Alexander Shcherbakov: You can't play blindly! Alexander Shcherbakov: “I went to Kyiv with great reluctance

OUR DOSSIER

He played for the Gorky Volga from 1966 to 1979. (with a break), scored 36 goals. He also played for Khimik (Dzerzhinsk), CSKA (Moscow). Played 3 games for the army team.

He was involved in the youth team of the USSR.

He coached the Volga (Gorky), Lokomotiv (Gorky), Znamya (Arzamas) teams. He was a coach-consultant of FC Nizhny Novgorod. For seven years he has been coaching a team of amputees at the Nizhny Novgorod Severny stadium. He is a coach-consultant of FC Volga-Olympiets.

Honored Worker physical culture Russia.

Everyone is well aware of the Nizhny Novgorod footballer in the past, and now the coach Alexander Nikolaevich SCHERBAKOV. Last autumn, Alexander Nikolayevich celebrated his 65th birthday, and now he is a mentor for a team of amputee invalids, advising the club of the third Russian division - FC Volga-Olympic. Our unhurried conversation with Alexander Nikolaevich began about life and, of course, about football.

AND IN THE CORRIDOR - A LINE OF JOURNALISTS

- Alexander Nikolaevich, tell me, how many years have you been in football?

It's scary to even think (smiles). FROM I have been doing my favorite sport for seven years. So fifty-eight. To be honest, I don't feel my age. Time flies by so fast. Such is the long and short life.

- Where did you start playing football?

I lived in Kanavina. On the site where the Nizhny Novgorod circus is now located, there was a football field. So we came there and chased the ball from morning to evening. Then came the Zvezdochka team, which was created by the famous referee Semyon Naumovich Shapiro. We traveled with her to Moscow, Kyiv, and other cities.

Then I moved from Kanavina to Sormovo, began to play at the Trud stadium. From there, from the training group, he actually got into the team of masters. I was invited to the Volga by her then mentor Semyon Mikhailovich Gurvits. He came to watch the match of the backup team, I scored two goals in it, and I was almost football field taken for collection. And at the age of 16, I got into the same team with such giants as Boris Batanov, Valentin Filyakin, Valery Kalugin, Yuri Golov. Not a composition - a song. And they let me go to the “base”, and I put three balls out of five Kalinin “Volga”. Next game with the leader - Kyiv SKA, we win 1:0, and I score again. Here's a debut in the "Volga" I got (smiles). After the game, even a line in the corridor of journalists lined up behind me.

The next season became top scorer team, having received an invitation to the youth team of the country. I remember playing at the opening of the Sochi stadium with the Czechs. After the pass of Levan Nodia, I score a goal from the summer - into the near "nine", and the mentor of that team Evgeny Ivanovich Lyadin says to me: "This is your pass to Turkey, to the European Championship final."

But, as they say, it was not there. In the last control meeting before leaving for Turkey, we play with CSKA, and one of the army men jumps with his knee in my thigh. Within ten minutes my leg was so swollen that I could not walk. So upset - words can not convey. After all, we became champions then, and Vitya Kuznetsov from Kiev scored a goal in the decisive match. Then he told me the words of Lyadin that, they say, in a number of matches in Turkey, Shcherbakov was not enough.

"GLADIATOR FIGHTS" IN CSKA

And how did the army "business trip" take place?

Then Lobanovsky sent a coach to Gorky for me. They also wanted to see me in Chernomorets Odessa. But I had my "troubles" here. Volga mentor Veniamin Petrovich Krylov really wanted to see me as his ... son-in-law. I am in none. And he rearranged to put in the composition, strangled in every possible way. I had to leave. Moreover, a suitable option turned up - Dzerzhinsky "Chemist". In Dzerzhinsk, they gave me just a luxurious apartment. I was the leader of the team. No wonder it was from the city of chemists that I was invited to the army - to CSKA. The army club then had two equal compositions, and there were only five recruits: Vitya Papaev, Yura Smirnov from the Moscow Torpedo, Kairat Likhosherstnykh, Serezha Morozov from the Kyiv Dynamo and your obedient servant.

Kolya Kiselev was on the list of candidates, but he was sent to SKA Odessa, and Misha Senyurin was sent to Smolensk Iskra. In general, every day a new party appeared in the disposition of the army, and every day you had to prove yourself. Victory or death. real Gladiator fights. Grishin and Shesternev worked with us in doubles, and Agapov was then the head coach of CSKA.

At the end of the 1974 season, messengers from Gorky began to send me to CSKA. After all, Volga entered the tournament for the right to participate in the first league. I am preparing with the army team for a foreign trip to Austria, and then the head of the Volga, Evgeny Semenovich Dli, who worked together with Valery Fedorovich Kalugin, arrives.

At first I did not give my consent, because I was played for Fedotov's place. And now we are playing in Dnepropetrovsk, in the rain, I get up into the "wall", and the player of "Dnepr" Lyabik hits me right in the periosteum. As a result - inflammation, and Oleg Markovich Belakovsky treated me for more than a month. I am undergoing treatment, I didn’t go to Austria, and the Gorky team, through some generals, came to the leadership of CSKA. And my wife was already studying in Gorky at the sanitary faculty in Gorky, a daughter was born. Decided to go back. Although I was still called then to Shakhtar Donetsk.

And now CSKA is returning from Austria, equipped with everything from the needle, we are going to meet the guys from Likhosherstny. Vladimir Mikhailovich Agapov tells us: "Sit down for training." And I already have a ticket to Gorky in my hands. True, I was not announced for that final tournament. Like, for the Volga this season Shcherbakov was not played, but the gain from major league cannot be used. As if they didn't know it before?

I would like to return to CSKA, and the army team. legendary hockey player and coach Anatoly Tarasov took the lead: there were solid “pancakes” from the bars and throws through the thigh. Bubukin came before everyone else and “sleep” on “pancakes” in joking, and the football player Shagin finished playing - his heart could not stand it. As for Tarasov, that football season was also his last - the experiment failed.

At 31, he hung up his boots on a nail

- Well, where did the curve lead you to?

And I went home. In Dzerzhinsk, as I already said, they gave me a luxurious apartment according to the Czech project, so I began to play for Khimik. True, he only played a couple of seasons. Rostov guys came to the team. One of them became painfully zealous towards me, although in terms of play he was clearly inferior to me. And without thinking twice, I moved to Volga, especially since I spent all my youth in Gorky. He returned to his homeland, in general.

