Pál Csernai was born in Pilis, Hungary, on 21 October 1932 and died on 1 September 2013. He played for Budapesti Postás and Csepel before leaving Hungary in the aftermath of the 1956 uprising, continuing his career with Karlsruher SC, La Chaux-de-Fonds and Stuttgarter Kickers. He coached at Wacker Berlin, Reutlingen and Royal Antwerp, then joined Bayern Munich as an assistant and became head coach in 1979 when the players objected to the appointment of Max Merkel. He won the Bundesliga in 1980, ending a six-year wait, retained it in 1981, won the German cup in 1982 and reached the European Cup final that year, losing to Aston Villa. He is credited with the "Pal-System", a hybrid of man-marking and zonal defending that entered the German coaching vocabulary.

After leaving Bayern in 1983 and a spell at PAOK, he was appointed by Benfica for the 1984/85 season. He took charge of 47 matches, winning 29. He won the Taça de Portugal, beating Porto 3-1 in the final on 10 June 1985, which was also his last match in charge, but finished second to Porto in the league, lost the Supertaça and went out of the European Cup, and he was not kept on beyond the single season.

His Benfica side was built on the zonal defensive scheme he had refined in Munich, with a compact block and disciplined shape rather than the open attacking football the crowd expected, and the mismatch of style and expectation shortened his stay. He went on to coach Borussia Dortmund, Fenerbahçe, Eintracht Frankfurt, Young Boys and Hertha BSC, and in the 1990s took the unusual post of national coach of North Korea.