Lev Yashin played. Lev Yashin - biography, information, personal life. Interesting facts about Lev Yashin

In addition, Lev Ivanovich had many other titles and achievements, legitimately earned during his life and career in sports. In 1963, he was recognized in Europe as the best football player, Lev Yashin’s biography was supplemented with another award - he was awarded the Golden Ball.

In the Soviet Union, he, of course, won the most awards. The football player was recognized as the champion of the entire country, and he received such recognition in 1954-1955, as well as in 1959, 1963 and 1957. In addition, he was awarded and won the USSR Cup three times (1953, 1967, 1970).

Celebrity childhood

On October 22, 1929, he was born into an ordinary Soviet family. future champion and football player Lev Yashin. Already from the very early childhood The boy showed a great love for football. For hours, almost every day, little Lev kicked the ball with his friends around the yard. However, this passion did not prevent him from becoming a fairly capable and hardworking person, which may have helped him achieve high performance and earn yourself the title of the best football player not only in your home country, but throughout the world.

During Yashin’s childhood, football was elevated to the rank of a heroic sport. Football players were considered stars, and every Soviet boy had the desire to become one. Lev Yashin, the team with whom he played in the yard, and all his friends wanted the same thing. Football attracted me with its romance.

Youth years

You could say it's professional sports biography Lev Yashin's career began in his youth. Quite a hardworking Yashin learned plumbing, after which he went to work at one of the factories located in the Moscow region. These young years occurred at the very height of the Great Patriotic War, so the teenager had to work for many hours in a row. But this did not break Yashin’s desire to become a real football player; immediately after finishing work, he and other guys went to the stadium, where coach N. Larionchikov trained all the guys from the factory.

And although Lev wanted to play more as a striker, for some reason the coach constantly put him in goal. Yashin obediently followed his orders, and it was impossible not to carry them out, the coach was adamant. Apparently, Larionchikov already understood where Yashin’s talent lay.

The story of Lev Yashin was also notable for the fact that already at the age of fifteen he received his first award; at the plant he was given the medal “For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.”

First matches

After serving in the army, Lev Yashin’s sports biography continued and began to gain momentum. Once, while participating in some competition, the future football celebrity was noticed by coach A.I. Chernyshev, who was training the Dynamo youth team. It was this team that Yashin dreamed of getting into since childhood, so when Chernyshev invited him to try his hand at Dynamo, Lev happily agreed.

However, Dynamo's first friendly match with the Traktor team from Stalingrad was rather unsuccessful for Yashin. He missed the ball into the goal sent by the opposing goalkeeper.

Subsequently there were failures again. So, in 1950, the competition held for the national championship again became unsuccessful for the young athlete. Moreover, just as in the situation with the Stalingrad Traktor, Yashin missed a goal due to a collision with his midfielder. Taking advantage of this, the opponents hit and scored the ball into the goal.

These defeats seriously affected Yashin - from 1950 to 1952 he sat on the bench and hardly appeared on the field.

Hockey career

Thus removed from his favorite game, Yashin began to play ice hockey. Moreover, he achieved a lot in this sport. Thus, he won the title of master of sports, and also received silver and bronze while participating in the team. One day it hockey team even won the USSR Cup.

In 1954, the athlete was faced with the question of whether to continue playing hockey or return to football. Without much thought, Lev Yashin, a goalkeeper then still little known, chose football.

Return to football

Returning to Dynamo, Yashin did not let his team down. With his help, this team became champion four times Soviet Union for the period from 1954 to 1959. Only two times did Dynamo lose their place of honor to Spartak. During this time of playing football, Lev Yashin played 326 matches. He received 5 silver and one bronze for participating in the national championships. Dynamo won the USSR Cup three times; these victories were achieved, among other things, thanks to the help and excellent play of the great football player. Yashin was added to the list 13 times best athletes Soviet Union, consisting of thirty-three surnames.

International recognition came to the Soviet athlete in 1954. Then Yashin joined the national team and fought against the Swedish national team and defeated it with a score of 7:0. Yashin's merit in this match was obvious; the enemy repeatedly struck the USSR team's goal, but Yashin defended them professionally.

Sixties

In 1962, after a short absence due to a disastrous game in Chile, Lev Ivanovich returned to football. This absence from the sport did not make itself felt; Yashin was still just as good. In 1963, he played in twenty-seven matches, in which he conceded only six goals. And again he achieved victory for Dynamo in the USSR Championship. Lev Yashin's matches were still just as spectacular.

The year 1963 was especially significant for Lev Ivanovich Yashin. It was then that the Soviet Union national team took part in the match, which was dedicated to the 100th anniversary English football. Lev Yashin was then recognized as the best athlete in football within Europe. The Ballon d'Or was an award he received that fall from a French sports publication.

Character and abilities of a football player

After this crushing defeat of the Swedes, Yashin became an honorary member of the USSR national team and continued to defend the sporting honor of his country in matches with foreign teams. Lev Yashin's sports role and his character undoubtedly helped this. As Yashin’s friends and sports colleagues said, he was very calm and had excellent self-control. Another ability of Lev Yashin was the ability to transfer this calmness and confidence to other team members. No matter how difficult the game was, Yashin entered the field with such confidence that other players were imbued with this and played with full dedication.

These skills were useful to Yashin, for example, in a match held on Olympic Games. Then the USSR team met with the Yugoslav team. The weather conditions were disgusting, but this did not prevent Lev Yashin from successfully completing his task. He intercepted the ball and was always in the right place. His professional intuition actively helped the football player determine what the enemy’s kick would be.

We can say that the very first Soviet football player began to use the technique of throwing the ball into someone else's half of the field in order to quickly attack his team. He interacted very closely with the defenders during the game. Before matches, he carefully studied the tactics and strategy of the enemy’s game, this allowed him to determine his behavior on the field.

As B. Charlton, captain of the English team, said about him: “During his game, Yashin became not just a goalkeeper, but an active field player.”

Last years

The athlete's last performance in football took place on May 27, 1971 in Luzhniki. He was then forty-two years old. But having finished with sports career, Yashin continued to work in the Moscow Sports Committee, and later received awards from the International Olympic Committee and FIFA.