He graduated, however, early - at the age of 31, although he still had the strength to play. I came from the first training camp from the Crimea - they actually played there on ice - and I tore the back of my thigh. I can’t run at full strength, but they didn’t believe me. Still, I had to be treated for almost the entire first round. After the injury, they put me on the left back, and now we win in Kursk - 3:1, and I score the goal. Everyone congratulates me, and I answer the guys: “It was my last game for Volga. We return from a trip and immediately hang up my boots.”

And why, if not a secret?

Yes, what's the secret. Of course, he was offended that they pulled him out of CSKA at one time, but he didn’t have to play in the final tournament. And in that last season for me, they simply did not believe in my injury. So I ended up with big football. Then he played, however, for the region for Radiy and Lokomotiv.

we arrive at the "locomotive", A

WE ARE NOT ALLOWED TO PLAY

At the end of your playing career, as many football players do, did you enter the HST?

Yes, I studied with Vadim Nikonov, Volodya Kozlov, Zhenya Lovchev, Alexander Mirzoyan, Vitaly Shevchenko. I realized then that scientific activity is mine. When we graduated from the Higher School of Economics, Vyacheslav Koloskov then said: “You, Alexander Nikolayevich, either have to work in the big leagues or do science.”

- But you had to work in the second league...

Yes, I was offered to head Gorky's Volga, for which very difficult times have come. All additional payments were then removed from the guys, the leading players left. I had to recruit players from the region. You will not believe, but I had to look for literally every ruble for food. I didn’t sleep at night, I kept thinking how to rectify the situation. It is very hard to remember that time.

The result, of course, was not achieved. The second year has gone, and the changes are only for the worse. We arrive at the Lokomotiv stadium, and us. are not allowed to play. Allegedly, the Krasnoye Sormovo sports club did not pay the rent to the railway workers.

In the middle of the season, I took the team to the Gorky Sea, and I left for Moscow

Claim players. As a result, the Volga was settled in some house under construction, and a commission raided there. They began to look for the extreme. They called me to the chairman of the trade union committee. In general, I finished with the Volga. The following year, Naydenov came to Gorky. So, at the beginning of the season, he said that Shcherbakov should be shot, and a couple of months later he said that a monument should be erected to Shcherbakov, who worked in such conditions for two years.

THERE SHOULD NOT BE TWO HOSTS IN THE SAME KITCHEN

The next step in your coaching career was Lokomotiv Nizhny Novgorod.

I played for the regional championship, having graduated from the Higher School of Economics by that time. Omari Khasanovich Sharadze called me, we outlined a development program for Lokomotiv, and in the second year the team advanced to the second league.

Then Sharadze, through the Trade Unions, found a coach Evgeny Goryansky, who by that time was already a well-deserved coach in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. But Yevgeny Ivanovich stayed in Nizhny for just a couple of days - the salary did not seem to suit him. Again, I was left alone from the coaches at Lokomotiv. And in the yard - February, it's time to go to the training camp.

Then again the trade unions went to meet the railroad workers. We found out that Mirzoyan, with whom we studied together at the Higher School of Economics, had just left Kostroma, and “married” him to Loko. But, as they say, there should not be two housewives in the same kitchen. He began to recruit “Varyags” into the team, but I pulled up my guys from Nizhny Novgorod: Leontiev, Kosmachev, Khlyustov ...

We arrived in Ashgabat for a training camp, Zhenya Lovchev saw me and said: “And you are helping Mirzoyan, and not vice versa ?!”. And at the second training camp in Adler, we won with a big score against some Swedish team, but the guys were not given the due two hundred rubles for international match. This eventually became a bone of contention.

In the meantime, I began to work closely with the team, we went eleven rounds without defeat, but with various vile methods Mirzoyan survived me from Lokomotiv. Administrator Goryachev directly told me that they wanted to remove me. At the general meeting, I spoke about the Swedes, about two groups in the team and wrote a letter of resignation. Then Mirzoyan put his statement on the table. To this I said: "I will leave, and you will stay." Sharadze summed it up with these words: “This pot cannot be glued together.” He asked not to move me away from Lokomotiv, but I went to work for the sports committee, and then headed the Arzamas Znamya. But Mirzoyan also stayed in Gorky for a short time, failing the second half of the championship.

IN ARZAMAS MADE TO CRY Koreans

- What do you remember about the years spent in Arzamas?

The first season we played just great. They fought for the first places with a team from the Moldovan city of Bendery and the richest club at that time - the capital's Asmaral. But eight rounds before the finish, the judges began to "choke" us. In terms of play, our team was one of the strongest, but... We come to Moscow to play with Asmaral on the birthday of its owner Al-Khalidi. After the game, the banquet is already booked. Well, they give us a penalty, of course. We ended up taking third place.

By the way, that year we, the only one of our clubs, beat the North Korean team, which came on tour to the Nizhny Novgorod region. Igor Gorelov then scored a goal. We then arranged a banquet for them, and they cry: they did not like to lose so much.

Well, I had to leave Arzamas. My assistant Vladimir Dergach decided to work independently - in the local "Torpedo". We went on vacation, and they call me and say: they say, the whole team fled. But the ringleader in this matter was not Dergach, but the director of the Arzamas Machine-Building Plant, Vladimir Ivanovich Tyurin. In "Torpedo", which at first played for the region, he created crazy conditions, and "Znamya" eventually fell apart: it even got to the point that the players were taken away directly from the training camp.

TOLD GORSHKOV HOW TO BEAT THE VOLGA

After coaching, you moved to management, heading the Volga Region Football Federation.

Yes, we created this federation virtually from scratch. They wrote the charter, legally competently filling it out. And our organization quickly got on a professional footing. For example, in Turkey they ordered uniforms and sold them to teams much cheaper than in stores. It was with us that about twenty teams played in the regional league alone, and mandatory competitions of two ages for young men began to be held. In addition, the Volga region was created in the third league, and it was the best regional football association in the country. It was then that I was awarded the title of Honored Worker of Physical Culture.

But also about coaching career you didn't forget. In particular, there was another important stage in it, when you worked in the system of FC Nizhny Novgorod.

At first, Egorov, Seidenberg, Perevertailo, and myself were on our commanding staff. my main task was a search for strong and weaknesses opponent. I made "cuts", showed them to the players, and the guys did not play blindly. Then they came back and said thank you.

