Takes on new task at home
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After more than two decades as players and managers, Hertha BSC and Pál Dárdai are parting ways. The 49-year-old will be sporting director of twenty-time champions Újpest FC in his home country of Hungary on January 1st. The club from Budapest is currently only in ninth place in the Nemzeti Bajnokság.
Dárdai also came to Berlin from the capital in 1997, where he became Hertha’s Bundesliga record player with 286 appearances. After retiring from his career in 2012, he initially began coaching in the Alte Dame’s youth division before taking over the professional team for the first time in 2015. In three terms he was on the sidelines 247 times, only Helmut Kronsbein took a seat on the bench more often. Dárdai most recently worked as a scout in Eastern Europe and as a brand ambassador.
“Pál Dárdai enjoys the greatest respect of all Herthaners due to his services to our club. We therefore wish him every success in his new task,” said managing director Dr. Peter Gorlich. Újpest President Peter Ratatics emphasized that they didn’t want just any sports director, but the perfect solution: “That’s a big difference. We had to fight for Pál Dárdai, he doesn’t give his name for anything, but only for something behind which he sees determination and real will, which makes us all the more proud. We believe that with his knowledge, his professional experience and the incredible energy with which he came to us, he will help us get back to where we are Újpest belongs: at the top.”
Dárdai emphasized: “I am and will remain a Hertha player, this club is my family. I associate so many beautiful moments with Hertha BSC and therefore wish the club only the best at all times.” But the job at Újpest is very attractive. “I have already said before that I will only leave Berlin if people really want me and see me as the solution. President Péter Ratatics has given the right answers in the past few months and the vision that he has repeatedly outlined, as well as the work that he and his colleagues have done over the last almost two years, have confirmed to me that it is worth taking on a role in the Hungarian championship again after almost 30 years.”