Lev Yashin's biography consists of more than just football. The Soviet athlete was very fond of fishing. However, after he had a stroke, he had to give it up too. In 1984, the football player’s leg was amputated because gangrene began to develop, but Lev Ivanovich was still interested in sports, in particular football. Lev Yashin died in 1990 from cancer.

To this day, boys try to be like legendary goalkeeper, study his style of play, behavior on the field, and ordinary football fans review the matches with his participation, are interested not only in how many goals Lev Yashin missed, but also how many dangerous balls he hit when the enemy attacked. The memory of the great Soviet football player will forever remain in the history of world football.

On October 22, 1929, the famous football goalkeeper Lev Yashin was born. According to generally accepted opinion, he is the best goalkeeper in the world in the entire twentieth century. Olympic champion, bronze medalist of the World Championship, gold and silver medalist of the European Championship. Five-time champion and five-time silver medalist of the USSR Championship, once bronze medalist, three-time winner of the USSR Cup.

11 times recognized as the best goalkeeper of the USSR. In 1963, Yashin (the only goalkeeper) received the prize for the best football player in Europe - the Golden Ball. The founder of the innovative goalkeeper style of playing, which later became an example for many great football players of his role. Recipient of many honorary orders and medals of the Soviet state
At the beginning of his sports career, Yashin also played ice hockey (from 1950 to 1953). In 1953, he won the USSR Hockey Cup and bronze medalist at the USSR Championship, also playing as a goalkeeper. Before hockey championship World Cup 1954 was a candidate for the national team, but decided to concentrate on football.

For his playing tactics, Yashin was nicknamed the “black spider”, “octopus”, and also the “black panther” (he always played only in a completely black uniform). Great goalkeeper had excellent reactions and introduced new principles of goalkeeper play - he started an attack by throwing the ball far and accurately with his hand, confidently led the defense, was a real “master” of the penalty area, played excellently with his feet and often, going far from his own goal, quickly aggravated the situation with an accurate long pass. situation on the opposite half of the field.

His father, Ivan Petrovich, worked at an aircraft factory, and his mother, Anna Mitrofanovna, worked at the “Red Bogatyr”. They left home early in the morning and returned tired after dark: in the thirties, overtime work, mainly at their father's defense enterprise, had to be done quite often. In early childhood, Leo was looked after by close relatives, however, as he grew older, he was left to his own devices, preferring to spend all his time in the yard. The street became a real school of life for Yashin. In 1935, his mother suddenly died. A few years later, Ivan Petrovich married again - among other things, he realized that his son needed female supervision. Fortunately, the boy’s relationship with his stepmother Alexandra Petrovna was warm. And in 1940, Yashin had a younger brother, Boris.

Lev's lifestyle was typical of boys from the working-class outskirts of Moscow. The children's entertainment was very varied and often extremely dangerous - in addition to riding trams as "hares", they, finding sulfur or even gunpowder, made caps and threw them on the rails in front of the moving trams. In winter, the children skied on the sloping roofs of local barns, turning them into springboards of sorts. To land successfully and not make money serious injury, it was necessary to show good coordination, composure and courage. Lev Yashin repeatedly had the opportunity to participate in fights - both “one on one” and in “wall to wall” skirmishes.

The entire male population of the capital in the 1930s was “fond” of football, and, undoubtedly, this hobby could not escape the boys. Together with his peers, Lev played football uncontrollably from early spring until late autumn. Habitual in our understanding soccer balls did not yet exist then, and the boys ran after balls tightly tied from rags. Lev Ivanovich himself was a good striker as a child and did not even imagine that he would someday take a place in goal.

In the summer of 1941, the life of eleven-year-old Lev Yashin turned upside down - his father took him to his relatives in the village, but the war began, and they had to return to Moscow. Ivan Petrovich, as an employee of an aircraft factory, was given a reservation, and in October the Yashin family went for evacuation. They were dropped off near Ulyanovsk, where they, together with other Muscovites, began construction of a new plant in an open field. People lived in tents, Ivan Petrovich disappeared for days at work, and Lev, somehow studying in the fifth grade, nursed his little brother and helped Alexandra Petrovna with the housework. Of course, he didn’t like this too much, and the boy pestered his father with requests to take him to the factory.

In the fall of 1943, the father finally fulfilled his son's wish - several workers from his workshop went to the front, and they needed replacements. Very quickly, Yashin became a third-class mechanic, receiving a full-fledged work card, which he was very proud of. In the winter of 1943-1944, when workers built fires between machines in unheated workshops and slept here on boxes of materials and tools, a fourteen-year-old teenager became addicted to smoking. He was taught this by his partner, who was afraid that Yashin would fall asleep at the machine from fatigue. And at the beginning of 1944, the plant returned from evacuation, and the Yashin family went home. Soon Victory Day arrived, and sixteen-year-old Lev received the first in his life and at the same time the most expensive award for him - the medal “For Valiant Labor during the Great Patriotic War.”

After the war, mechanic Yashin continued to work at his native enterprise and was in good standing there. Lev got up at half past six in the morning, and returned home late at night, since after work he studied at the school for working youth. Tired, first of all, psychologically - from the long journey, hard monotonous work, evening school classes - Yashin, back in mid-1945, found an outlet for himself by enrolling in a factory football section. The coach there was Vladimir Checherov, who, as soon as he saw the lanky guy, immediately identified him as the goal. Leo didn’t like this, but the desire to play was much stronger, and he decided to remain silent. Plant workers trained on Sundays, the only day off. Soon Yashin was included in the factory team and took part in the regional football championship.

At the beginning of 1948, Lev Ivanovich’s colleagues and relatives began to notice that something was wrong with him. Yashin himself said about this: “Something in me suddenly broke. I have never been known as a quarrelsome person or with a difficult character. And then everything at home and at work began to irritate me, I walked around all twitched, and could flare up over any trifle. In the end, I packed my things and left home. I also stopped going to the factory.” At a defense enterprise, absence from work at that time was considered sabotage and was grounds for criminal prosecution. Fortunately, fellow football players advised Yashin to ask for a military service even before reaching conscription age. At the military registration and enlistment office, Lev Ivanovich was met halfway; already in the spring of 1948 he was assigned to one of the units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs troops stationed in Moscow. They quickly found out that Yashin - soccer goalkeeper, and included him in one of the unit’s teams. Soon Lev Ivanovich took part in the championship of the capital's city council "Dynamo".