By the way, I suggested to the head coach Alexander Gorshkov how to beat Volga in the second play-off. There is a so-called "Kalitvintsev point" on the football field. He scored seven out of ten goals from her, being a player. It is much easier to deliver the ball to this “point” than to the penalty area. From here, something like Kalitvintsev beat Kudryashov. Moreover, Bendz and Grigalava are textured defenders, they mainly play on fouls. But the ball never reached Salugin, who would definitely have been shot down there - they didn’t hear me.

By the way, the next day Khimik played at Severny with Dynamo Kirov, won 1-0, and the Dzerzhinsky team scored the ball from the Kalitvintsev point. By the way, I spied this throw and free kick from the Bulgarian team when Stoichkov was shot down, he himself scored from the "standard", and the Germans ended up not going to the World Cup.

And I still often give advice to players. For example, the football player of the Lithuanian national team Mikutskis - so as not to let his opponent get close to him, he got rid of the ball early. Dima Polyanin, when he played in FC NN, said: “You do the transfer early from the connection, it will be more unexpected for the enemy. I still do not get tired of repeating: "You must not play blindly, but learn - from thought to action."

- It is impossible not to ask you a question about your work with amputee football players.

Igor Vyacheslavovich Egorov offered me to work with them. We became champions of Russia. Our guys began to be attracted to the national team. They were winners of the World and European Championships. It's just a pity that amputee footballers can't get into the Paralympic sports program. They have long deserved it, although it is very difficult to work with them, believe me.

- What is your relationship with Volga-Olympic?

In this club, I am a coach-consultant. I will try to teach the guys so that they do not play blindly: attack, defend. Teach the culture of the last pass. I remember how Omari Mikhailovich Tetradze instilled it in the Volga players. And I always demand this from the youth.

Everyone knows the Nizhny Novgorod football player in the past, and now the coach Alexander Nikolayevich Shcherbakov. Last fall, Alexander Nikolayevich celebrated his 65th birthday, and now he is a mentor for a team of amputee invalids, advising the club of the third Russian division - FC Volga-Olympic. Our unhurried conversation with Alexander Nikolaevich began about life and, of course, about football.

Our dossier

Shcherbakov Alexander Nikolaevich Born September 1, 1948. Midfielder
For the Gorky Volga, he played from 1966 to 1979. (with a break). Spent 238 matches, scored 36 goals. He also played for Khimik (Dzerzhinsk), CSKA (Moscow). Played 3 games for the army team.
He was involved in the youth team of the USSR.
He coached the Volga (Gorky), Lokomotiv (Gorky), Znamya (Arzamas) teams. He was a coach-consultant of FC Nizhny Novgorod. For seven years he has been coaching a team of amputees at the Nizhny Novgorod stadium "Northern". He is a coach-consultant of FC Volga-Olympian.
Honored Worker of Physical Culture of Russia.

And in the corridor - a line of journalists

- Alexander Nikolaevich, tell me, how many years have you been in football?

It's scary to even think (smiles). I have been doing my favorite sport since I was seven years old. So fifty-eight. To be honest, I don't feel my age. Time flies by so fast. Such is the long and short life.

- Where did you start playing football?

I lived in Kanavina. On the site where the Nizhny Novgorod circus is now located, there was a football field. So we came there and chased the ball from morning to evening. Then the Asterisk team appeared, which was created by the famous judge Semyon Naumovich Shapiro. We traveled with her to Moscow, Kyiv, and other cities.

Then I moved from Kanavina to Sormovo, began to play at the Trud stadium. From there, from the training group, he actually got into the team of masters. I was invited to Volga by her then mentor Semyon Mikhailovich Gurvits. He came to watch the match of the backup team, I scored two goals in it, and they almost took me from the football field to the training camp.

And at the age of 16, I got into the same team with such giants as Boris Ignatiev, Valentin Filyakin, Valery Kalugin, Yuri Golov. Not composition - song. And they let me go to the "base", and I put three balls out of five Kalinin "Volga". The next game with the leader - Kyiv SKA, we win 1:0 and I score again. Here is such a debut in the "Volga"I got it (smiles). After the game, even a line in the corridor of journalists lined up behind me.

That season, I became the team's top scorer, having received an invitation to the youth team of the country. I remember playing at the opening of the Sochi stadium with the Czechs. After the pass of Levan Nodia, I score a goal from the summer - into the near "nine", and the mentor of that team Evgeny Ivanovich Lyadin says to me: “ This is your pass to Turkey, to the final of the European Championship».

But, as they say, it was not there. In the last control match before leaving for Turkey, we play with CSKA, and one of the army men jumps with his knee in my thigh. Within ten minutes my leg was so swollen that I could not walk. So upset - words can not convey. After all, we became champions then, and Vitya Kuznetsov from Kiev scored a goal in the decisive match. Then he told me the words of Lyadin that, they say, in a number of matches in Turkey, Shcherbakov was not enough.

And now CSKA is returning from Austria, equipped with everything from the needle, we are going to meet the guys from Likhosherstny. Vladimir Mikhailovich Agapov tells us: Get on the fees". And I already have a ticket to Gorky in my hands. True, I was not announced for that final tournament. Like, for the Volga, Shcherbakov was not played this season, and reinforcement from the major leagues cannot be used. As if they didn't know it before?

I would like to return to CSKA here, and the army team ... the legendary hockey player and coach Anatoly Tarasov headed: there were solid “pancakes” from the bars and throws through the thigh. Bubukin came before everyone else and “sleep” on “pancakes” in joking, and the football player Shagin finished playing - his heart could not stand it. As for Tarasov, that football season was also his last - the experiment failed.

At 31, he hung up his boots on a nail

- Well, where did the curve lead you to?

And I went home. In Dzerzhinsk, as I already said, they allocated me a luxurious apartment according to the Czech project, so I began to play for Khimik again. True, he only played a couple of seasons. Rostov guys came to the team. One of them became painfully zealous towards me, although in terms of play he was clearly inferior to me. And without thinking twice, I moved to Volga, especially since I spent all my youth in Gorky. He returned to his homeland, in general.

After the injury, they put me on the left back, and now we win in Kursk - 3:1, and I score the goal. Everyone congratulates me, and I answered the guys: “It was my last game for Volga”. We return from a trip, and immediately hang up my boots on a nail.

- And why, if not a secret?

