The famous Russian football coach Pavel Fedorovich Sadyrin was born on September 18, 1942 in Perm (then the city was called Molotov). He became interested in football there and graduated from the football school of the Perm team Zvezda. From 1959 to 1964 he played for this team, and in 1965 he left for Leningrad and entered Zenit.
Pavel Sadyrin is a football player who managed to show excellent results. Over the course of his career in the Leningrad club, he scored 37 goals in the games of the championships of the USSR. He played in the team as a midfielder, and established himself as a reliable, productive player. For six seasons, he was the captain of the Zenith. In 1975, Pavel Fedorovich Sadyrin finished playing and left the team.
In Leningrad, playing football actively, he was also able to graduate from the P. F. Lesgaft Leningrad Institute of Physical Culture and become a certified teacher.
Getting started as a trainer
Having completed his career as a football player, Pavel Sadyrin was preparing for coaching at the Graduate School of Trainers in Moscow, which he graduated in 1977. Then he entered the coaching position at Zenit. Sadyrin began with work with the youth team, with a backup team. He worked in a team of head coach Yuri Morozov, whom he considered his teacher in the coaching profession. In 1983 he was appointed head coach of Zenit, despite the young age for such a position. Team players who managed to appreciate his progressive coaching style were enthusiastic about this appointment.
A year later, in the USSR Cup in 1984, the team reached the final and became the champion. This happened for the first and only time, as it turned out later, in the entire Soviet history of Zenit. In memory of the victory, the coach was presented with an unusual souvenir - a piece of artificial turf from the field, where the last match with Metalist took place, which brought victory.
Leaving Zenit, working at CSKA
In 1987, after two seasons not very successful for the team, the coach had a conflict with several players. As a result, Pavel Sadyrin left Zenit. For a short time he coached the Kherson football team of the second league “Crystal”. In 1989, he received a proposal to lead CSKA, which he accepted.
Having come to the team, Sadyrin worked for a long time on creating a close-knit team and raising the morale of the players. Some Zenit players switched to CSKA for their coach.
Coach Pavel Sadyrin worked with the army team for three years, and in the 1991 season (the last in the history of the USSR before its collapse), the team became the champion of the USSR and the owner of the Union Cup. Under the leadership of Sadyrin, “CSKA” won their fifth USSR Cup, won the USSR title for the seventh time, and the gold double - the title of champions and the Cup at the same time - became the third in the history of the team. Immediately after the victory in the Cup, a tragedy occurred that Pavel Fedorovich experienced very hard. One of the heroes of the squad - a young talented goalkeeper Mikhail Eremin - died in a car accident.
The same period of work with CSKA includes the case that best describes honesty, Sadyrin’s responsibility and his determination to go all the way. In 1990, he was offered to become the head coach of the USSR national team, but he refused, citing the fact that he has obligations to the club, that he promised the team victory in the championship.
Russian team. Letter of the Fourteen
In 1992, Pavel Fedorovich Sadyrin accepts the leadership of the Russian national team and begins to prepare the team for participation in the World Cup. The national team overcomes the qualification stage with one loss in the last match - the Greek team with a score of 0: 1. After that, it seemed that it did not affect the passage to the final stage of the defeat, 14 players of the team wrote an open letter in which they put forward demands to improve the financial conditions of the contracts and dismiss Pavel Sadyrin. In place of the head coach, they asked to return his predecessor - Anatoly Byshovets. Among the claims against Sadyrin was the lack of qualification of a club coach for working with the national team. The scandal was called the "letter of fourteen." The Russian football union, led by President Vyacheslav Koloskov, sided with Sadyrin, retaining his post as national coach. Some football players later refused the signature. Some of them went to the championship in America, but the team still lost several leading players. At that championship, the Russian national team did not manage to leave the group.
Return to Zenit
In 1994, Sadyrin returned to Zenit. Many of those who knew Pavel Fedorovich noted that he was glad to return to the club that mattered to him so much. The coach was faced with the task of returning the St. Petersburg team to the big leagues. This was expected from him by the city leadership and sponsors. Sadyrin himself wanted, in addition, that the team defeated the Moscow Spartak.
The season was quite successful for the team. All of the goals set, including the victory over Spartak, were achieved.
Second farewell to Zenith
After a well-spent season, it seemed that Sadyrin was waiting for further fruitful cooperation with Zenit. But at the end of the season, the contract with the coach expired, and the club management did not renew it, which caused dissatisfaction among the fans of the team. Fans staged rallies in support of Sadyrin at football matches and even at Palace Square. The second parting with the “Zenith” Pavel Fedorovich experienced hard. For a while he rested from work, but at the end of 1996 he again headed the coaching team of CSKA.
