Alexandru "Elek" Schwartz was born on 23 October 1908 in Temesrékas, then in Austria-Hungary and now Recaş in Romania, and died in Haguenau, France, on 2 October 2000, aged 91. A defender, he played for Kadima and CA Timișoara in Romania before moving to France, where he turned out for Hyères, Cannes, Strasbourg and Red Star. He began coaching at Cannes in 1948 and worked at Monaco, Le Havre, Hamborn 07 and Rot-Weiss Essen before taking charge of the Netherlands national team, a post he held from 1957 to 1964.

Benfica appointed him for the 1964/65 season, his first match a friendly defeat by Athletic Bilbao on 22 August 1964. He was in charge for a single season and 48 matches, winning 35 of them. Benfica won the national championship and the Lisbon honour cup, and reached their fourth European Cup final in five seasons, losing 1-0 to Internazionale in the San Siro in May 1965 in the only European Cup final ever played on a finalist's own ground. His last match was a 3-0 win over Atlético Madrid in July 1965.

He was a methodical, unshowy coach who worked on defensive positioning and on making the transition from defence to attack quicker, and he left with the squad essentially intact for Béla Guttmann's return. Afterwards he coached Eintracht Frankfurt, FC Porto, Dordrecht, Sparta Rotterdam and 1860 Munich, and finished by taking Strasbourg back to the French first division in 1976/77 before retiring near his adopted home in Alsace.