We arrived in Ashgabat for a training camp, Zhenya Lovchev saw me and said: “ And you are helping Mirzoyan, and not vice versa?!". And at the second training camp in Adler, we won with a big score against some Swedish team, but the guys were not given the due two hundred rubles for an international match. This eventually became a bone of contention.

In the meantime, I began to work closely with the team, we went eleven rounds without defeat, but with various vile methods Mirzoyan survived me from Lokomotiv. Administrator Goryachev directly told me that they wanted to remove me. At the general meeting, I spoke about the Swedes, about two groups in the team and wrote a letter of resignation. Then Mirzoyan put his statement on the table. To this I said: I will leave and you will stay". Sharadze summed it up with these words: This pot is not glued". He asked not to move me away from Lokomotiv, but I went to work for the sports committee, and then headed the Arzamas Banner. But Mirzoyan also stayed in Gorky for a short time, failing the second half of the championship.

Koreans were forced to cry in Arzamas

- What do you remember about the years spent in Arzamas?

The first season we played just great. They fought for the first places with a team from the Moldovan city of Bendery and the richest club at that time - the capital's Asmaral. But eight rounds before the finish, the judges began to "choke" us. According to the game, our team was one of the strongest, but ... We come to Moscow to play with Asmaral on the birthday of its owner Al-Khalidi. After the game, the banquet is already booked. Well, they give us a penalty, of course. We ended up taking third place.

Well, I had to leave Arzamas. My assistant Vladimir Dergach decided to work independently - in the local Torpedo. We went on vacation, and they call me and say: they say, the whole team fled. But the ringleader in this matter was not Dergach, but the director of the Arzamas Machine-Building Plant, Vladimir Ivanovich Tyurin. In " Torpedo", Playing at first for the region, he created crazy conditions, and " Banner"As a result, it fell apart: it even got to the point that the players were taken away directly from the training camp ...

Spoke to Gorshkov about Kalitvintsev's "point"

- After coaching, you moved to management, heading the Volga Region Football Federation.

Yes, we created this federation virtually from scratch. They wrote the charter, legally competently filling it out. And our organization quickly got on a professional footing. For example, in Turkey they ordered uniforms and sold them to teams much cheaper than in stores. It was with us that about twenty teams played in the regional league alone, and mandatory competitions of two ages for young men began to be held. In addition, the Volga region zone was created in the third league, and it was the best regional football association in the country. It was then that I was awarded the title of Honored Worker of Physical Culture.

- But you did not forget about the coaching career. In particular, there was another important stage in it, when you worked in the system of FC Nizhny Novgorod.

At first, Egorov, Seidenberg, Perevertailo, and myself were on our commanding staff. My main task was to find the strengths and weaknesses of the opponent. I made "cuts", showed them to the players, and the guys did not play blindly. Then they came back and said thank you.

And by the way, I suggested to the last head coach of FC "NN" Alexander Gorshkov how to beat Volga in the second play-off. There is a so-called "Kalitvintsev point" on the football field. He scored seven out of ten goals from her, being a player. It is much easier to deliver the ball to this “point” than to the penalty area. From here, something like Kalitvintsev beat Kudryashov. Moreover, Bendz and Grigalava are textured defenders, they mainly play on fouls. But the ball never reached Salugin, who would definitely have been shot down there - they didn’t hear me.

In this club, I am a coach-consultant. I try to teach the guys so that they do not play blindly: attack, defend. Teach the culture of the last pass. I remember how Omari Mikhailovich Tetradze instilled it in the Volga players. And I always demand this from the youth.

Interviewed by Sergey KOZUNOV

The bus of an illegal carrier was arrested on the M-7 highway in Orlovsky courtyards on September 26.
27.09.2019 vGorodeN.Ru They called from Zhukovsky, Gogol, Yuzhny, Central, Antopovka, Krasnye Zori, Shevchenko, Stepan Razin, Osipenko and others - literally one or two calls from a particular area (it happened,
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27.09.2019 vGorodeN.Ru

Alexander SCHERBAKOV was one of the brightest players in the talented Chornomorets in the 1980s. As part of the "sailors" Alexander spent more than 8 full seasons, twice took 4th place with the team in the USSR championship, scored against the famous Werder Bremen.

PELE NAMED IN THE YARD

- Tell us how you started playing football, did your parents encourage you, did you have other hobbies?

I grew up at a time when, probably, most of the guys were playing football: either organized in different youth sports schools, or just in their yards with their comrades. For as long as I can remember, I have always loved football, as a child, from the age of 6-7, I didn’t go out without a ball at all, for this they even called me Pele in the yard. It is now that children have a huge choice of activities, computers, TV and so on, and then football was our main entertainment, those who did not succeed went to basketball or other sports. But football has always been my number one priority.

Previously, training groups, in particular, in our Kryvbas, were accepted at the age of 13, and not at 7, as now. I came there at 12, and they didn’t take me, although I tried to cheat, “added” a year to myself, but they demanded that I bring a metric, and I had to give up. I was told to come back in a year, which I did. In this regard, my parents did not have any influence on me, they were busy with work, so I myself decided what to do, and I came to the training school on my own.

- Did you play your first match for Kryvbas at the age of 17?

I don’t remember the exact date, but I know that I went to the training camp when I was not yet 17. Akhmed Lyatifovich Aleskerov came to our team, it was he who began to connect me to the games, I was involved in several matches, came on as a substitute, although In general, it was still too early.

- After that you had to go to the army.

Yes, I spent two years at SKA Kiev. When I played in this team, there was a generation of players like Igor Nakonechny, Kolya Pinchuk, Serezha Ovchinnikov from Donetsk, Vitya Kuznetsov from Dnepropetrovsk, that is, people who later played in good clubs.

My formation as a football player, the final transition to adult football, I think, took place in SKA. Analyzing that situation over the years, I understand that at the age of 16-17, when a boy is released from school and it is decided whether he is promising or not, there may be problems with determining whether he is ready for big football? When I was invited to the team at this age, it was a “swing”, some said that I was already ready, others that I was still too young. I had a difficult period at SKA, I don’t know how much he helped me in developing football skills, but there I acquired the necessary life experience, it was good school. 18-20 years is still a transitional period when you decide what you want in life. In Kyiv, I didn't play too much, because I had a severe leg fracture. Already at the age of 20, when I got to Mogilev, I finally opened up in terms of football, but SKA for me became a kind of springboard for growing up.

JUDGES-INFORMERS

- In Mogilev "Dnepr" you began to score regularly and you were noticed ...

