is the most consequential coach in Benfica's history and, thanks to a parting curse, its most quoted ghost. A Hungarian Jew who survived the Holocaust in hiding, he arrived in 1959 from Porto and immediately tore up the squad, discarding senior players and promoting youngsters — among them a young Mozambican forward named Eusébio, whom he brought to Lisbon in 1960.

Guttmann applied the 4-2-4 he had helped develop in Hungary and Brazil, demanding fearless, forward-running football underpinned by strict diet and hard physical work. The results were extraordinary: championships in 1959-60 and 1960-61, the Taça de Portugal in 1962, then the European Cup in 1961 against Barcelona in Bern and again in 1962 against Real Madrid in Amsterdam, where Benfica came from 3-2 down to win 5-3.

He left in 1962 after the board refused him a pay rise, reputedly declaring that Benfica would not win another European trophy for a hundred years. He returned for one final season in 1965-66, finished second and won nothing. The curse, superstition or not, has held ever since.