Fate smiled on the young man. One day, the goalkeeper of one of the MVD teams was injured during a warm-up, and Lev Ivanovich had to play two matches in a row. During these fights, Arkady Chernyshev, the coach of the Dynamo youth team of masters, drew attention to him. How he managed to discern a genius in the tall goalkeeper, who scored four goals in two games that day, Arkady Ivanovich himself did not really understand - at least, he explained it later in different ways. After the matches ended, he invited Yashin to join the Dynamo youth team.

Having started working with Lev, the coach immediately noticed that the guy was much more resilient and conscientious than his teammates. At the same time, Chernyshev discovered a rare analytical gift in his pupil - Lev himself tried to explain to the coach the mistakes he made during the game and asked how they could be corrected. Training hard, the young man successfully played in both the championship and the Moscow Cup in 1949. In the semi-final battle, the Dynamo youth team faced off against the Dynamo team, staffed partly by veterans and partly by reserve players from the master team. Arkady Chernyshev himself took part in the game along with the once famous football players Vasily Trofimov and Sergei Ilyin. The match caused a great stir; the stands of the Small Dynamo Stadium were crowded with spectators. Lev Ivanovich was as reliable as ever and helped his partners win with a score of 1:0.

In the fall of 1949, Mikhail Yakushin, the senior coach of Dynamo, on the recommendation of Chernyshev, took Yashin to the main team. However, this was only an advance for the future - two first-class goalkeepers played for Dynamo in those years - the ambitious Walter Sanaya and the experienced Alexey Khomich, nicknamed the “Tiger”. Lev Ivanovich could take their place in the Dynamo goal only under a successful combination of circumstances. Initially, Mikhail Iosifovich was distrustful of the new goalkeeper: the long, awkward, thin goalkeeper was very strange - sometimes very constrained, sometimes, on the contrary, relaxed and “loose.” His habit of going far out of the gate was also alarming, which sometimes led to discouraging mistakes. However, his incredible hard work and perseverance were captivating. The football aces who played for Dynamo loved to stay on the field after training and “knock” on the goal. Yashin - in the dirt and dust - was spinning like a squirrel in a wheel. It was the experienced forwards who were always the first to “give up”, and not the young goalkeeper.

Alexey Khomich, at Yakushin’s request, took the young goalkeeper under his wing. Alexey Petrovich generously shared the secrets of his craft with Lev, while marveling at his seriousness and thoroughness. Following the example of Khomich, the young goalkeeper kept a special notebook in which he noted the actions of goalkeepers and field players after the games he had seen, and also wrote down the most important things that he learned from his teammates and coaches. In the summer of 1950, both leading goalkeepers of the team “broke” one after another, and on July 2, in the seventy-fifth minute of the match with the capital’s Spartak, Lev Ivanovich entered the field of the local Dynamo stadium for the first time in his life. His team was leading 1:0 at this point, but due to an absurd mistake by Yashin, who collided with his own defender at the exit from the gate, the final score became 1:1. And four days later there was a complete embarrassment. In the away game against Dynamo Tbilisi, the capital's players started confidently (4:1), but then Yashin conceded three goals in a row in fifteen minutes, two of which were clearly his fault. Although Lev Ivanovich’s team managed to snatch victory (5:4), the young goalkeeper for a long time he was excommunicated from big-time football - he had to play for three years only for the reserve team.

The offensive three-year “exile” to the reserve team ultimately benefited Lev Ivanovich. The reserves had their own championship, and thus Yashin had no downtime. Constantly being in the game, he gradually gained confidence in his abilities. However, the most important thing is that it was here that Lev Ivanovich could calmly improve his unique goalkeeper style. However, this could not be called a style. It was a whole system of the game, which consisted in the fact that the goalkeeper not only defended the goal frame, but, in fact, was the organizer of the entire team game. Yashin set his goal not just to repel shots on goal, but also to interrupt enemy attacks in the bud. To do this, he often ran far into the field - outside the penalty area - and played with his feet and head. In fact, Lev Ivanovich acted as another defender, cleaning up the tactical mistakes of his partners. Having taken possession of the ball, the goalkeeper immediately tried to organize a counterattack. For greater accuracy, he, as a rule, sent the ball to the attackers not with his foot, as was customary in those years, but with his hand. And finally, Yashin told the defensive players which specific areas needed to be covered. All this led to the fact that the enemy was not allowed to shoot on goal or was forced to do so from disadvantageous positions. The partners, who quickly realized the usefulness of the goalkeeper’s advice, immensely trusted Yashin’s “eccentricities”.

Meanwhile, Arkady Chernyshev did not forget about his pupil. In the thirties and forties, almost all Soviet football players skated in winter and played bandy - its rules were reminiscent of football and such a transition was not difficult for the players. Lev Ivanovich showed the makings of an extraordinary forward on the ice. In the early fifties, Canadian hockey was already being fully cultivated in the USSR, and Chernyshev was among the first to take up its development. In the fall of 1950, a couple of months after Yashin’s unsuccessful debut in the main lineup, Arkady Ivanovich invited him to try his hand at ice hockey as a striker. However, Yashin himself, despite his impressive height, wanted to take the gate. Only in March 1953 did he have the opportunity to play in the USSR Cup as a backup to the Estonian Karl Liiv. He performed quite well and greatly helped his team win an honorary prize. It is curious that Lev received the title of Master of Sports first as a hockey player, and only then as a football player. Considering the sympathy of Chernyshev, who was the senior coach of the USSR national hockey team, he had excellent prospects in 1954 to be part of the main hockey team and go to Sweden for the World Championship, where, it must be said, our team took gold medals for the first time. However, Yashin liked football much more, and, having received a place in the starting lineup of Dynamo in 1953, Lev Ivanovich left hockey forever.

