Géza Kertész

Géza Kertész

Personal information
Date of birth	18 November 1894
Place of birth	Budapest, Hungary
Date of death	6 February 1945 (aged 50)
Place of death	Budapest, Hungary
Position(s)	Midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1911–1919	BTC Budapesti
1920–1923	Ferencváros	19	(8)
1925–1926	Spezia (player-manager)	13	(1)
International career
1914	Hungary	1	(0)
Managerial career
1925–1926	Spezia
1926–1928	Carrarese
1928–1929	Viareggio
1929–1931	Salernitana
1931	Catanzaro
1931	Salernitana
1931–1933	Catanzaro
1933–1936	Catania
1936–1938	Taranto
1938–1939	Atalanta
1939–1940	Lazio
1940–1941	Salernitana
1941–1942	Catania
1942	R.S.T. Littorio
1942–1943	Roma
1943–1944	Újpest
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Géza Kertész (18 November 1894 – 6 February 1945), also known as Kertész IV, was a Hungarian footballer and manager from Budapest. He is most noted for his career as a football manager in Italy at clubs such as Lazio, Roma and Atalanta.

Death

During World War II, Kertesz returned from Italy to Hungary in 1943, when he was recalled to serve as lieutenant-colonel in the Hungarian Army in training role. In liaison with the American secret service he set up a clandestine resistance network with former teammate Istvan Toth which rescued many Hungarian partisans and Jews from deportation to Nazi concentration camps during German occupation and Arrow Cross Party rule, sometimes disguising himself as a German Wehrmacht officer for cover. He was denounced to the Gestapo by an informer for sheltering Jews and was executed at Budapest alongside Toth on 6 February 1945, a few days before the city was liberated by the Soviet forces.

His body and that of Toth were reburied together with honour at Kerepesi Cemetery, Budapest, in April 1946.