I don’t know how they came to me, probably, it happened when I started playing in the line-up and playing, I’ll say without false modesty, not bad. There was talk that clubs from Moscow and Minsk seemed to be interested in me, but things did not go beyond rumors. Later, I learned from Anatoly Baydachny that Chornomorets breeders, in particular Valery Porkuyan, would be present at one of the games, and it turned out that they would come to look at me. They probably heard about me from the referees, it seems to me that they went to matches in different leagues and, apparently, they noticed me and told me that there is such a promising player.

- When you came to Chornomorets, did you play in midfield?

Yes, I played left midfielder, I played in this position back in sports school. I don’t know what it was connected with, probably with the fact that I still worked better with one leg, the second was not that weaker, but simply none, I used it only for support, as Semyon Iosifovich Altman said. And he always said that it’s better to have one leg well than both mediocre, in general, this determined my role. In addition, I was smart, sharp, could beat an opponent, owned dribbling.

The three seasons that you spent at Chornomorets before going to Kyiv were quite successful - fourth place, the UEFA Cup, matches with Werder Bremen and Real Madrid. How do you remember this period?

The very transition from the second league to the top one in 1983 was not easy for me, there was even a moment when I almost broke down and did not come back. However, after talking with the then head of the team, Vyacheslav Leshchuk, I decided to stay. He convinced me that the reasons for failures must be looked for in oneself, one must work hard to gain a foothold in the major leagues. After that, I revised my views, attitude and everything began to improve, and 1984 was a successful year, both for the whole team and for me personally.

- You still played on the left?

No, I played as a left midfielder only in my first season in Odessa, and already starting in 1984, when I played in reserve, Semyon Iosifovich pushed me forward from the very first games, and after a while I began to act as a striker already at the base.

- Was it connected with the subsequent departure of Igor Belanov?

No, on the contrary, in 1984 he was still at Chernomorets and I was paired with him. In order to get into the squad, I had to force out Ivan Shariy, Volodya Fink, God rest him: the set of attackers we had was very decent, but I managed to break into the base, so that year I played with Belanov, and he left only in 1985.

WOULD PASS "REAL", IT WOULD HAVE TO BE TAKEN THE UEFA CUP

Then we didn’t even think about how we would play, whether they would tear us apart or compete on equal terms. We followed the press reports, we knew that at that time Werder were crushing everyone left and right, and we understood that it would not be easy, but we still hoped for a positive result. In general, going to any game, you hope to win, especially since we had a good team, the only negative was the lack of experience of playing against European clubs of this level.

Maybe it influenced successful outcome the timing of those games, because in early autumn our teams often took precedence over European ones due to the fact that our season was in full swing, and it was just beginning there? Or was it just that the class of Soviet teams was comparable to European ones?

Hard to say. For example, our giants, such as Spartak and Dynamo Kiev, have always performed well, Dynamo won European cups. Another thing is that Chornomorets in 1985 did not go very well in the championship either. We played the return game with Werder Bremen after an extremely unsuccessful match with Spartak Moscow, in which we lost 1:6, and this, of course, was alarming. But, as Viktor Evgenievich Prokopenko later said, that game even helped us in some way - we realistically assessed our strengths, saw mistakes and played more responsibly and in an organized manner. Werder were a very good team, a couple of years later they became German champions and then won the Cup Winners' Cup. The composition of the Bremen was very good and, as it turned out later, Werder was led by an excellent coach, Otto Rehhagel, so the opponent was worthy.

- But the next opponent was an even more worthy club, the star Real Madrid ...

Yes, the team was outstanding, I don’t even know who to compare them with? It was difficult in the sense that Real Madrid played a little different football, different from the one we are used to. But this club also had its own problems, then they were not stable, both in the home championship and in European cups - they could lose 1:4 away and win 4:0 at home. I don’t even know who was stronger, Werder Bremen or Real Madrid, they had to play each other to find out, but we prevented this.

- Maybe the football that the Germans played was more suitable for the technical Chornomorets?

Maybe, although I still wouldn't say that Werder Bremen played straightforward football, somehow leaned in, but their game was built through the flanks. But we had Vitya Grishko at the gate, who played excellently, plus there were tall defenders, Valya Kovacs, Vasya Ischak, Vadik Ploskina, who played well with their heads. In addition, it was on our side that Rudi Feller, one of the strongest strikers of this club, did not play for Werder Bremen in the away game. But this is football, someone didn’t play with them, someone with us, maybe they would still lose to us on aggregate.

- Do you think that only one goal was missing with Real Madrid or something more?

I believe that, speaking objectively, it was possible to beat Real Madrid if a certain set of circumstances coincided, but still the Spaniards were stronger and, I think, if they had to score in Odessa, they would have done it. I remember when there were 7-8 minutes left until the end of the match, and the whole team ran to the opponent’s goal, Real Madrid had 2-3 100% chances to score the ball after counterattacks, but they didn’t need it anymore. Even if we played 1-1 in Madrid, I don't know how Real Madrid would behave, how they would look in Odessa if they had to achieve a result.

But, in any case, we played decently, we were not defeated 0-5, we managed to perform well there and score a goal and draw at home. Yes, and if we had passed Real Madrid, we would probably have to win the UEFA Cup, otherwise they would not have understood us - how is it, knocked out two strongest teams, and then lost to the Bulgarians in the next round, and this, after all, was also possible, especially since, as I said, we did not perform well in the championship at that time. If it had been 1984, when we had Romensky and Belanov, we could still talk about something.

SASHA, WHERE ARE YOU GOING?

- And in 1986, Alexander Shcherbakov also died in Chernomorets. You went after Romensky and Belanov...

Then I did not think that Dynamo is the Champions Cup, trips, prestige. It was just the leading team in the country. Maybe it was fate. I had to write three applications to Dynamo, at first I wrote it, then I refused it, then I wrote a statement again, that is, there was no concrete decision. I went to Kyiv without much desire, and when I met Semyon Iosifovich and the head of the team at the station, and they asked me the question: “Sasha, where are you going?”, I didn’t want to leave so much that I almost left with them. Probably, I had some kind of dissatisfaction, ambitions ...

- Did you make the decision to move to Dynamo on your own or was there some kind of instruction from Kyiv?

No, there was no pressure on me, it was entirely my decision. I was then invited by Dnipro and Spartak Moscow, I don’t even know why I chose Dynamo, maybe I wanted to play in the USSR national team, or maybe my friendship with Igor Belanov, who by that time had already played in Kyiv. In general, I was reluctant to leave, whether it was done correctly or not, it happened like this.