On May 2, 1953, twenty-four-year-old Yashin again appeared on the field of the Dynamo stadium in a match with the capital's Lokomotiv. From the very first minutes, “Crane” (as the fans called him in those years) played so reliably that since then his place in the team has not been in doubt. And on September 8, 1954, Yashin played his first match for the national team. Soviet football players defeated the Swedes with a score of 7:0. The triumphant return of Lev Ivanovich to big football coincided in time both with the “golden age” of the capital’s “Dynamo” and with the outstanding achievements of the Soviet Union national team, which was among the first teams in the world. Yashin played a huge role in the success of our players. In the first decade of the legendary goalkeeper's performance for Dynamo, the club became champion five times and took second place three times. The defense headed by him was considered the most reliable in the country and successfully resisted the strongest Torpedo and Spartak forwards in the USSR. Yashin himself, who had perfectly studied their style of playing, acted on them like a boa constrictor on rabbits. Defending players performed their duties somewhat worse in international matches - the “habits” of foreign attackers were less familiar to them, which means that Lev Ivanovich more often had to enter the game, demonstrating his skills.

In the fifties, Moscow's Spartak and Dynamo, as well as the Soviet Union national team, began to increasingly go abroad for friendly games with the strongest foreign teams. Yashin was noticed in Europe already in 1954, when Dynamo defeated the famous Milan with a score of 4:1. The results of the games of the USSR national team were just as successful in general - it is enough to note two victories over the German national team, which were world champions (in 1955 in Moscow - 3:2 and in 1956 in Hannover - 2:1). Victories in these matches, as well as the triumph of the Soviet team in the fall of 1956 in Melbourne at the Olympic tournament, were largely determined by the goalkeeper’s play. It was the goalkeeper, who “pulled” literally everything, that ensured victory (1:0) in the most difficult final match with the Yugoslavs, who held the initiative for the main part of the match.

The victory at the Olympic tournament elevated the players of the national team to the rank of national heroes. Eleven participants in the final match, including Lev Ivanovich, were awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports. But the strongest did not participate in this Olympics football teams planets that were considered - unlike players from socialist countries - to be professionals. The Soviet team had to prove its strength at the 1958 World Cup. Preparation for it was difficult. Fame turned the heads of a number of young players, and the team did not play very successfully in the qualifying matches - a replay with the Poles was necessary. The Soviet players eventually defeated the Polish national team (2:0), but thunder struck right before leaving for Sweden. Three football players from the main squad, who had spent a stormy evening with girls the day before, were arrested. The incident also had a serious impact on the morale of the team.

Our players had to fight with the national teams of Brazil, Austria and England to qualify from the group. And already the first match with the British, which went well at first (score 2:0 after the first half), went sideways - with the score 2:1, the Hungarian referee awarded a penalty to our goal for a violation that occurred outside the penalty area. The Soviet players tried to protest the decision, but the judge told them: “Unfair? And in 1956, did you act honestly?” So the entry of Soviet troops into Hungary had an impact on the football arena... The USSR national team played a draw with the British (2:2), and then our athletes beat the Austrians (2:0) and lost to the Brazilians (0:2), the future world champions. A day after the third match, there was a repeat meeting with the England team for reaching the quarterfinals. Exhausted players from both teams fought to the last, and our players turned out to be stronger (score 1:0). However, resist - again every other day! - they failed to beat the rested Swedish team three times over - 0:2. They had nothing to reproach themselves with; Yashin, for example, lost seven kilograms at that competition, and the Western press spoke admiringly of him as the best goalkeeper in the world.

By today's standards, the team's performance could be considered successful - a place in the top eight and losing only to the vice-champions and world champions. However, in those years only the most maximalist tasks were set. Both the players and coaches of the team were criticized, and only Yashin was not touched. In July 1960, the USSR national team, which had significantly rejuvenated its composition, took part in the first European Championship. A number of leading football federations (England, Germany, Italy) refused to participate in the competition. The teams of the USSR, France, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia reached the final stage of the championship. Having confidently beaten the Czechoslovaks (3:0), our team met with the skilled Yugoslavs. In the first half, the enemy had the advantage, but Yashin was reliable. Gradually, the Yugoslavs, who had fought the French the day before, got hooked, and the game leveled out. And in the 113th minute, Victor Ponedelnik scored the winning goal (2:1).

Yashin’s phenomenal play amazed not only his opponents, but also those who happened to play with him on the same team. Striker Valentin Bubukin spoke about this: “We all - Ivanov, Meskhi, Streltsov, me - played, and Lev lived by football.” In practice, in Bubukin’s opinion, it happened like this: “In 1960, our team beat the Poles 7:1. The goalkeeper only rushed for the ball a couple of times. But here’s what he did, in his own words, during the game: “He knocked Kesareva out of the gate, but did not switch out of the episode, but mentally worked as a right defender. He shouted: go for Ivanov, then he passed the ball to Pondelnik for Vanka and shot at the goal with him. Then he worked on defense and provided insurance for his partners. The opposing striker got into a good position and hit powerfully, I took the ball with almost no movement.” The press then wrote: “Yashin, having read the combination, was in the right place!” However, he didn’t read the combination, he PARTICIPATED in it!”

French journalists called the Russian goalkeeper a “playing coach.” In 1961, the leading football magazine in Argentina described the game of Lev Ivanovich in the following way: “Yashin showed us what a goalkeeper should be like in football. With his instructions, with his commanding voice, with his exits and passes to the edge of the field, he is the basis of the Russian defense, effectively eliminating the best combinations. He really deserves to be called the best goalkeeper in the world, since he became the author of a certain system of football play.”

Winning the European Cup raised the hopes of our fans for successful performance teams at the next World Championships, held in Chile in May 1962. However, they were disappointed - the USSR national team, having started very cheerfully (victory over the Yugoslavs 2:0), looked more and more tired from game to game. Having beaten the Colombians and Uruguayans with great difficulty, the Soviet football players reached the quarterfinals. At the beginning of the match with the hosts of the championship, Lev Ivanovich received a concussion - one of the Chilean forwards dealt him a strong blow to the head. Substitutions were not allowed at that time, and the goalkeeper was forced to play until the end of the entire match. It is not surprising that he did not save the team in the eleventh and twenty-seventh minutes. There was still an hour of playing time left, but the Soviet football players were still unable to score.

