Perhaps, it will be difficult to list all the achievements of the legendary footballer and coach Valery Vasilievich Lobanovsky. As a player, he was a multiple champion and winner of the USSR Cup, a silver medalist of the continental championship, and as a mentor of various clubs he repeatedly led his players to gold medals of the USSR championship, and then of Ukraine. In addition, Valery Lobanovsky completely changed the outdated approach to the educational process.
Biographical data
Valery Lobanovsky was born in January 1939 in Kiev in the family of a simple factory worker Vasily Mikhailovich and housewife Alexandra Maximovna, who, in fact, was engaged in the upbringing of the future legend of Soviet sports in the first years of her life.
Studying at school for little Valery was easy, but football became his main passion from childhood. Lobanovsky spent all his free time with the ball in the yard. His father and older brother approved of his sports activities and soon recorded him in the section.
First steps in sports
The football biography of Valery Lobanovsky began in 1952, when he began to attend Kiev football school No. 1. Coach Mikhail Korsunsky highly appreciated the talents of the young man and even then believed that he was destined to become an outstanding striker.
Thanks to good performance in training and games, Lobanovsky was transferred to the football school of youth in the same year, and upon its completion in 1955, to Dynamo (Kiev).
The birth of a football star
After several years spent in youth and backup teams of the capital's club, Valery Lobanovsky made his debut in the USSR Championship in 1959. In the first season, the 20-year-old striker showed good results - 4 goals in 10 matches.
A year later, Valery Lobanovsky, playing mainly in the position of the left striker, with 13 goals scored, became the top scorer of the Kiev team. Particularly memorable were his signature “dry sheets” - goals directly scored from a corner mark. In 1961, as a football player, Valery Lobanovsky for the first and last time for himself became the champion of the USSR, and in 1964 - the owner of the Cup of the country.
For the “Dynamo” striker played until 1965, while together with another famous striker Kanevsky was not expelled coach Maslov. In total, as part of the Kiev club, Lobanovsky played in 150 matches and scored 43 goals.
Leaving Dynamo and ending his playing career
In 1965, Valery Lobanovsky was part of the Odessa “Chernomorets”, and after two seasons he moved to Donetsk “Shakhtar”. But a mature off-year football player could not play purely as his coach indicated. For this reason, in 1969, he ended his playing career.
Team appearances
Despite the good performance in the USSR championship as a part of Dynamo (Kiev), Lobanovsky was practically not called up to the USSR team. In the 1960-61 season, he spent several games for the main team of the country, and also played two games as part of the Olympic team.
The beginning of a coaching career
At the age of 29, Lobanovsky was appointed to the post of head coach of the Dnepropetrovsk Dnipro. In the first season, his team took third place in the second group of class “A”, and three years later made its way into the elite division of the Soviet Union.
As a coach, Valery Lobanovsky was one of the first in the country to use video recordings to analyze the game of both his club and rivals. Such measures led to more intensive work in training in order to eliminate all errors made by players.
In the first season, Dnipro took the sixth place in the top league, and the next year created a real sensation in the USSR Cup, reaching the semifinals. Such results attracted the attention of Lobanovsky from the leaders of Kiev Dynamo.
Coach without a diploma
Initially, Lobanovsky perceived football as entertainment, so he chose not physical education, but graduated from the Polytechnic Institute. In this regard, the All-Union level scandal almost arose: during the next football reform, officials decided to ban coaches without appropriate education from working with teams from two major leagues. But, as it turned out, the only such mentor without the necessary diploma was already the legendary then Valery Vasilievich Lobanovsky. Therefore, they decided to simply forget about such an amendment.
The golden era of white and blue
In 1973, the new coaching duo Lobanovsky - Bazilevich led the Kiev club to silver medals of the USSR championship. In addition, there was the final of the Cup of the country and 1/4 of the Champions Cup. The following year, “Dynamo” made a “golden” double, while quite successfully speaking in the European arena.
For the first time, as a great coach, they started talking about Lobanovsky in 1975, when he again led the Kiev team to the USSR championship, and in Europe Dynamo created a real sensation. For the first time in the history of Soviet football, Kievans were able to win the European club tournament - the UEFA Cup Winners Cup. In the final, they defeated the Hungarian Ferencvaros, and Oleg Blokhin, who later became the legendary footballer, was recognized as the best player in both the game and the tournament. Dynamo secured its success by winning the UEFA Super Cup against Munich's invincible Bavaria at that time.
After such successes, the crisis began. It was due to the fact that most of the main players in the Kiev club were constantly employed in the team. At the end of the season, Dynamo was left without trophies - both in the domestic and international arena. The discontent of the players grew into their demands to dismiss Lobanovsky, but as a result, only Bazilevich was removed.