- What did Dynamo Kiev look like to you?

The team, of course, was decent. The work was hard, but how else? You won't get results otherwise.

Did your playing style suit the game of Dynamo Kyiv? Not all technical footballers fit into the game model of Valery Lobanovsky...

It's not about style. Did Belanov suit the style of Chornomorets or Zavarov to Dynamo? Not in this case. Any player can fit into some kind of game scheme and into the style that the team preaches. It's about your actions on the football field. Zavarov is also a technical player with excellent individual qualities, he played a completely different football, not Dynamo. He, too, probably, would have been easier to open up in Spartak Moscow, but he played in Dynamo Kiev. It's not about style, football is the same and the requirements are the same. Maybe the coaches have a different vision of the role of, say, a midfielder in a team. But the requirements are the same - play, move.

- What did Valery Lobanovsky tell you when you arrived at Dynamo?

Valery Vasilievich did not talk much. I came to the training camp in Georgia when they were already ending. He was sick then, and I talked to him for literally five minutes. He simply said: “Switch to another job, to new tasks. Get fit, train."

- In what position were you used in Kyiv?

Ahead.

Recently, Semyon Altman cited you as an example, as a person who started in one position and revealed himself in another role. What position did you consider yours, where did you feel most comfortable?

We can't talk about convenience here. Here it is necessary to talk about where the player brings the maximum benefit, where can he better realize himself? In Chornomorets, they saw that I can be useful in front, while other guys can play stronger on the left in midfield. Why not?

WITHOUT FANS AND ACCUSATIONS

A year later you returned to Odessa, but in the first league. How were you received, how did your second coming to Chernomorets turn out?

Okay, how could they meet me? There was no fanfare, no one considered a traitor either. This is life and it should be treated normally. Well, if a person wants to try himself in another club for some reason, what's wrong with that? This is quite natural.

- In the first league you scored 12 goals, your personal record in Chornomorets...

Yes, in the first round I scored 9 goals, and in the second round 3, but this is not due to the fact that I lost somewhere in the game, just in the match with Kolos Nikopol they broke my rib. For some time no one could determine what was the matter, I was simply suffocating. Then they took a picture, and the cause of the pain became clear. Therefore, I suffered for some time, and did not play. I went out on the field bandaged, they rubbed me with the final gon, everything was on fire, but the half could play. And this, of course, affected the quality of the game.

You played in Chernomorets until the collapse of the USSR and Soviet football. How has the team changed with the arrival of future stars - Tsymbalar and Yuri Nikiforov?

Change is an inevitable process, young and talented guys joined the team, they made a different history of football. At the end of my football career, together with Chornomorets, I managed to once again rise to fourth place in the union championship. Maybe today it is not considered a great success, but then for us, taking into account such "monsters" as "Spartak", Minsk and Kiev "Dynamo", "Dnepr" and many others, it was a great achievement, because to compete with them it was very difficult. But for me it was still the end of my career, in 1988 I had a meniscus operation, a series of injuries began, my health was no longer the same. Age and injuries played a role, it was hard to withstand the training process.

- Like many other players after the collapse of the Union, you continued your career abroad ...

We just went to Hungary for a training camp and agreed through some club channels that Igor Saveliev and I would come to a few games, as a result, Igor stayed there, and I left after 5-6 matches, spent a month there.

- Then you ended up in Poland ...

Yes, I played in the Karpaty (Krosno) team in the Polish Second League. We went there in a group, Volodya Zinich and Vasya Mokan were with me. It turned out that this is a normal city, and the club has a good president and clearly defined tasks. We played the second round in the second league, and at the end of the championship we took first place and advanced to the first league, where we also held for a long time leadership positions. But then unforeseen circumstances arose, the president began to have financial problems ...

- In financial terms, Poland was then much superior to the Soviet Union?

I don’t even remember how much I got at Chornomorets when I left, but in Poland they also paid normal money in the second league, although I can’t say that it was something special. But it never hurts to be in a different environment, a new team, a country.

- Then there was also the Israeli period in your career.

After Poland, I returned to Ukraine. Helped, I hope, "Chernomorets" to take third place in the championship, having played 10 games in the second round, after which I was invited to the Israeli team of the major league "Hapoel" (Beer Sheva).

You happened to play in the championships of Poland, Hungary, Ukraine and Israel in the first half of the 90s, how different was the level of football in these countries then?

I think that the championship of Ukraine was then even stronger, by inertia the teams retained the players. Then a collective escape began, everyone started to leave, and a recession set in. Today, the level of the Ukrainian championship, I think, is normal, although I'm not ready to compare it with the Israeli championship. It is difficult to draw such parallels.

- You can judge by the Cup of the First Channel ...

You can't compare the league match between Dynamo and Shakhtar with those de Maccabi and Hapoel, it's clear that Kyiv and Donetsk stand apart. It is also difficult to compare Spartak and CSKA with these teams in one tournament. If there was a general championship, then it would be possible to seriously compare the level of teams.

DID NOT RENEW A CONTRACT WHICH DIDN'T EXIST

- Alexander Ivanovich, tell us about your coaching, what are you doing now?

Now I am in Odessa and I am giving this interview, and before that I was outside our city for five years - I worked at CSKA Kiev, spent two years as a coach at Obolon Kyiv and two years in Cherkasy. Dnipro Cherkasy last year became a team of the first league, but it so happened that I was not allowed to complete the work with this club. As they wrote in the press, “the contract was not extended with me,” although I didn’t have any contract with the Cherkassy people at all, only a gentleman’s agreement. At that time I was with the team at the training camp in Evpatoria, and when I returned, the team leader showed me a paper from the club president stating that they were not renewing my contract with me. None of the management was there, they were in Kyiv, then I clarified everything with them by phone. But that's history...

You always make an impression of one of the most intelligent representatives of the coaching department of our country. In your opinion, is it difficult for an intelligent person to work as a coach in modern football?

I think it's possible. An example of this is Semyon Iosifovich Altman, he perfectly manages the team, and at the same time a person who practically does not raise his voice. I am seriously different in private conversation and at work. I am quite an impulsive person, demanding, I can scream.

