Lev Yashin age. Lev Yashin. Biography of the best goalkeeper in the world. Photo, video. Lev Yashin won the USSR Cup even in hockey

Lev Yashin played last match 46 years ago, but he is still called the best goalkeeper in the history of football. Even the developers from Electronic Arts do not argue with this: the Canadians included the Soviet player in the list of FIFA 18 legends and awarded him a prestigious rating.

Lev Yashin won the USSR Cup even in hockey

The great goalkeeper was very fond of “Russian” bandy. He often went on the ice and played in attack. But at that moment, at the turn of the 40s and 50s, the country was already falling ill with the “Canadian” disease, that is, with the puck. In the 1946/47 season, the first USSR championship was played, the historic debut goal was scored by Arkady Chernyshev, the future legendary coach of Dynamo. It was he who brought Yashin into the hockey gates in 1950.

Chernyshev also worked with Dynamo football youth and saw how the newcomer was going through. Yashin had a bad start to his football career: he was very nervous and once missed a goal from the opposing goalkeeper. Chernyshev complained to Lev to try himself on the court, in attack. He agreed without much enthusiasm, but decided to defend the gate.

“I secretly hoped that the game hockey goalie will help polish his football skills - even then, it turns out, he firmly connected his future with football. The long one, in heavy armor, could not cope with the tiny puck. Out of football habit, he kept trying to catch her. There was no trap in the goalkeeper’s gloves then, and the newcomer, throwing his stick to the side, strove to grab the puck like a ball, with both hands, and smashed them into blood,” writes Alexander Soskin, author of the book “Lev Yashin. Shine through tears."

Just like in football, Yashin gradually got involved. He found a common language with Dynamo's main goalkeeper, Estonian Karl Liiv. During the training camp I lived in the same room and followed him during training.

In 1953, Yashin became a championship winner and played a victorious Cup final. After that, he finally went into football, although he was named among the candidates for the hockey team.

Records of Lev Yashin

Soon he will already be third after the famous goalkeepers Alexei Khomich and Walter Sanay in the starting lineup. Since then, Lev Yashin played only for Dynamo, spending 22 seasons in this club’s jersey, which is a unique achievement. Yashin became so attached to this team that even in matches for the national team he came out with the letter “D” on his chest.

Few people know that at first Lev Yashin played both football and hockey at the same time, and he also showed very significant results in playing with the puck. For example, in 1953 he became the champion of the USSR and was even a candidate for the national team, but it was then that he decided to focus exclusively on football.

It must be said that in one of the first football matches Lev Ivanovich missed a very curious goal for Dynamo, which went down in history Soviet sports. The Volgograd "Traktor" goalkeeper kicked the ball forward, it flew to the Dynamo goalkeeper's penalty area, but Yashin accidentally collided with a defender and the goal was not protected. But this failure did not break Leo, but, on the contrary, made him even stronger.

The goalkeeper began to use innovative methods of playing in the penalty area, using not only his hands, as was customary for goalkeepers of that time, but also actively playing with his feet. The coaches of Dynamo and the USSR national team often had to listen to dissatisfied statements from the Ministry of Sports, whose leaders simply could not understand why Yashin did not play “the old fashioned way” and called his style a “circus”.

The next innovation that the Dynamo goalkeeper introduced was hitting the ball instead of the previously obligatory fixation. This was a natural breakthrough in football, because a strongly launched “projectile” is very difficult to catch tightly. And Yashin began to knock him aside or transfer him over the crossbar for a corner kick. And although Lev Ivanovich, by modern standards, was not the tallest for his role, his jumping ability and Long hands did their job.

All over the world, the Soviet goalkeeper was called the “Black Panther” for his flexibility, and the “Black Spider” for his instant movement along the goal frame. The color of these nicknames was due to the black goalkeeper's jersey, which Yashin invariably wore. Largely thanks to their goalkeeper, Dynamo Moscow became the national champion five times, won the cup three times and took prizes many times.

In 1960, Lev Yashin, together with the Soviet Union team, won the European Championship, and before that he won the Olympic Games. For his achievements, he was awarded the most honorable individual trophy for a football player - the Golden Ball. Until now, not a single goalkeeper in the world has been able to repeat his achievements. For goalkeepers, Lev Yashin is the same legendary example as for field players - the Brazilian Pele, with whom the Soviet football player, by the way, was friends.