At home, the performance of the national football team was perceived as a disgrace. This time Yashin became the scapegoat. It should be noted here that deeply disappointed football fans could only judge what happened based on articles by TASS correspondents and radio reports by Nikolai Ozerov. And from them it just followed that the goalkeeper was to blame for the early departure of the Soviet football players, first of all, for not hitting two long-range and seemingly simple shots - “for Yashin to miss such goals is unforgivable.” It seemed that in the current situation the thirty-two-year-old goalkeeper should retire. Fortunately, Dynamo head coach Ponomarev was sympathetic to the experiences of Lev Ivanovich, who did not even try to defend himself from unfair accusations. Often, instead of training, the mentor sent Yashin on a fishing trip so that he could put his feelings in order.

It took a long time for the goalkeeper to restore his mental balance. For the first time he stood in the frame in Tashkent on July 22 in the Dynamo game with the local Pakhtakor. By autumn Yashin had gained his sports uniform, having conceded only four goals in the last eleven matches of the USSR championship. And in the 1963 USSR Championship, Lev Ivanovich completely set an impenetrable record, keeping a clean sheet in 22 out of 27 games and conceding only six goals. At the end of the year, he received an invitation to play in a friendly game for the world team against the England team. The match dedicated to the 100th anniversary of English football took place on October 23, 1963. The Soviet leadership, generally favoring Lev Ivanovich, took an unprecedented step - a live television broadcast of the game. The famous goalkeeper defended the goal of the world team throughout the first half, and defended himself in such a way that his performance became the main event of the match. The enemy made many dangerous shots on goal, but was unable to break through Yashin. In the second half, he was replaced by Yugoslav Milutin Soskic, to whom the English scored two goals. 25-year-old English goalkeeper Gordon Banks, still considered the No. 1 goalkeeper in the history of British football, subsequently wrote: “One half spent on the field with him was enough for me to understand that we have a genius in front of us. ...I am sure that if Yashin had remained in goal, we would not have won. I also remember that the audience at the stadium reacted to Lev more emotionally than to our players. When he left the field, he was given a real ovation.” After playing in the world team, Yashin’s international authority rose to stratospheric heights. A vote conducted by the French publication France Football recognized Lev Ivanovich as the best football player in Europe in 1963. Yashin became the first goalkeeper to be awarded the Golden Ball.

It should be noted that all football life Lev Ivanovich, not sparing himself, trained hard. For the most part, he “rattled his bones” on training fields that had no grass, stone in the summer, muddy and wet in the fall and spring. During one training session, Yashin received over 200 blows to the chest with a ball. His stomach was obviously completely broken. But this one iron Man Not only did he not wince in pain, but he demanded that his goal be hit both from close range and point-blank. Only once in her life did his wife Valentina Timofeevna attend her husband’s training session and run home in tears - she couldn’t bear to see such “torture”. Famous hockey player Vladimir Yurzinov recalled how in the fall of 1970 he had the opportunity to watch a two-hour training session of Dynamo football players. Lev Ivanovich was in the game all the time. Then the players went home, and only the 41-year-old goalkeeper and several guys from the reserve team remained on the field, who agreed to “knock” on the goal at his request. When the tired youth left the field, Yashin, noticing the hockey players, persuaded the “real men” to kick him. Vladimir Vladimirovich said: “And we beat. Until sweat, until frenzy, until darkness. That's when you needed a camera, a crowd of reporters, flashes of blitzes. That’s when people would see the real Yashin - a great man and athlete.”

In 1964, the USSR national team competed in the second European Cup held in Spain. Having easily “dealt” with the Danes in the semi-finals (3:0), she met with the hosts of the tournament. The game had a clear political connotation - four years earlier, Franco had banned his athletes from playing with the Soviet Union national team. Despite the confident play of our players, they lost the match (2:1). Fortunately, they did not blame the goalkeeper for the defeat. After this, the USSR national team was headed by Nikolai Morozov, who set a course for updating the composition. Throughout 1965, the goal was alternately defended by young Yuri Pshenichnikov, Anzor Kavazashvili and Viktor Bannikov, and Yashin returned to the national team only in the fall for the start of the qualifying matches. At the end of the year, the Soviet team went on a tour of Latin America, where they played with the strongest teams of the New World. Lev Ivanovich also took part in this trip, defending the goal during the games with the teams of Brazil (2:2) and Argentina (1:1). The veteran’s performance convinced the coach of his indispensability: “We have two Yashins in our frame! Himself and his last name." Even the two-time world champions, led by Pele himself, felt obvious reverence for the Soviet goalkeeper, and seemed to timidly attack his goal.

In July 1966, the 36-year-old goalkeeper went to the World Cup in England, where he again became one of the main heroes. However, this time he did not play in all, but only the most important meetings. Having taken first place in the preliminary tournament, the USSR national team defeated the Hungarians in the quarterfinals, and for the first time in history reached the semifinals of the world championship. The game with the West German team was extremely difficult - our midfielder Jozsef Szabo was injured at the beginning of the match, and the best Soviet striker Igor Chislenko was sent off in the middle of the game. A series of unforced mistakes on the part of the defenders ruined Yashin’s brilliant play - the Soviet team lost with a score of 1:2. One of the local newspapers called the Soviet goalkeeper the “tragic hero” of the match.

Returning to his homeland, Lev Ivanovich continued to play for his native Dynamo and for various teams: his country, Europe and the world. In his long career as a goalkeeper, Lev Ivanovich has seen many coaches. Relations with them were built, as a rule, on mutual respect. The mentors, understanding Yashin’s special role in the team, usually turned a blind eye to his smoking habit. Another privilege of the famous goalkeeper was the right to leave hotels and training bases and go fishing - he even took with him on trips abroad fishing gear and upon arrival, the first thing he did was ask the locals where the nearest body of water was located. In his own words, watching the float calmed his nerves and helped him tune in to the game.

IN last time Yashin played for the Soviet national team on July 16, 1967 in a match with the Greek national team. At the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, he was in the lineup as the third goalkeeper, but never entered the field. When the head coach invited him to go to the game with the El Salvador football players in order to “check in” at the championship, Lev Ivanovich flatly refused, not wanting to deprive the main goalkeeper Anzor Kavazashvili of confidence. And May 27, 1971 passed farewell match Yashin, in which the world team played against the Dynamo team. Lev Ivanovich played fifty minutes and did not miss a single goal, then giving way to Vladimir Pilguy, to whom the world football stars scored twice. The match ended with the score 2:2.

