Pal Csernai, ex-coach of Bayern Munich, at 80

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Pal Csernai, a Hungarian who coached Bayern Munich to a couple of Bundesliga titles in the early 1980s and later led North Korea’s national team, has died. He was 80.

Mr. Csernai died Sunday after an undisclosed illness, according to Bayern and the Hungarian Football Federation, who both announced his death yesterday.

“FC Bayern expresses deepest sympathy and condolences to Csernai’s family and friends and will always honor his memory,” the club said on its website.

Mr. Csernai was a midfielder and played briefly for Hungary before defecting in 1955, at age 22, while his homeland was under communist rule.

“I yearned for freedom, for a chance to get away from the oppression of the communist regime,” Mr. Csernai told The Associated Press in an interview in 2010. “It was a big risk at such a young age but I knew I had to try.”

After retiring as a player in 1964, Csernai earned a coaching diploma in Germany and coached there and in Belgium before taking charge of Bayern between 1978 and 1983. Later, he also coached teams in Greece and Portugal, among other countries.

After he took over North Korea, the team earned a politically charged 2-1 victory over the United States in 1991 in a friendly in Washington, D.C.

After the victory, Mr. Csernai said he was treated as a “small god” in North Korea. Despite arriving at night in Pyongyang on a military plane, “the airport was lit like it was daytime” and long lines of children with flowers and heaps of politicians welcomed the team home, Mr. Csernai said.

His time in North Korea was challenging — he was initially put in a hotel where hot water flowed just once a week and armed police watched over team practice sessions.