The legendary player played his last match on May 27, 1971. It was a farewell match between the team of the Dynamo society from different cities and the team of world stars. Englishman Bobby Charlton, German Gerd Muller, Portuguese Eusebio and other high-class football players of that time came to Moscow. At the end of his career, Lev Yashin became a coach, but did not achieve much in this field. He was mainly involved with children's and youth teams.

According to international media and various football federations, Lev Yashin is the best goalkeeper of the 20th century, and is also included in the list of the greatest football players in the history of “sport No. 1”.

He was ahead of his time

Today there are goalkeepers, such as Manuel Neuer of Bayern Munich, who are excellent with their feet. This is where Yashin was ahead of his time.

He was known for being the team's last stand, capable of true acrobatic feats to save them when needed. At the same time, he was also known for always knowing what position to take, so there was no need for him to quickly improvise.

Yashin also had leadership qualities; he directed the defensive players at a time when the goalkeeper, as a rule, was on the line. On the field, Yashin was like a free defender, and if he was seen outside his 16 meters, there was nothing unusual about it. He berated his own defenders so often that his wife allegedly chided him for shouting too much on the field.

Back in 1961, Kjell Kaspersen and Norway lost 0-3. This was one of two matches in which Caspersen faced the famous goalkeeper.

“He was not one of those goalkeepers who stands in one place all the time. He worked really hard on the field,” Caspersen said.

It used to be quite unusual for goalkeepers to clear the ball out of the danger zone, they would most often attempt to tackle the ball instead. Yashin was not afraid to throw the ball away if he felt that it was the best alternative.

“They were more interested in keeping the ball than today's players. Today the balls are completely different, they are not easy,” says Kaspersen, who had to retrieve the ball from his goal three times during the match with the USSR team.

Sports achievements of Lev Yashin

Team

Dynamo (hockey club)

• Winner of the USSR Cup: 1953
• Bronze medalist of the USSR Championship: 1953

Dynamo (football club)

• USSR Champion ( 5 ): 1954, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1963
• Winner of the USSR Cup ( 3 ): 1953, 1967, 1970
• Silver medalist of the USSR Championship ( 5 ): 1956, 1958, 1962, 1967, 1970
• Bronze medalist of the USSR Championship: 1960

USSR national team

• Olympic champion (Melbourne, 1956)
• Winner of the European Cup (France, 1960)
• European Cup silver medalist: 1964
• Bronze medalist (for 4th place) at the FIFA World Cup (London, 1966)

Personal

• Winner of the Ballon d'Or as the best footballer in Europe according to France Football: 1963
• 11 times recognized as the best goalkeeper of the USSR
• In the list of the best football players of the season in the USSR 16 times, of which No. 1 (1955-1966 and 1968) - 13 times, No. 2 (1953), No. 3 (1969) and b/n (1967)
• Lev Yashin - the best goalkeeper of the 20th century according to IFFIS
• Honored Master of Sports (1957)
• "Goalkeeper of the Year" ( 3 ): 1960, 1963, 1966
• Member of the symbolic team following the results of the European Championship according to UEFA ( 2 ): 1960, 1964
• The best football player in Russia for the period 1954-2003 (anniversary prize for the 50th anniversary of UEFA)
• Included in the World Championships team (2002)
• Included in the list of the greatest football players of the 20th century according to World Soccer

Famous Soviet football player, goalkeeper, Olympic champion 1956 and European champion in 1960, 5-time champion of the USSR. Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1957). The best goalkeeper of the 20th century.

Lev Yashin was born on October 22, 1929 in the Bogorodsky district of Moscow, into a simple working-class family of Ivan Petrovich and Anna Petrovna. He spent his childhood on Millionnaya Street in house number 15.
During the Great Patriotic War, he was evacuated with his family to the Volga region, where in the spring of 1943 he went to work at a factory as a mechanic's apprentice. He returned to Moscow in 1944 and, while continuing to work at the factory, devoted all his free time to his favorite game, playing as a goalkeeper for the Tushino national team.

