Destroyer of stereotypes ... A unique person ... Yuri Vernidub (photo below), training now in Lugansk “Dawn”, proved that “Dawn” can show competitive football and win against Shakhtar, who was previously unbeatable for her.
Who is Vernidub Yuri?
The uniqueness of this person is that he can very well motivate his team. Football players have repeatedly noted that in the break between halves, the Dawn dressing room is the focus of an emotional charge.
Yuri Nikolaevich was born in the Ukrainian city of Zhitomir on January 22, 1966. From early childhood he was fond of football, so he went to the football section at the Spartak club (Zhytomyr). In his school years, Yuri Vernidub decided that he would try his hand at professional sports and, as you and I can observe, was not mistaken in his choice.
Player career in the USSR Championship
The playing career of Yuri Nikolaevich Vernidub was quite long. He gained his first professional experience in Zhytomyr Spartak in 1983-1984. In the second league of the USSR championship, he spent 68 games in which he scored 5 goals against opponents. There is no information about the next 2 years in either domestic or foreign sources. At that time, Vernidub most likely served in the army. Many Soviet football players managed to combine a football player’s career with service in the Red Army (there were army football clubs). The pupil of Zhytomyr football did not have such an option.
In 1987, the footballer showed up as part of the Nikopol Spike. In this team, he could not stay long, having spent only 33 matches. As a football player, Yuri Vernidub was quite talented, so he was noticed by Dnipro scouts and invited to Dnepropetrovsk. It is difficult to say why, but as part of the team (two-time champion of the USSR) he could not play. Vernidub’s track record as a football player does not include a single game for the Dnieper (even as part of the backup team). Understanding that he needs playing practice and there is no sense in sitting still, during the season the Zhytomyr guy moved to the team of the second league of the USSR Championship “Carpathian” (Ivano-Frankivsk). Athletes of this level were worth their weight in gold in an original West Ukrainian team. Arriving at the team during the season, the midfielder / defender managed to play 21 matches.
Restlessness and a desire to constantly develop - this is all Yuri Vernidub. The footballer already in 1989 goes on promotion to Zaporizhzhya Metallurg. He used the opportunity presented.
What did Yuri Vernidub (biography) remember in the 1990s?
For a team that already, unfortunately for all Ukrainian football fans, does not exist, Yuri played 116 matches in which he scored 5 goals. During the years of hyperinflation, the football player decided to try legionnaire bread and went to Germany. For “Chemnitzer” (base and double) spent 26 fights (1 goal). After 2 years in the German league, a pupil of Zhytomyr football returns to Zaporizhia, which has become his hometown. But not in “Metallurg”, but in “Torpedo” (by the way, this club has also long been out of the football arena of Ukraine). From 1994 to the end of 1996, he played 76 games for automobile manufacturers and sent 11 goals to the opponents.
What next? Ending her career, strangely enough, was her peak. Yes, “Zenith” in the late 1990s did not shine, but it has always been a respected name in football circles. In modern language - a brand. For three years, from 1997 to 2000, the Ukrainian legionnaire was the captain of Zenit. Vernidub has 84 games and 2 goals in the St. Petersburg team. By the way, in Leningrad, the Ukrainian football player received a little European Cup experience. In 1999, Zenit spent 2 games in the UEFA Cup, and in 2000, the Ukrainian took part in one of the Intertoto Cup matches .
Yuri Vernidub: coaching philosophy
Immediately after the player’s career ends, the former Zenit captain begins a new stage in his sports life - coaching everyday life. For a long time there were no particular successes. Everything changed in 2011, when he was invited to a meeting by the president of the Lugansk “Dawn” Eugene Geller, who liked his coaching ideas.
And what is so about them? First, team discipline. Each player should try to insure their partners when they leave their positions. He professes combinational intellectual football. Believes that the attack should go through a short or medium pass, avoiding long casts.
The main point that Geller liked in Vernidub is that he can find a psychological approach to any player. The combination of all these qualities of a coach brings success to the current “Dawn” in such difficult conditions for her when the team cannot play in front of her fans because of the political and military situation.