Lajos Czeizler (5 October 1893 – 6 May 1969) was a Hungarian footballer and coach. With 11 major titles altogether, he remains one of the most successful football coaches of all time.

Career

Czeizler was born in a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in

Heves Heves is a small town in eastern Hungary. About 100 km east of Budapest, Heves lies at the northern extreme of the Great Hungarian Plain, just south of the Mátra and Bükk hills and west of the Tisza River. Heves gave its name to the Heves ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

. He played as goalkeeper with

Vác Vác (; german: Waitzen; sk, Vacov; yi, ווייצען) is a town in Pest county in Hungary with approximately 35,000 inhabitants. The archaic spelling of the name is ''Vácz''. Location Vác is located north of Budapest on the eastern bank o ...

in the Hungarian championship between 1921 and 1923. He began his coaching career in the 1920s in Poland, in Łódzki Klub Sportowy, where he had between 1923 and 1926 his first coaching experience. After this he spent his first years in Italy, coaching the second division sides of

Udinese Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sports club, and on 5 July 1911 as a ...

and CA Faenza and from 1930 to 1931 the youth of S.S. Lazio. From 1935 to 1936 he is coaching ŁKS again before moving to Sweden where his first engagement was in 1940 with Västerås SK. In the Between 1942 and 1948 he had his greatest successes with

IFK Norrköping Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Norrköping, more commonly known as IFK Norrköping or simply Norrköping, is a Swedish professional football club based in Norrköping. The club is affiliated to Östergötlands Fotbollförbund and play thei ...

. There he achieved between 1943 and 1948 a record five championships and two national cups in 1943 and 1945. When he led Norrköping to the 1948 championship he became the oldest coach in Sweden to achieve this title. He was then aged 54 years, 8 months and 1 day. The record has since been lost to trainer Conny Karlsson with

Helsingborgs IF Helsingborgs IF (full name Helsingborgs Idrottsförening), commonly referred to as HIF (), is a Swedish professional football club located in Helsingborg. They play in the Swedish first tier, Allsvenskan, following promotion in the 2021 Superett ...

. After his time in Sweden he returned to Italy where he led

A.C. Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional Association football, football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 ...

in 1951 to championship honours and a win in the

Latin Cup The Latin Cup was an international football tournament for club sides from the Southwest European nations of France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. In 1949 the football federations came together and requested FIFA to launch the competition. Europ ...

, an annual tournament of the best teams from France, Spain, Portugal and Italy – an important contest in the absence of any other European competition. He coached the Italy national team in the

1954 FIFA World Cup The 1954 FIFA World Cup was the fifth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football tournament for senior men's national teams of the nations affiliated to FIFA. It was held in Switzerland from 16 June to 4 July. Switzer ...

. In the season 1961 he coached

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fol ...

until January, and later, in June, this club won the

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

, defeating Lazio 2–0 in the final. In the 1963–64 season he took

S.L. Benfica Sport Lisboa e Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. Founded on 28 February 1904 as ''Sport Lisboa'', Be ...

to their fourth double of

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

and cup of Portugal, and set a club record of 103 goals in 26 league matches.

Honours

IFK Norrköping * Allsvenskan: 1942–43, 1944–45, 1945–46, 1946–47, 1947–48 *

Svenska Cupen Svenska Cupen (, ''The Swedish Cup'') is a knockout cup competition in Swedish football and the main Swedish football cup. Svenska Cupen usually refers to the men's tournament, although a women's tournament is also held. Each year 96 teams compe ...

: 1943, 1945 Milan *

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

: 1951 *

: 1951 Benfica * Primeira Liga: 1963–64 *

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 sea ...

: 1963–64

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Czeizler, Lajos 1893 births 1969 deaths People from Heves Sportspeople from Heves County Hungarian Jews Jewish footballers Hungarian footballers Association football goalkeepers Hungarian football managers ŁKS Łódź managers Udinese Calcio managers S.S. Lazio managers A.C. Milan managers Calcio Padova managers U.C. Sampdoria managers ACF Fiorentina managers Serie A managers Italy national football team managers 1954 FIFA World Cup managers Västerås SK Fotboll managers IFK Norrköping managers Hungarian expatriate footballers Hungarian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate football managers in Italy Hungarian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate football managers in Portugal Hungarian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Expatriate football managers in Sweden