In 1949 he began playing for the youth team football club“Dynamo” (Moscow), where he soon became A.P.’s backup. Khomich. Since then, Lev Yashin played only for this club, until the end of his football career in 1971.
Together with his club, Lev Yashin became the USSR champion five times (1954, 1955, 1957, 1959 and 1963) and won the USSR Football Cup three times.

Since 1954, Yashin has been the goalkeeper of the USSR national football team. In total, Yashin played 78 matches for the national team. Together with the USSR national team in 1956, Yashin won Olympic Games in Melbourne, European Cup 1960.

As part of the national team, he played in the final stage of the FIFA World Cup three times - in 1958 in Sweden, in 1962 in Chile and in 1966 in England. Highest Achievement in the world championships - fourth place at the 1966 championship. Yashin was also announced as the third goalkeeper at the 1970 World Championships in Mexico, but did not directly participate in the games.

In 1963 in London, at Wembley Stadium, Lev Yashin played for the world team in a match dedicated to the centenary of English football. All over the world Yashin was called: “Black Panther” - for his always black goalkeeper uniform, his mobility and acrobatic jumps; “Black Spider” or “Black Octopus” - for his long, reaching arms.

In 1963, Yashin (the only goalkeeper) received the prize for the best football player in Europe - the Golden Ball from the France Football weekly.

On May 27, 1971, in the presence of 103,000 spectators, Lev Yashin's farewell match took place. In this match, the team of clubs of the All-Union Sports Society "Dynamo" (masters from Moscow, Kyiv and Tbilisi participated in the match) played against the team of World Stars.

After 50 years, Yashin began to develop gangrene on his left leg, caused by obliteration of blood vessels due to heavy smoking. In 1984, his leg was amputated. After the operation he continued to smoke.

On March 18, 1990, Lev Yashin received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, having served as one for only two days.

He passed away on March 20, 1990 in Moscow, after complications caused by smoking and ongoing gangrene. He was buried on March 24 at the Vagankovskoye cemetery in the capital (site No. 25).

Lev Yashin is survived by his wife: Valentina Timofeevna and two daughters - Irina and Elena. Yashin's grandson Vasily Frolov was also football goalkeeper. In 2009, he ended his career by becoming a physical education teacher. Vasily played for the reserve team of Dynamo, St. Petersburg Dynamo and Zelenograd.

prizes and awards

Hero of Socialist Labor (03/18/1990)
Order of Lenin (1967, 1990)
Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1957, 1971)
"Golden Ball" - prize for the best football player in Europe in 1963
Silver Olympic Order (1986)
Golden Order of Merit, FIFA (1988)
Honored Master of Sports (1957)
Received the “Goalkeeper of the Year” prize 3 times - 1960, 1963, 1966.
1 Golden medal winner of the USSR Ice Hockey Cup (1953)
5 gold (1954, 1955, 1957, 1959 and 1963), 5 silver (1956, 1958, 1962, 1967 and 1970), 1 bronze (1960) medals of the USSR football championships
3-time winner of the USSR Football Cup (1953, 1967, 1970)
Olympic gold medal (1956)
European Cup Winner Gold Medal (1960)
Silver medal of the European Cup (1964).

Football is one of the most popular and spectacular sports. Russian football, unfortunately, so far it evokes more sympathy for our football players than joy and pride for them. However, this was not always the case. And our football was once known throughout the world on the positive side...

The best goalkeeper of the 20th century according to International Federation Football History and our compatriot, now deceased (although one can rightly say, murdered) Lev Ivanovich Yashin, is recognized as a statistician. Lev Yashin is a legend not only of our country, but world football. He still holds an unbroken record: 207 matches in a row without a single goal. Abroad, he was often called the "Black Panther", "Black Spider" and "Black Octopus" because he always wore a black uniform and seemed to be able to reach any ball from any position and at any speed. But…

Lev Ivanovich Yashin was not just a heavy smoker, but downright obsessed. Smoking four packs of cigarettes a day, he first developed a stomach ulcer and because of this he constantly carried a bag of soda with him, which dulled the incessant pain. And then, after 50 years old, he developed gangrene in his left leg due to obliteration of the blood vessels. This is such a nasty thing that a kind of blockage of blood vessels occurs, which is why intensive tissue death begins. In order to prevent blood poisoning, in 1984 the great goalkeeper’s leg was amputated...