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PELE NAMED IN THE YARD

Tell us how you started playing football, did your parents encourage you, did you have other hobbies?
- I grew up at a time when, probably, most of the guys were playing football: either organized in different sports schools, or just in their yards with their comrades. For as long as I can remember, I have always loved football, as a child, from the age of 6-7, I didn’t go out without a ball at all, for this they even called me Pele in the yard. It is now that children have a huge choice of activities, computers, TV and so on, and then football was our main entertainment, those who did not succeed went to basketball or other sports. But football has always been my number one priority.
Previously, training groups, in particular, in our Kryvbas, were accepted at the age of 13, and not at 7, as now. I came there at 12, and they didn’t take me, although I tried to cheat, “added” a year to myself, but they demanded that I bring a metric, and I had to give up. I was told to come back in a year, which I did. In this regard, my parents did not have any influence on me, they were busy with work, so I myself decided what to do, and I came to the training school on my own.
- Did you play your first match for Kryvbas at the age of 17?
- I don’t remember the exact date, but I know that I went to the training camp when I was not yet 17. Akhmed Latifovich Aleskerov came to our team, it was he who began to connect me to the games, I was involved in several matches, came on as a substitute, although, in general, it was still too early.
- After that you had to go to the army.
- Yes, I spent two years in Kiev SKA. When I played in this team, there was a generation of players like Igor Nakonechny, Kolya Pinchuk, Serezha Ovchinnikov from Donetsk, Vitya Kuznetsov from Dnepropetrovsk, that is, people who later played in good clubs.
My formation as a football player, the final transition to adult football, I think, took place in SKA. Analyzing that situation over the years, I understand that at the age of 16-17, when a boy is released from school and it is decided whether he is promising or not, there may be problems with determining whether he is ready for big football? When I was invited to the team at this age, it was a “swing”, some said that I was already ready, others that I was still too young. I had a difficult period at SKA, I don’t know how much it helped me in developing football skills, but there I gained the necessary life experience, it was a good school. 18-20 years is still a transitional period when you decide what you want in life. In Kyiv, I didn't play too much, because I had a severe leg fracture. Already at the age of 20, when I got to Mogilev, I finally opened up in terms of football, but SKA for me became a kind of springboard for growing up.

JUDGES-INFORMERS

In Mogilev "Dnepr" you began to score regularly and you were noticed ...
- I don’t know how they came to me, probably, it happened when I started playing in the line-up and playing, I’ll say without false modesty, not bad. There was talk that clubs from Moscow and Minsk seemed to be interested in me, but things did not go beyond rumors. Later, I learned from Anatoly Baydachny that Chornomorets breeders, in particular Valery Porkuyan, would be present at one of the games, and it turned out that they would come to look at me. They probably heard about me from the referees, it seems to me that they went to matches in different leagues and, apparently, they noticed me and told me that there is such a promising player.
- When you came to Chornomorets, did you play in midfield?
- Yes, I played a left midfielder, I played in this position at a sports school. I don’t know what it was connected with, probably with the fact that I still worked better with one leg, the second was not that weaker, but simply none, I used it only for support, as Semyon Iosifovich Altman said. And he always said that it’s better to have one leg well than both mediocre, in general, this determined my role. In addition, I was smart, sharp, could beat an opponent, owned dribbling.
- The three seasons that you spent at Chornomorets before going to Kyiv were quite successful - fourth place, the UEFA Cup, matches with Werder Bremen and Real Madrid. How do you remember this period?
- The very transition from the second league to the top one in 1983 was not easy for me, there was even a moment when I almost broke down and did not come back. However, after talking with the then head of the team, Vyacheslav Leshchuk, I decided to stay. He convinced me that the reasons for failures must be looked for in oneself, one must work hard to gain a foothold in the major leagues. After that, I revised my views, attitude and everything began to improve, and 1984 was a successful year, both for the whole team and for me personally.
- You still played on the left?
- No, I played as a left midfielder only in my first season in Odessa, and already starting from 1984, when I played in reserve, Semyon Iosifovich pushed me forward from the very first games, and after a while I began to act as a striker already at the core.
- Was it connected with the subsequent departure of Igor Belanov?
- No, on the contrary, in 1984 he was still at Chernomorets and I was paired with him. In order to get into the squad, I had to force out Ivan Shariy, Volodya Fink, God rest him: the set of attackers we had was very decent, but I managed to break into the base, so that year I played with Belanov, and he left only in 1985.

WOULD PASS "REAL", IT WOULD HAVE TO BE TAKEN THE UEFA CUP

In 1985, Chornomorets played in the UEFA Cup for the second time in its history, and you managed to excel in one of those matches, scoring a goal against Werder Bremen. Did you believe then that you would be able to beat the German team and play on equal terms with Real Madrid?
- Then we didn’t even think about how we would play, they would tear us apart or compete on equal terms. We followed the press reports, we knew that at that time Werder were crushing everyone left and right, and we understood that it would not be easy, but we still hoped for a positive result. In general, going to any game, you hope to win, especially since we had a good team, the only negative was the lack of experience of playing against European clubs of this level.
- Perhaps, the timing of those games influenced the successful result, because in early autumn our teams often prevailed over European ones due to the fact that our season was in full swing, and it was just beginning there? Or was it just that the class of Soviet teams was comparable to European ones?
- Hard to say. For example, our giants, such as Spartak and Dynamo Kiev, have always performed well, Dynamo won European cups. Another thing is that Chornomorets in 1985 did not go very well in the championship either. We played the return game with Werder Bremen after an extremely unsuccessful match with Spartak Moscow, in which we lost 1:6, and this, of course, was alarming. But, as Viktor Evgenievich Prokopenko later said, that game even helped us in some way - we realistically assessed our strengths, saw mistakes and played more responsibly and in an organized manner. Werder were a very good team, a couple of years later they became German champions and then won the Cup Winners' Cup. The composition of the Bremen was very good and, as it turned out later, Werder was led by an excellent coach, Otto Rehhagel, so the opponent was worthy.
- But the next opponent was an even more worthy club, the star Real Madrid ...
- Yes, the team was outstanding, I don’t even know who to compare them with? It was difficult in the sense that Real Madrid played a little different football, different from the one we are used to. But this club also had its own problems, then they were not stable, both in the home championship and in European cups - they could lose 1:4 away and win 4:0 at home. I don’t even know who was stronger, Werder Bremen or Real Madrid, they had to play each other to find out, but we prevented this.
- Maybe the football that the Germans played was more suitable for the technical Chornomorets?
- Maybe, although I still wouldn't say that Werder Bremen played straightforward football, they somehow leaned in, but their game was built through the flanks. But we had Vitya Grishko at the gate, who played excellently, plus there were tall defenders, Valya Kovacs, Vasya Ischak, Vadik Ploskina, who played well with their heads. In addition, it was on our side that Rudi Feller, one of the strongest strikers of this club, did not play for Werder Bremen in the away game. But this is football, someone didn’t play with them, someone with us, maybe they would still lose to us on aggregate.
- Do you think that only one goal was missing with Real Madrid or something more?
- I think that, speaking objectively, it was possible to beat Real Madrid if a certain set of circumstances coincided, but still the Spaniards were stronger and, I think, if they had to score in Odessa, they would have done it. I remember when there were 7-8 minutes left until the end of the match, and the whole team ran to the opponent’s goal, Real Madrid had 2-3 100% chances to score the ball after counterattacks, but they didn’t need it anymore. Even if we played 1-1 in Madrid, I don't know how Real Madrid would behave, how they would look in Odessa if they had to achieve a result.
But, in any case, we played decently, we were not defeated 0-5, we managed to perform well there and score a goal and draw at home. And even if we had beaten Real Madrid, we would probably have had to win the UEFA Cup, otherwise they would not have understood us - how is it, knocked out the two strongest teams, and then lost to the Bulgarians in the next round, and this was also possible, especially since, as I said, in the championship at that time we did not perform well. If it had been 1984, when we had Romensky and Belanov, we could still talk about something.

