Pál Csernai (21 October 1932 – 1 September 2013) was a Hungarian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player and manager.

Career

Playing career

Born in

Pilis Pilis () is a town in Pest County, Hungary. History The town was inhabited in Prehistory, prehistoric times, but was abandoned at the end of the Pannonia, Roman rule. Pilis was then first mentioned in 1326. It was destroyed during Ottoman Hungar ...

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...

, Csernai played club football in Hungary, Germany and Switzerland for Budapesti Postás, Csepeli Vasas,

Karlsruher SC Karlsruher Sport-Club Mühlburg-Phönix e. V., better known as Karlsruher SC, is a Football in Germany, German association football club, based in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg that currently plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of Germa ...

La Chaux-de-Fonds La Chaux-de-Fonds (; archaic ) is a Swiss city in the canton of Neuchâtel. It is located in the Jura Mountains at an altitude of 992 metres, a few kilometres south of the French border. After Geneva, Lausanne, Biel/Bienne, and Fribourg, ...

and

Stuttgarter Kickers Stuttgarter Kickers is a German association football club that plays in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, founded on 21 September 1899 as FC Stuttgarter Cickers. The club currently plays in the Regionalliga Südwest, the fourth tier of German footb ...

. He also earned two caps for

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

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 The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

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 A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

of the Asian qualifiers for the 1994 FIFA World Cup. They started positively, with a 3–2 win over

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

, but lost the other four matches, with the final one being a 3–0 loss to

rivals A rivalry is the state of two people or Social group, groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. 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 Zone, Zones or The Zone may refer to: Places Military zones * Zone, any of the divisions of France during the World War II German occupation * Zone, any of the divisions of Germany during the post-World War II Allied occupation * Korean Demilit ...

defenses.

Later life and death

Csernai died on 1 September 2013, after a long illness.

References