Imagine what it would be like for a football player whose name the whole world knew to be in a wheelchair due to the loss of a leg? What does it feel like to know that you have turned into a stump just because of the passionate desire to smoke another cigarette? I think this is scary, to say the least. It would seem that the realization that this cheap (although not always cheap) poison has made you disabled would lead, at a minimum, to repentance and a desire to quit smoking. Unfortunately, the loss of the most important limb for a football athlete did not stop Lev Ivanovich, and he continued to smoke with no less passion than before gangrene. Despite the fact that Yashin’s friends and associates tried to somehow influence the smoker and convince him, Lev Ivanovich treated his health with absolutely no regard. As if it was not his health.

The result of this tobacco fanaticism was a completely predictable death from lung cancer, aggravated, moreover, by the consequences of the obliteration of blood vessels. On March 20, 1990, tobacco carried out its merciless sentence, and the life of the greatest goalkeeper of the twentieth century, and perhaps the entire history of football, was interrupted. Lev Ivanovich Yashin, the "Black Panther" of football, has died at the age of 60. In a sense, he committed suicide. After all, each of us who smoked or smokes will never believe that by smoking another cigarette, we are killing ourselves with our own hands.

Yes, we can say that it is smokers who kill, and they do not kill themselves. But did someone forcefully pump them full of tobacco smoke? Or did someone force all these people to smoke under threat of death? No. And to claim the opposite is the same as to claim that a rope and an unsuccessfully placed stool killed a man who hanged himself. It's the same with smoking. When we start smoking, we very quickly turn into slaves of tobacco and, in a sense, slaves of tobacco companies. Ultimately, we end our lives in a cemetery ahead of schedule, often having gone through all the torment of cancer patients.

Lev Yashin died. He killed himself with a habit that not only destroyed him, but also caused irreparable harm to the people around him. And we can only remember this. And remember that tobacco has never been and will never be harmless. He always kills. And to hope that this cup will pass from one of us is stupid and naive...

Goalkeepers have a difficult fate. While the field players carry out previously conceived combinations, delighting the spectators, they - the goal guards - do everything possible so that fans of the combination game are as rarely as possible in the ecstasy of crossing the ball and the goal line.

Lev Ivanovich Yashin, like no one else, knew how to ruin the plans of attacking players of opposing teams, for which he was awarded, as the only one of many excellent goalkeepers, the most prestigious award - the Golden Ball for the best football player in Europe.

Yashin Lev Ivanovich

22.10.1929 – 20.03.1990

Career:

• Dynamo Moscow (1949-1970; 326 matches).
• USSR national team (1954-1967; 74 matches).

Team Achievements:

• Olympic champion 1956.
• European champion 1960.
• Vice-champion of Europe in 1964.
• Champion of the USSR 1954, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1963.
• Silver medalist of the USSR championships in 1956, 1958, 1962, 1967, 1970.
• Bronze medalist at the 1960 USSR Championship.
• Winner of the USSR Cup in 1953, 1967, 1970.

Personal achievements:

• Winner of the Golden Ball for the best football player in Europe in 1963.
• The best goalkeeper of the USSR 1960, 1963, 1966.

On the verge of despair

Lev was born into a working-class family in Moscow. It is symbolic that Yashin, the future Dynamo legend, spent his childhood years in a small apartment on Millionnaya Street, in Bogorodskoye - one of the most “Spartak” districts of the capital. Like most of his peers, little Leva learned football in the yard, being considered a scorer.

But the carefree time soon ended - after the fifth grade, Lev went to work at a factory as a mechanic's apprentice. And then I had to forget about football and the factory - the Great Patriotic War, and the Yashin family went into evacuation near Ulyanovsk, from where they returned home in 1944.

The year 1945 not only put an end to the most terrible war, but also revealed the legendary sporting event– Dynamo Moscow tour to the UK. It’s not hard to guess how powerful an impetus the development of youth football was given by Dynamo’s brilliant performance. It was then that Lev decided for himself that he intended to connect his life with football. But the teenager’s desire alone was not enough. Moreover, the gates of the blue and white were brilliantly defended at that time by the nickname “Tiger”.

