Pál Csernai - Misplaced Pages

(Redirected from Pal Csernai) Hungarian football player and manager

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Pál Csernai" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The native form of this personal name is Csernai Pál. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Pál Csernai
Personal information
Date of birth	(1932-10-21)21 October 1932
Place of birth	Pilis, Kingdom of Hungary
Date of death	1 September 2013(2013-09-01) (aged 80)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1952–1953	Budapesti Postás	46	(2)
1954–1955	Csepeli Vasas	46	(0)
1956–1958	Karlsruher SC
1958–1959	La Chaux-de-Fonds
1959–1965	Stuttgarter Kickers
International career
1955	Hungary	2	(0)
Managerial career
1968–1970	Wacker 04 Berlin
1970–1971	SSV Reutlingen 05
1971–1972	Royal Antwerp
1973–1977	North Baden FA
1978–1983	Bayern Munich
1983–1984	PAOK
1984–1985	Benfica
1985–1986	Borussia Dortmund
1987–1988	Fenerbahçe
1988	Eintracht Frankfurt
1990	Young Boys
1990–1991	Hertha BSC
1993	North Korea
1994–1995	Sopron
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Pál Csernai (21 October 1932 – 1 September 2013) was a Hungarian football player and manager.

Career

Playing career

Born in Pilis, Kingdom of Hungary, Csernai played club football in Hungary, Germany and Switzerland for Budapesti Postás, Csepeli Vasas, Karlsruher SC, La Chaux-de-Fonds and Stuttgarter Kickers.

He also earned two caps for Hungary in 1955.

Management career

After retiring as a player, Csernai managed clubs in Germany, Belgium, Greece, Portugal, Turkey, Switzerland and Hungary.

In the early 1990s, he was involved with the North Korean national team. In June 1991, he signed a six-month contract with the PRKFA, acting as a technical adviser to manager Hong Hyon-chol. During this time, North Korea beat the United States 2–1 in a friendly match. After Hong's sacking in October 1993, the PRKFA turned to Csernai to become the national team's manager. The team left for Qatar to participate in the final round of the Asian qualifiers for the 1994 FIFA World Cup. They started positively, with a 3–2 win over Iraq, but lost the other four matches, with the final one being a 3–0 loss to rivals South Korea. Despite the North Korean authorities' insistence for him to stay on as manager, Csernai returned to Hungary, concerned over their efforts to have him acquire citizenship.

Known for wearing his trade mark silk scarf, he is considered to be the inventor of the so-called "Pal system", a combination of the man-to-man and the zone defenses.