Having completed football career at an unimaginably late age (at 41), Yashin headed his native team, and in 1975 he became deputy head of the hockey and football department of the Dynamo Central Council. A year later, Lev Ivanovich left for a similar job at the Sports Committee. Very often people turned to him for a variety of help - both familiar people associated with sports, and those whom Yashin had not seen before. And he helped - he went to the authorities, called, made calls. A great many letters came to him, and he at least looked through all of them. Sometimes this led to incidents: once, in response to a warm letter, a fan from Uzbekistan came to Moscow, bringing with him his wife and seven children. He showed up at Lev Ivanovich’s apartment, turning it into a hostel for a whole week. All this time, Yashin fed the guests at his own expense and showed them Moscow.

Outwardly fate former football player looked quite well, but this was only externally - the famous goalkeeper felt like a “black sheep” in the world of officials and could not do anything about it. Accustomed to telling his partners whatever he considered necessary, he had difficulty reconciling himself with the need to hide his thoughts or express himself in rounded terms. “Colleagues” also did not like him. During public events, finding themselves next to Yashin, the country's largest officials inevitably learned their true worth - it was the legendary goalkeeper that the attention of the audience was always drawn to. In 1982, Yashin - despite the personal invitation of the organizers - was not included in the Soviet delegation going to the World Championships in Spain. The bewilderment expressed about this by the international football community led to the fact that sports officials nevertheless took Yashin with them as... a translator. It must be said that the proud football player did not agree with the humiliating status for a long time, but in the end he realized that his “colleagues” were not describing him, but themselves. Of course, in Spain everything fell into place - football world perceived him precisely as Yashin and nothing else.

With age, the great goalkeeper’s numerous illnesses began to remind themselves more and more. Some of them arose long ago, for example, stomach ulcers, others appeared after the body stopped receiving the usual physical exercise. Years of smoking played a fatal role. Yashin suffered a stroke, followed by a couple of heart attacks, gangrene, which led to the amputation of his legs, cancer... On March 20, 1990, he died.

Everyone who knew Lev Ivanovich recognized that he was an extraordinary person. And this had nothing to do with his rare football talent. Even more contemporaries were amazed by Yashin’s human talent. The former mechanic, who only graduated from the school for working youth, knew how to behave with dignity both among working people and next to football and non-football celebrities. Yashin enjoyed unquestioning authority among both partners and rivals. “Shouting” at defenders during matches, outside the game he never tried to command anyone and did not try to stand out. He endured grievances patiently, never trying to evade responsibility, even if in fact he was at least a little to blame. Relatives, trying to protect the goalkeeper from “self-criticism,” told him: “Why are you tormenting yourself, the team won, after all?” However, Yashin responded to this: “The field players won, but I lost.” Another characteristic episode - the boys who served balls during matches said that Yashin - the famous Yashin - told them “thank you” for every ball served and never cursed if they unwittingly made a mistake.

All football stars without exception considered it an honor to get to know, and even more so to make friends with, Lev Ivanovich. Yashin developed a purely human sympathy with many outstanding athletes, for example, among his close friends were football players Franz Beckenbauer, Uwe Seeler, Ferenc Puskás, Karl-Heinz Schnellinger, Bobby Charlton, Eusebio, Gyula Grosic and Pele himself. The great Brazilian athlete always looked at Yashin with reverence and, when coming to Moscow, he was sure to visit him.

From early childhood, he learned the game in his native yard and was known as a good striker.

During the Great Patriotic War, in the fall of 1941, the Yashin family was evacuated, along with the plant where their father worked, to Ulyanovsk. In the fall of 1943, after graduating from fifth grade, Lev Yashin began working at this plant as a mechanic's apprentice. At the beginning of 1944, the Yashins returned to Moscow. Lev Yashin continued to work at the Red October plant, located in Tushino, Moscow region (now a district of Moscow).

In 1954-1967 he played for the USSR national football team, where he played 74 official matches and six unofficial ones.

Together with the USSR national team in 1956, Yashin won the Olympic Games in Melbourne and the European Cup in 1960. Silver medalist of the 1964 European Cup. He played twice for the world team (with England in 1963 and Brazil in 1968) and three times for the UEFA team (with the national teams of Scandinavia and Yugoslavia in 1964, with the British national team in 1965).

In 1963, he was the first and only goalkeeper to be recognized as the best football player in Europe and awarded the Golden Ball.

In 1960-1970, Lev Yashin was constantly among the top ten best athletes of the USSR (in 1963 he was named second on this list). In 1960, 1963 and 1966 he was recognized as the best goalkeeper in the country and was awarded the Ogonyok magazine prize.

Yashin ended his football career in 1971. On May 27, 1971, in Moscow, at Luzhniki, his farewell match was held, in which the Dynamo team met with a team of world football stars.

On August 31 of the same year, another farewell match took place in Milan (Italy), organized by the Italian Football Federation, in which a team of veterans Italian football met with a team of world football veterans.

In 1967, Yashin graduated from the coaching school at the State Central Institute physical culture(GCOLIFKe).

From 1971 to April 1975 he was the head of the Dynamo football team.

From May 1975 to October 1976 he worked as deputy head of the football and hockey department of the Dynamo Central Council.

In 1976-1984 - Deputy for Educational Work of the Head of the Football Directorate of the USSR Sports Committee.

From 1985 to 1990 he was the senior trainer for educational work of the Dynamo Central Council.

In 1981-1989 - Deputy Chairman of the USSR Football Federation.

He played bandy in the Moscow veterans team.

In 1985 for services to development Olympic movement The football player was awarded the highest award of the International Olympic Committee - the Olympic Order. In 1988 he was awarded the FIFA Golden Order "For Services to Football".

Lev Yashin - Hero of Socialist Labor (1990), Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1957). Awarded the Order of Lenin (1967, 1990), the Red Banner of Labor (1957, 1971), and the medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945."