But Yashin did not give up, playing in the evenings for the factory team. During the day he worked, minding his own business. As a result, monotonous and hard work brought the future goalkeeper to depression - Lev stopped going to the factory, left his home and moved to live with a friend. Hard times began for our hero, because at that time, for such a lifestyle one could lose his freedom, falling under a criminal article for parasitism. There was no choice left - it was necessary to join the army. It was there that for the first time in his life, luck smiled on Yashin. Arkady Ivanovich Chernyshev noticed him and invited him to the youth team of Dynamo Moscow.

A crumpled debut

The young man's dream came true - until recently his life had an exclusively black tint, and now he is in best team countries, adopting the experience of their idol - Alexey Khomich. Yashin worked hard in training and soon got his chance. The young goalkeeper's debut came on friendly match in Gagra against the Stalingrad "Traktor". It was in the spring of 1949.

As often happens, the first pancake came out lumpy. Yashin missed a most curious goal - the opposing goalkeeper powerfully knocked the ball out, which flew into the Dynamo penalty area. The debutant was preparing to fix the leather projectile, but at the most inopportune moment he collided with his defender, and his colleague became the author of the goal.

The next appearance of Yashin in the “frame” is dated in the fall of 1950. Unlike the match in Gagra, this time the game was on a completely different level. Dynamo met with Spartak, Khomich took his place in the goal as usual, but was injured in the game. The time had come for the backup, who again blundered by colliding with his player, as a result of which the red and whites reduced the match to a draw.

This mistake cost Yashin a lot - beating Spartak was a matter of honor for Dynamo. Lev spent the next two seasons firmly in the reserves, and when his third appearance in goal was not crowned with success, he went into hockey, simultaneously winning the USSR Cup with Dynamo.

The best goalkeeper of the USSR

Meanwhile, Alexey Khomich left Dynamo Moscow for Minsk to finish the game. Walter Sanaya, a long-time backup of the Tiger, also left the ranks of the Muscovites. A vacant position has become available. “Patience and work will grind everything down” - this is about Yashin. Many years of hard training could not have gone in vain. Further career Dynamo's progress was only increasing. Having settled in the gates of his native team, the doors of the USSR national team soon opened for Yashin.

The mid-50s - the heyday of Lev Ivanovich. From a timid and insecure young man, he turns into a thunderstorm for all forwards - a venerable goalkeeper. Yashin's style is unique: he allows himself to go far out of the gate, calculating his opponents' combinations in advance. The first of the goalkeepers of his time, the Dynamo player began attacks for his team, throwing the ball far with one hand.

Yashin's best years coincide with a similar period in the history of Dynamo Moscow. The fundamental principle of Dynamo - strength in movement - is successfully combined with an impenetrable defense, led by the brilliant Yashin, whose success deservedly comes in the international arena.

Without exception, all the successes of our team of those years are associated with the name of Lev Ivanovich: victory at the Olympics in Melbourne in 1956, winning the 1960 European Cup, silver at the 1964 European Championship, fourth place at the 1966 World Championship. But there were also the 1958 and 1962 World Championships.

The 1962 World Championship occupies a special place in the fate of Lev Ivanovich, despite the lack of titles at its end. By that time, Yashin's fame had reached unprecedented heights. Public recognition did not provide any room for error, and at the world forum in Chile Yashin did not help out. To tell the truth, that championship really didn’t turn out well for the famous goalkeeper.

Further more. The journalistic fraternity decided to blame Lev Yashin, who was the target of mass persecution, for all the failures of the team. Evil tongues demanded the end of the career of a recent idol. Yashin could not withstand such harsh pressure and retired to the village, but returned some time later. And how he returned!

World fame

The year 1963 became, without exaggeration, a triumphant year in the already bright career of Lev Ivanovich. Yashin did not take offense at fate, but gritted his teeth and continued to work even harder. Together with his Dynamo, the stately goalkeeper became the champion of the USSR, and in the fall of that year the Dynamo player was invited to the world team to participate in the match dedicated to the centenary of English football.

This was a recognition - in those years, such matches were of the most serious nature. Without conceding a single goal during the allotted time, the USSR representative received a standing ovation from Wembley. The main award awaited Yashin ahead - Lev Ivanovich was awarded the title of the best football player in Europe in 1963, receiving the Golden Ball as confirmation.