After this scandal, “Dynamo” returned to its previous successes. In the next six seasons, the Kiev team never finished the USSR championship without medals, and three times they were gold. Also, the “white-blue” twice (in 1978 and 1982) became the owners of the USSR Cup, and also reached the semifinals of the European Cup.
In 1982, Valery Lobanovsky resigned as head coach of Dynamo in connection with his work in the USSR national team, but he returned to his native Kiev literally a year later.
Despite the failed season (10th place in the national championship), the legendary coach continued to introduce the latest scientific methods into his work. And this gave results already next year: Dynamo became the best team not only in the national championship, but also in the Cup.
1986 was a landmark year not only for Kiev, but also for all Soviet football. Dynamo not only confirmed its status as the best team in the Soviet Union, but also brought to Kiev another Cup winners cup, obtained in the final against Atletico Madrid.
Valery Lobanovsky coached the Kiev team until 1990. During this period, Dynamo once again became the champion of the USSR and twice - the winner of the domestic championship, won two Cups of the country and reached the semifinals of the Champions Cup. But the constant employment in the team, the departure of the best players abroad and misunderstanding on the part of football functionaries led to the fact that Valery Vasilyevich decided to leave Dynamo. As it turned out, not forever.
Work with the USSR team
A separate chapter in the biography of Valery Lobanovsky is his work in the USSR team. In 1974, he began to combine work at Dynamo with the training of the country's main team. Under his leadership, the national team successfully passed the Olympic qualifying cycle and went to Montreal in 1976, where Soviet football players won bronze medals. Such a result was perceived as a failure in the country, so Lobanovsky was fired.
After 6 years, Valery Vasilievich was again called to work with the team. After a year of training, he was again suspended, but in 1986 it was Lobanovsky who took the team to the World Cup in Mexico. The USSR national team confidently passed the group stage, but then sensationally lost to Belgium.
Even after such a failure, Valery Lobanovsky remained at his post. It was he who prepared the Soviet team for the “silver” performance at the European Championships in 1988. However, after a disastrous performance at the World Cup-90 Valery Vasilievich left his post.
Overseas stage
Unlike other coaches, Valery Lobanovsky did not seek happiness in Europe. He became the head coach of the United Arab Emirates, where he worked for more than three years. Then Lobanovsky led the same number of Kuwait’s main team, with whom he sensationally became the bronze medalist of the Asian Games.
Return to Kiev
In 1997, the long-awaited event for fans of Dynamo Kyiv was held - Valery Vasilievich Lobanovsky was again appointed to the post of head coach. At that time, the team was in a deep crisis, but the legendary coach quickly put things in order in the club.
A year later, Dynamo shone not only in the championship of Ukraine, but also in European competitions. For the first time in many years, the Kiev club was able to overcome the group stage of the Champions League and reach the quarterfinals of this tournament. A year later, “Dynamo” in the same stage confidently passed Madrid “Real” and stopped a step away from the finals, passing there Munich “Bavaria”.
It is thanks to the latest approaches of Valery Vasilyevich Lobanovsky to the training process and his ability to find an individual approach to any player that allowed the future stars of Ukrainian and world football to “light up”: Andrey Shevchenko, Sergey Rebrov, Kakha Kaladze, Alexander Shovkovsky, Andrey Gusin and others.
In 2000, the legendary mentor again began to combine work at Dynamo with the post of head coach of the national team of Ukraine. But he didn’t manage to achieve high results both at the club level and with the national team.
Family life
In the personal life of Valery Lobanovsky there were no such sensations as in his football or coaching career. He was an exemplary family man who lived for many years with his wife Adelaide Pankratievna. Their daughter Svetlana graduated from the philological faculty of Kiev University. She also presented the parents of two grandchildren - Ksenia and Bogdan.
Leaving life
The last few years of his life, Valery Vasilievich Lobanovsky was often sick, but almost never missed his team's matches until May 7, 2002. During an away match with Zaporizhzhya “Metallurg” he was hospitalized directly from the coaching bench.
After 4 days, the heart of the legendary coach stopped beating. The cause of the death of Valery Lobanovsky is a repeated stroke.
The memory of the legend lives on
The memory of the legend of not only Soviet, but also world football was honored with a minute of silence at all football stadiums in Europe. Dynamo Stadium received the name of the coach, who brought a record number of awards to the Kiev team. A monument to Valery Lobanovsky was erected at the entrance to the arena. A tournament dedicated to his memory is also held annually.