IF VLADIMIR Romanov ever thinks of acting in a dictatorial fashion towards new Hearts manager Csaba Laszlo, he should be aware of his new employee's background. Laszlo has a hinterland, and is definitely not your average SPL manager. In short, Vlad could be picking on the wrong guy.
This is a man who, in 1985 at the age of 21, and in pursuit of his dream of playing professional football, defied a dictator who truly was mad, Nicolae Ceausescu. He also outwitted the dreaded Securitate, the ruthless secret police in the former comm
unist dictatorship of Romania, by defecting to the then West Germany.
"My uncle was German so I had the chance to go to Germany," said Laszlo. "I had my passport. I came to Germany like a tourist, but I didn't go back."
His family stayed behind in Oderhei, a town in Transylvania. Laszlo downplays the inevitable difficulties they faced from the authorities by saying in his charmingly fractured English: "My parents had some 'problems' but even in communism, it is possible to resolve everything. "
Looking back, Laszlo described his defection in simple terms: "It wasn't so difficult. If you are a young guy, you think a little bit differently about your life. For me it was a very good choice."
But the long arm of Ceausescu reached out to Germany: "It was a hard time for me. I got two years' penalty (a suspension from playing enforced all over the world] from the Romanian federation after I left illegally. I had my passport but it was illegal and I couldn't travel. I lost about two and a half years and you can't do that in football. But I came back as a coach and I'm happy about that."
His experiences have given him a philosophical view of life: "I came from socialism and communism, and it's another world. Very early on, I learned what capitalism was so I can talk about all the parties and all the systems. I know 100% that life is not only about having money and nice suits and a car.
"I'm very happy about the European Union. You can think freely and you can move freely. The European peoples are together, but also it's important to know where you are from."
With Ceausescu long since dead and Romania no longer communist, this peripatetic polyglot regularly visits Oderhei to see his father, Albert, now 80 and retired from the family bakery – "I could go back, but I don't have any knowledge about the business," he joked.
Speaking four languages and calling Romania, Hungary, Germany and Uganda "all home", Laszlo says his wife Marianna and two daughters will join him in his new home city, though Mrs Laszlo is apparently suffering "African fever" and just about collapsed when he told her they would be leaving Uganda.
Laszlo's rise as a coach has been meteoric. To take Ferencvaros to the brink of the Champions League, and be assistant manager of Hungary before moving to Uganda as national team manager, all by the age of 44, is a phenomenal achievement for a man who never played in top-flight football.
He clearly loved his time in Uganda: "Normally you talk about Uganda and Africa, you're talking about the poverty, war, HIV, but there is more to discover for Europeans." He speaks proudly of beating Berti Vogts twice, once with Hungary in the 3-0 defeat of Scotland and again when Uganda surprised Nigeria.
Perhaps unsurprisingly for a man with such an interesting background, the official Hearts press handout at his unveiling on Friday does not accord with news reports of Laszlo's time in Hungary. Lost in translation, perhaps.
The Scottish media were told Laszlo coached Hungary and Ferencvaros until 2006, but according to reports from reliable sources, he had to resign from the national team job in May, 2005, after the Hungarian Cup final debacle when he refused to leave the field after being sent off. He was also reported to have been sacked from Ferencvaros in November, 2005, after they earned just 10 points from 11 games.
Nevertheless, Laszlo dealt entertainingly with his period in Budapest, saying his most difficult times had been "fighting with my emotions" after losing big games.
"At Ferencvaros, the big problem was money," he said. "We had a lot of good players, we had success, everything but money.
"I was the coach but I could only do that job 10% of the time. I had to go after training to talk with sponsors. I had to talk with the media, to make the club more positive, to go out and arrange training camps.
"We didn't have money for buses. In my last game we didn't have the bus to go to Honved. And this was the most important game. If you lose you are in third. If you win you are second and you go to the UEFA Cup and make some money.
"Three hours before the game the players and technical staff waited for the bus, the normal line bus, to go to the stadium. We won 1-0.
"But the club gave me my chance and I like it still. The fans called to wish me success at Hearts."
Laszlo claims he had been promised six international players at Ferencvaros, but ended up leaving despite a sponsorship contract arranged for him by the T-mobile company.
"Only after I left Ferencvaros did I get my last year's salary," he said. "I never went to my lawyers about the club, but I only got my last year's salary at the end of my time with the club."
The new manager would not be drawn on prospective new players for Hearts, but he did have some good news for fans of the Tynecastle club's homegrown players Christophe Berra and Andrew Driver, who have been the subject of transfer speculation. "It's most important to keep them," said Laszlo. "They have quality and they need time to develop. I can give them the right direction. A lot of players see it as easy to get more money, but you must have the confidence. If you go abroad to a new club, don't believe that life is so easy. Here these players will have a lot of good games and once they get more confidence, they can choose from a lot of big clubs."
Like Valdimir Romanov, Laszlo has prospered after starting life in a communist dictatorship. Like his new club owner, he also likes to tell a story. If the two men can gel, Hearts will surely benefit.
The full article contains 1099 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