Yashin proved that he has character, and without him, as we know, great success cannot be achieved in sports. In the future, Lev Ivanovich did not give skeptics any reason to doubt his greatness. Despite the fact that he no longer won the gold of the Union championships - in the late 60s, Dynamo lost their ground somewhat - Yashin is the undisputed number one both in the club and in the national team. Fate pays him for its whims. Yashin, at almost forty years old, is in perfect order, setting an example of true professionalism. From big football Lev Yashin leaves at the age of 41.

Lev Ivanovich’s farewell match brings together the brightest stars of world football of those years (only Yashin could not come to Yashin’s farewell) and the crowded Luzhniki Stadium. No matter how hard the world stars tried to upset our goalkeeper, he again, as in 1963 at Wembley, left with his head held high, without conceding a single goal. I couldn't think of a better way to end my career.

After leaving the green lawn, Yashin did not leave football, concentrating on administrative and coaching activities, holding important positions both in his native Dynamo and in the USSR Football Federation. At the same time, Lev Ivanovich's health is deteriorating sharply. IN last time Yashin appeared in public to celebrate his sixtieth birthday. Soon Lev Ivanovich passed away.

Greatness

Yashin cannot be called the darling of fate. She often tripped him up, but he got up and moved on, step by step building his amazing football career. Neither the failed first matches for Dynamo nor the mass persecution after the 1962 World Cup broke him.

It is especially valuable that Yashin became famous not only in the USSR, but in all corners of the world where they heard about football. And most importantly: until now Lev Ivanovich is the only goalkeeper who has become best football player Europe.

Childhood and youth

Lev's parents, Ivan Petrovich and Anna Mitrofanovna Yashin, were simple artisans. She worked at the Krasny Bogatyr plant, he worked at the aircraft plant in Tushino.

Their son grew up a big fan of street sports games. First football academy Lev became his home yard, and his team was the neighborhood boys. They played on a bald patch of uneven ground in front of the entrance. In winter, the children themselves turned the area into a skating rink and raced pucks around. Already at that time, his “role of a goalkeeper” had developed, however, he had to defend not a goal with a net, but the space between two cobblestones.

Leo's mother died early. The father grieved for a long time, but wisely decided that the boy needed a mother. This is how Alexandra Petrovna appeared in their family, becoming Lev’s second mother. In 1939, his younger brother Borya was born.

In the summer of 1941, 11-year-old Lev, as usual, was sent to relatives near Podolsk. He was already looking forward to fishing, kicking a ball with the village children and going mushroom hunting, but the holidays were interrupted by the war. The boy and his stepmother returned to Moscow, from where they were evacuated to the region, near Voskresensk, and then his father’s plant and the families of the workers were sent to the rear - to Ulyanovsk.

Lev called the day of evacuation the last day of his childhood. I had to endure a lot: hunger, cold, long hours of hard work. And in the spring of 1943, the boy who had recently played Cossack robbers became a full-fledged worker at the plant, where he worked his way up from an ordinary loader to a qualified mechanic. It was here that he acquired an addiction to tobacco. His father put cigarettes in his mouth so that the exhausted Lev would not fall exhausted during his work shift. The teenager received a state award for his contribution to the country's defense capability.

Start of a football career

One day, a spirit of contradiction rose up in the young man, or maybe depression accumulated from for long years hard work and losses. Slamming the door, he left home and stopped going to the plant, but in those years, unauthorized departure from a defense enterprise could have resulted in a prison sentence. Only he still regularly attended training.

A friend from the “adult” team advised him to volunteer for the army. Yashin’s “Young Fighter Course” took place in the capital. In the military unit he enrolled in football section. At one of the matches of the internal troops, he was noticed by Dynamo Moscow coach Arkady Chernyshev and offered to join the youth team.

I managed to prove myself in the game “Dynamo” and the youth version of the team. Lev defended the goal fiercely, and the youth won with a score of 1:0. Once in the main Dynamo team, he became a backup to the brilliant goalkeeper Alexei Khomich, nicknamed “Tiger”, and his main competitor Walter Sanaya.

1950 was a difficult year for the novice goalkeeper; it seemed that he would not be able to rise above the double, especially after missing three goals in the match with the team from Tbilisi. The coach decided to switch Yashin to bandy, then a completely new sport for the USSR. Here he showed himself excellently; the young athlete was even offered a place in the national team. And yet, in 1953, he made the final choice in favor of football. On May 2, his first post-mortem took place. long break a match in which Dynamo defeated Lokomotiv with a score of 3:1.