Lev Yashin has been married since 1954. The Yashin couple raised two daughters - Irina and Elena. Yashin's grandson Vasily Frolov was also football goalkeeper. In 2009, he retired.

In November 1990, the L. Yashin Foundation was created in Moscow, with its goal of helping football veterans and developing football infrastructure in Moscow and the region.

In 1994, FIFA established the Lev Yashin Prize, which is awarded best player every world championship. In 1997, a monument to Yashin was erected in the Moscow Luzhniki sports complex, and in 1999 - on the territory of the Moscow Dynamo stadium.

Name famous goalkeeper since 1990 wears football school"Dynamo". In 1996, one of the streets in the city of Togliatti was named after Yashin.

Since 1981, a traditional tournament for the Yashin Prize has been held in Helsinki (Finland). amateur teams. Since 2010, it has been held in Russia international tournament "VTB Cup Lev Yashin.

On January 5, 2000, according to a survey conducted by the International Federation of History and Statistics among leading coaches and journalists in world football, the Dynamo goalkeeper was named the best goalkeeper in the world of the twentieth century.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources

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 twentieth century according to the 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 domestic, but of world football. He still owns it to this day. 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, 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 life greatest goalkeeper 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 up in a cemetery ahead of schedule, often going through all the suffering 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...

Maybe I’m wrong, but, in my opinion, his name is known to everyone who knows that there is such a game - football. And there’s no need to talk about those who were lucky enough to see him play, the experienced fans.

He was GREAT! And not only the Soviet press spoke and wrote about his greatness; his phenomenon was recognized throughout the world. He was admired by journalists, fans and players against whom Lev Yashin played.

It was no coincidence that I placed a photo of Yashin together with Pele at the beginning of the post. Agree, such an assessment of the king of football is expensive.

He is the best in the world, at least in his role

Well, since I started with assessments of the greats of the football world, I will continue.

Eusebio is another ball wizard from Portugal:
“Lev Yashin is an incomparable goalkeeper, the best in our century”
Sir Bobby Charlton - Manchester United captain best footballer Europe 1966:
“Yashin is an outstanding goalkeeper. I am sure that there will be no such thing. He's also a great guy."
Franz Beckenbauer - twice recognized as the best football player in Europe:
“This is not just a goalkeeper from God - this is one of the greatest football players”

It’s still impossible to tell everything about this person. But, I will try to tell you about the main thing as interesting as possible. From the article you will learn:

What Yashin did for Soviet and world football...
About his unique tricks in training...
About how the country persecuted someone whom it idolized only yesterday... and about the fact that the rest of the football world did not betray him
About how, after the 1966 World Cup in England, they couldn’t take a doping test from Lev Ivanovich...
Why did Gabriel Dmitrievich Kachalin call Lev Ivanovich a scoundrel...
About how Santiago Bernabeu invited Yashin to Real Madrid
And finally, about what kind of bastards and freaks there are among the fans...

So, read to the end

Golden Lev Yashin

The only winner in the world of the France Football weekly prize is the Golden Ball.
He played for the USSR national team until he was 38 years old and played 78 games (14 seasons in a row)
Played 326 matches (22 seasons) at Dynamo Moscow
In total, according to statistics from the public press center of Dynamo Moscow, Lev Ivanovich has accumulated 812 games.
Record holder among all Soviet football players in the number of medals:
Gold – (1954,1955,1957,1959,1963),
Silver – 1956,1958,1962,1967,1970),
Bronze – 1960
The best goalkeeper in the country in 1956-1968.
Olympic champion of the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne.
European Champion 1960 in Paris
Participated in the finals of the World Cup three times (1958,1962,1966).
He played his farewell match 813 on May 27, 1971.

Many people call Yashin a revolutionary in football. In any case, no one did what is now considered the norm before Lev Ivanovich:

He was the first goalkeeper to start putting the ball into play with his hand. Moreover, he could throw the ball almost to the middle of the field. Well, there’s nothing to say about the fact that this method is much more accurate than entering from your feet.
First out of the penalty area
Knowing how to read the game perfectly, he was the first to direct the defenders during its course

There were legends about Lev Ivanovich's jumping ability and flexibility. Actually, thanks to her, Leo received the nickname Panther...

That's right - a panther. The lion, indeed, could make incredible jumps.

A very interesting incident occurred at the World Cup in Sweden 1958 during a game with Austria. I don’t know why Yashin needed this show off, but what happened was…

Ours were leading 2:0 and a penalty was awarded... Yashin defiantly stands near the left post... The Austrian shoots exactly into the lower right corner... Yashin takes it.

Well what can I say? Head coach national team Gabriel Kachalin spoke about this as follows:

“Well, I’ll tell you, you, Leo, are a scoundrel. A scoundrel, not a guy. Well, you have to be such a scoundrel!”

Biography of Lev Yashin. Main dates.

Lev Ivanovich Yashin was born on October 22, 1929 in Moscow. The family lived in small apartment on Millionnaya Street, next to the Krasny Bogatyr plant, where Lev’s parents worked.
Like all the boys of that time, Leva disappeared on the street day and night. In the summer they kicked the ball, in the winter they played hockey. I hardly thought about goalkeeping, although in 1936 the film “Goalkeeper” was released and its main character Anton Kandidov became the idol of many boys.