Working method
Those who knew Sadyrin’s work style noted that he tried to establish a close-knit team game and create a positive friendly atmosphere, but he was also demanding of the players.
The football player Vyacheslav Melnikov, who played for Zenit in 1984, recalled that Sadyrin combined in his work “methods of power football with combination, technical”.
Pavel Fedorovich himself said that he has no favorites on the field, during training or playing. Only in life could he humanly single out one of the players, a warmer relationship developed with someone. But this did not affect the work.
The last years of his career
After the season with CSKA, from 1998 to 1999, Sadyrin headed the Rubin club in Kazan, but in 2000 he again accepted the leadership of CSKA. Also in 2000, he agreed to become the head coach of the Uzbekistan national team. During his tenure, the team managed to hold only one match - a friendly match with Thailand ended in a 2-0 loss.
In 2000, unsuccessfully falling down the stairs, Pavel Sadyrin broke his leg, but the club management nevertheless extended the contract with him and allowed him to return to work after rehabilitation.
In 2001, the tragedy of 1991 was almost repeated - CSKA goalkeeper Sergei Perkhun died after being injured during the match with Anji. The coach was very worried about the loss of a player whom he really appreciated.
In the autumn of the same year in St. Petersburg, CSKA lost to Zenit with a crushing score of 1: 6. After this, Sadyrin voluntarily resigns for health reasons.
Pavel Sadyrin: personal life
Pavel Fedorovich was married twice. From his first marriage, he has a son, Denis. The first wife died in 1990. After her death, her son lived with her relatives in St. Petersburg, often talking with his father and coming to him in Moscow. Married to her second wife, Tatyana Yakovlevna, had no children.
Friends and relatives note that in his free time Pavel Fedorovich was fond of fishing. In his first year at CSKA, he was even presented with an airborne inflatable boat, knowing this hobby. Also remember about his passion for photography. There was Pavel Sadyrin and a good driver, he loved cars.
Acquaintances of Pavel Fedorovich talk about the firmness of his character, the ability to stand his ground and never retreat from his goals.
Awards
Sadyrin was awarded the title of Honored Trainer of the RSFSR, in 1996 he was awarded the medal of the Order for Merit to the Fatherland. Also in 1996, he was recognized as the coach of the year after the season as the head coach of Zenit.
Among Sadyrin’s awards there is also the 1996 medal “For the Salvation of the Dead”. Pavel Sadyrin saved the child who was drowning. During an interview at the Zenit training base, he heard screams from the side of a nearby pond and rushed to help.
This case of salvation was not the only one in his biography. Football player Pavel Sadyrin (Zenit was an important stage in his career) with his friend saved a woman from the flooded basement of the hotel.
Disease
The widow of the trainer Tatyana Yakovlevna believed that her husband’s health condition was affected by the last parting with Zenit. They diagnosed cancer in the last year of the trainer's life. The president of CSKA club Evgeny Giner did not interfere with Sadyrin’s desire to work, despite feeling unwell and a leg injury. Soon after the match with Zenit, which was the last for Pavel Fedorovich in the status of a coach, he was taken to a Moscow hospital, then for some time he was in a clinic in Germany, but was sent back to Moscow.
On December 1, 2001, Pavel Sadyrin died in the Burdenko hospital in Moscow. The cause of death is prostate cancer. The trainer's grave is located at the Kuntsevsky cemetery.
By a strange coincidence, the teams of CSKA and Zenit again converged in the final of the Russian Cup on the football season 2001/2002. This time, “CSKA” won. They dedicated their victory to the departing coach Pavel Sadyrin and goalkeeper Sergei Perkhun who left in 2001.
Memory
In honor of the 70th birthday of Pavel Fedorovich Sadyrin, a memorial plaque was opened in his honor on the house No. 73 on Moskovsky Prospekt, in which he lived in the 80s, in St. Petersburg.
Pavel Sadyrin, whose biography was presented to your attention in the article, became one of the few football coaches who managed to lead to significant victories in such two different teams as Zenit and CSKA. For fans of these two clubs, the name of Sadyrin is a legend. Even fewer mentors could boast such truly popular love and respect that people would go out to the square in defense of the coach. Fans of both teams chanted his name from the stands during the game, which does not happen so often in football. The football players with whom he worked also remember their coach. Some of them keep in touch with his family, come on memorial days to put flowers on a memorial plaque.
Our country can rightfully be proud of such people as Pavel Fedorovich Sadyrin. He managed to prove himself not only in sports, but also in life. A wonderful football player, a wise coach and a kind person! Bright memory to him ...