Yashin quickly got into shape and began to develop his own methods of protecting the goal. He caught the ball with his hands and feet, moving with lightning speed in the space of the goal, hitting the most difficult balls with his head. The crowd loved his cap trick, which he took off before hitting the ball, then put it back in place, as if expressing respect to those gathered in the stands.

After winning the gold, the opinion of football experts about Yashin changed dramatically - now they thought of him not as a backup with an inconsistent reputation, but as an authoritative goalkeeper the best club country and champion of the Soviet Union. And journalists gave him the nickname “black spider” for his very long arms and dark shape. He was also called the “black panther” for his amazing, inventive jumps.

Victories came one after another. In 1956, his team won the Olympic Games in Australia, and in 1960 they took the European Championship. Even failures in matches in Chile and Colombia (1962) did not spoil his career, although he had to withstand the barrage of criticism that fell after the loss.

But he gained worldwide popularity after the “match of the century” in England (1963). The English Football Federation celebrated its 100th anniversary, and the match between the national team and the “rest of the world” team dedicated to this event was dubbed the “match of the century.”

Lev Yashin's 10 best saves

They invited the strongest football players in the world (except, perhaps, Pele, Didi and Garrincha), including 34-year-old Yashin, who by that time was not worried about better times: they stopped calling him to the national team and putting him on goal at Dynamo, and until recently the fans who sang the goalkeeper’s praises advised him to retire and babysit his grandchildren.

Yashin defended the goal throughout the first half. During this time, not a single ball hit the goal of the “world team”. But in the second half, Yashin was replaced by Yugoslav goalkeeper Milutin Shoskic, who conceded two goals.

One way or another, the “match of the century” gave Yashin’s career a second wind: he was again called up to the national team, returned to the gates of Dynamo, and in the same year the club again took the USSR championship. And Lev’s collection of awards was replenished with the Golden Ball. Thus he became the first Soviet football player, recognized best player Europe, and only in 1975 Dynamo Kyiv striker Oleg Blokhin repeated his triumph.

In 1966, he once again proved himself at the FIFA World Cup. Then the USSR national team took fourth place, winning in the quarter finals against Hungary (2:1), but losing to Germany in the semifinals (2:1) and Portugal in the match for third place (2:1).

Yashin ended his goalkeeper career on May 27, 1971, having played his last match at the stadium in Moscow. 103 thousand fans watched his game. The all-Union Dynamo team played against a team of world stars. The match ended with the score 2:2. Leaving the field, Yashin solemnly handed over his gloves to the young goalkeeper Vladimir Pilguy, as if appointing him as his official successor.

But Yashin did not leave the sport: in August of the same year in Rome, he once again took to the field for the “world team of stars” against the Italian team, and then began coaching activities for training young Dynamo football players. He continued to work until 1975, but left his job due to the death of young Dynamo player Anatoly Kozhemyakin, who tried to get out of a stuck elevator, but did not make it in time and was crushed. Yashin was indirectly blamed for the tragedy, suspected of contributing to the moral decay of his charges. After that, he coached the second USSR national team and children's teams.

Personal life of Lev Yashin

The No. 1 goalkeeper in the Soviet Union was friends with his colleagues from other countries. His friends included famous football player Pele. In addition to sports, Yashin had another great hobby - fishing.

Disease

Upon returning to Moscow, he suffered a heart attack. Then - a stroke, which Lev Ivanovich stoically endured on his feet. In 1984, the diagnosis sounded like thunder: gangrene due to endarteritis that affected the vessels of the legs. They also found the reason: smoking. Gangrene progressed, and there was no other option but amputation.

We can say that Yashin was lucky, as far as this word is appropriate in this situation. For him, they managed to get an innovative iron prosthesis from Finland instead of the so-called “tubs” - barrel-shaped prostheses, the only ones produced in the USSR. The long process of recovery has begun, former footballer learned to walk again. He didn't quit smoking.

Last years and death

Memory of an idol

The creators of the FIFA 18 game included Lev Yashin in the rank of “legends” along with Diego Maradona, Pele and Thierry Henry.