1946 - Lev Yashin was awarded the medal “For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War”
Autumn 1947 - Conscripted into the Soviet army (internal troops)
June 1949 – Invited to Dynamo youth team
1950 – Transferred to main team. But, after the first 3 unsuccessful matches, he was sent back. That same year I tried my hand at ice hockey for the first time.
1951-1953 - Combined football and hockey. Moreover, he showed excellent results in hockey. Also in the goalkeeper position.
In 1953, Yashin, together with Dynamo, won the USSR Cup and bronze in the national championship. Moreover, his name was among the candidates for the main USSR national team for the 1954 World Cup. And yet, Yashin chose football.
1954 - USSR champion with Dynamo and debut in the USSR national football team.
1955 – Again gold at the Union Championship and awarding the title “Master of Sports”.
1956 – Silver in the home championship and gold at the XVI Olympic Games in Melbourne.
1957 - And again Dynamo is the champion. Yashin was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and he was awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports.
1960 – USSR national team – European champion. Lev Yashin was awarded the Order of Lenin. Ogonyok magazine declares him the best goalkeeper of the USSR.
In 1962 - the “Black” year in the life of Lev Ivanovich. At the World Championships in Chile, Yashin concedes 7 goals in 4 games and Soviet journalists blame him for the defeat from the hosts in the quarterfinals. After the championship, Yashin falls into disgrace with the officials and (worst of all, with the fans). But, more on that later...
1963 – Fifth gold at the USSR Championship. Lev Yashin was included in the world team for a friendly match between the England team and the world team, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of English football. And in December 1963, Lev Ivanovich was recognized as the best football player in Europe. In the entire history of football, this is the only time when a goalkeeper received the Golden Ball.
1964 – Silver at the European Championship in Spain.
1966 Fourth place at the World Championships in England. Yashin was awarded the title “Master of Sports of International Class”
1971 – Farewell match
1985 - The IOC awards Yashin with the Olympic Order.
1988 - FIFA Golden Order of Merit award.
1990 - A few days before his death, Lev Ivanovich Yashin is awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
Lev Ivanovich Yashin died on March 20, 1990. Buried Great person at the Vagankovskoe cemetery.

These are the dry numbers and dates. But how much health, strength and courage lies behind them!

Lev Ivanovich Yashin: “Thank you, people!”

He will have a nice rest today!

These are lines from a song by Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky, dedicated to Lev Yashin. And they refer to the poor fellow photojournalist, who is unsuccessfully waiting for the moment when Lev Ivanovich misses a goal. This is the song. Listen

Yes, it was difficult for Yashin to score.

More than 150 penalties taken. This number says a lot.

Some world football stars complained that the goal was not visible behind it. 🙂

Thank you from all the Russian people

Lev Ivanovich became a national favorite after the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne. Then our team became Olympic champion. I have already written that I have my own attitude towards that triumph, but the fact that it was thanks to Yashin’s reliable play that the USSR national team won gold is indisputable.

How the people applauded. Listen to a very touching story.

While returning home from Vladivostok to Moscow, I got on the train old man, found Yashin... And then, taking moonshine and a bag of seeds out of the bag, he fell to his knees and said:

“That's all there is. Thank you from all the Russian people"

Enter the contract amount yourself. How Bernabeu called Yashin to Real Madrid

And then there was 1960. And our team’s victory at the European Championships in France. The victory was soaked in the Eiffel Tower restaurant.

And Santiago Bernabeu himself gave each player a cool watch, and then gave everyone an envelope containing a contract with Real Madrid. But only Lev Yashin was asked to enter the contract amount himself.

And again, stormy manifestations of popular and bureaucratic love. Order of Lenin and recognition of Lev Ivanovich Yashin as the best goalkeeper of the USSR.

“Leva, great!”, “Leva, good fellow.” They hugged, kissed... We met and escorted home. The suitcase was carried instead of him. But, as they say, from love to hate...

Yashin is a hole.

1962 The final part of the World Championship in Chile. In the quarterfinals, our players lose to the hosts 1:2 and go home.

The Soviet press blames Yashin for the loss. Lev Ivanovich is subjected to such persecution that it is not clear how he found the strength to stay.

Everyone, officials and fans, hounded him. And the worst thing is that people did this without even seeing the game! And it never occurred to anyone that the score was only 1:2, not because of, but thanks to Yashin. But, since Pravda wrote that Yashin is to blame and it’s time for him to retire, that means away with him!

From the main Dynamo squad, Yashin was removed from the reserve team... He was booed, windows were broken, offensive messages were written in the entrances, and his car was smashed.

Thank you, World, thank you, Europe, for returning Yashin.

I appreciated the game of our goalkeeper completely differently foreign press. And not only the press.

On October 23, the “Match of the Century” took place. In honor of the 100th anniversary of English football, the England team hosted the world team at Wembley. And one of the goalkeepers who defended the goal of the star team was Lev Ivanovich Yashin. And it was truly a royal gift for his birthday!

Lev Ivanovich defended the entire first half and did not miss a single goal. If you want, you can watch the “Match of the Century” and Yashin’s game online right here. Here she is.

None of our goalkeepers has ever received such recognition of a footballer’s skill.

Just as he was not awarded the Golden Ball prize as the best football player in Europe, which Lev Ivanovich was awarded in the same 1963.

So it turns out that where they betrayed their own, they supported those with whom they came out as the last and decisive...

Farewell match of Lev Yashin

It took place on May 27, 1971. Then, in Luzhniki, in the presence of 103,000 spectators, the world team and the team of Dynamo players from Moscow, Kyiv, Tbilisi and Minsk met. The level of the World Team was very high. Unfortunately, Pele could not come, but even without him there were enough stars.

It was a grandiose and very sad spectacle. An era was passing.

Yashin defended one half, and in the second, at the 52nd minute, he threw up his hands, waved to the spectators and players and went to the locker room.

After the match, when he walked up to the microphone, the GREAT Yashin said only two words

Thanks, people!

Friends, you can find out how the future life of the best goalkeeper in the world of the 20th century developed and what he had to go through by watching this film about Lev Ivanovich. It’s just that writing about this is very painful.

Briefly about interesting things

Great trick
During training, Yashin performed an amazing trick. While jumping, he grabbed the ball tightly, immediately jumped up and threw it to another, thrown into the opposite corner. And, the most interesting thing, I almost always got it.
How Yashin passed the doping test
After last match The USSR national team at the 1966 World Championships in England selectively tested two players for doping. One of the two was Yashin. But they couldn’t take a sample from him. The point is that you had to urinate into the flask in the presence of the commission. And Yashin was shy. They did everything they could... they gave me beer, dry wine, and nothing else. In general, they released him in peace.
208 of 813
Out of 813 matches (including the farewell match), Yashin had 208 clean sheets.
“Everything is fine, only my legs are crooked”
So one day, without thinking, my wife answered Lev Yashin’s question about how he looked in goal. And she shouldn’t have said that. 🙂 Literally during the next game, Valentina Timofeevna noticed that Lev didn’t just stand there for a second. He kept shifting from foot to foot... This is so that the curvature is not noticeable :)

That's it, I'll finish. But before I finish...