György Bognár (born 5 November 1961) is a Hungarian professional football manager and former player, who is currently the manager of Nemzeti Bajnokság I club Paks.

Club career

He had two successful periods. The first was with MTK Budapest FC and his second period was with Budapesti VSC.

International career

He made his debut for the Hungary national team in 1985, and got 50 caps and 8 goals until 1994. He was a participant at the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico, where Hungary failed to progress from the group stage.

Managerial career

Paks

In 2020 he was appointed as the manager of Paks. He was managing his son, István Bognár and his elder son works as the assistant coach.

MTK Budapest

On 16 May 2022, he was appointed as the sports director of MTK Budapest FC. On 23 October 2022, he was sacked.

Paks

On 14 February 2023, Bognár returned to Paks. On 10 April 2024, he renewed his contract with Paks. On 15 May 2024, he won the 2024 Magyar Kupa Final with Paks by beating Ferencváros 2–0 at the Puskás Aréna. In an interview, published in Nemzeti Sport, he said that the main aim of Paks would be to avoid relegation even if the club were really successful in the 2023-24 season. In the 2023–24 Nemzeti Bajnokság I season Paks were competing with Ferencváros for the title, however, in the last couple of matches Paks could not keep up with the financially more stable Budapest-based club and, finally, Paks finished second.

Personal life

He is the father of István Bognár. In 2021 he and his son were transported to hospital due to COVID-19.

Controversies

Duting his spell in Sopron, he was reported to take out 10 million Hungarian Forints from the club's account and he spent the amount in casionos, hence his nickname ' kaszinós Gyuri' (in English: Casino Gyuri). However, no legal case was taken and his visits to local gambling services remains an urban legend. In 2019, he said, as the manager of Budaörsi SC, that "it is a mistake to downgrade a second division match centrally" (in Hungarian: „egy felnőtt férfi NB II-es mérkőzést hiba központilag lebutítani”). He made a clear reference to the gender of the referee, Katalin Kulcsár. During the UEFA Euro 2020, he was an expert on television. However, his insensitive comment caused outrage among tv spectators when Danish Christian Eriksen collapsed in a match against Finland. Shortly after the incident, he was banned from tv broadcasts. A couple of days later, he apologized for his comments.