SASHA, WHERE ARE YOU GOING?

And in 1986, Alexander Shcherbakov also died at Chernomorets. You went after Romensky and Belanov...
- Then I did not think that Dynamo is the Champions Cup, trips, prestige. It was just the leading team in the country. Maybe it was fate. I had to write three applications to Dynamo, at first I wrote it, then I refused it, then I wrote a statement again, that is, there was no concrete decision. I went to Kyiv without much desire, and when I met Semyon Iosifovich and the head of the team at the station, and they asked me the question: “Sasha, where are you going?”, I didn’t want to leave so much that I almost left with them. Probably, I had some kind of dissatisfaction, ambitions ...
- Did you make the decision to move to Dynamo on your own or was there some kind of instruction from Kyiv?
- No, there was no pressure on me, it was entirely my decision. I was then invited by Dnipro and Spartak Moscow, I don’t even know why I chose Dynamo, maybe I wanted to play in the USSR national team, or maybe my friendship with Igor Belanov, who by that time had already played in Kyiv. In general, I was reluctant to leave, whether it was done correctly or not, it happened like this.
- What did Dynamo Kiev look like to you?
- The team, of course, was decent. The work was hard, but how else? You won't get results otherwise.
- Did your playing style suit the game of Dynamo Kyiv? Not all technical footballers fit into the game model of Valery Lobanovsky...
- It's not about style. Did Belanov suit the style of Chornomorets or Zavarov to Dynamo? Not in this case. Any player can fit into some kind of game scheme and into the style that the team preaches. It's about your actions on the football field. Zavarov is also a technical player with excellent individual qualities, he played a completely different football, not Dynamo. He, too, probably, would have been easier to open up in Spartak Moscow, but he played in Dynamo Kiev. It's not about style, football is the same and the requirements are the same. Maybe the coaches have a different vision of the role of, say, a midfielder in a team. But the requirements are the same - play, move.
- What did Valery Lobanovsky tell you when you arrived at Dynamo?
- Valery Vasilievich did not talk much. I came to the training camp in Georgia when they were already ending. He was sick then, and I talked to him for literally five minutes. He simply said: “Switch to another job, to new tasks. Get fit, train."
- In what position were you used in Kyiv?
- Ahead.
- Recently, Semyon Altman cited you as an example, as a person who started in one position and revealed himself in another role. What position did you consider yours, where did you feel most comfortable?
- You can't talk about convenience here. Here it is necessary to talk about where the player brings the maximum benefit, where can he better realize himself? In Chornomorets, they saw that I can be useful in front, while other guys can play stronger on the left in midfield. Why not?

WITHOUT FANS AND ACCUSATIONS

A year later you returned to Odessa, but in the first league. How were you received, how did your second coming to Chernomorets turn out?
- Fine, how could they meet me? There was no fanfare, no one considered a traitor either. This is life and it should be treated normally. Well, if a person wants to try himself in another club for some reason, what's wrong with that? This is quite natural.
- In the first league you scored 12 goals, your personal record in Chornomorets...
- Yes, in the first round I scored 9 goals, and in the second round 3, but this is not due to the fact that I lost somewhere in the game, just in the match with Kolos Nikopol they broke my rib. For some time no one could determine what was the matter, I was simply suffocating. Then they took a picture, and the cause of the pain became clear. Therefore, I suffered for some time, and did not play. I went out on the field bandaged, they rubbed me with the final gon, everything was on fire, but the half could play. And this, of course, affected the quality of the game.
- You played in Chornomorets until the collapse of the USSR and Soviet football. How has the team changed with the arrival of future stars - Tsymbalar and Yuri Nikiforov?
- Change is an inevitable process, young and talented guys joined the team, they made a different history of football. At the end of my football career, together with Chornomorets, I managed to once again rise to fourth place in the union championship. Maybe today it is not considered a great success, but then for us, taking into account such "monsters" as "Spartak", Minsk and Kiev "Dynamo", "Dnepr" and many others, it was a great achievement, because to compete with them it was very difficult. But for me it was still the end of my career, in 1988 I had a meniscus operation, a series of injuries began, my health was no longer the same. Age and injuries played a role, it was hard to withstand the training process.
- Like many other players after the collapse of the Union, you continued your career abroad ...
- We just went to Hungary for a training camp and agreed through some club channels that Igor Savelyev and I would come to a few games, as a result, Igor stayed there, and I left after 5-6 matches, spent a month there.
- Then you ended up in Poland ...
- Yes, I played in the Karpaty (Krosno) team in the Polish Second League. We went there in a group, Volodya Zinich and Vasya Mokan were with me. It turned out that this is a normal city, and the club has a good president and clearly defined tasks. We played the second round in the second league, and at the end of the championship we took first place and advanced to the first league, where we also held leadership positions for a long time. But then unforeseen circumstances arose, the president began to have financial problems ...
- In financial terms, Poland was then much superior to the Soviet Union?
- I don’t even remember how much I received at Chornomorets when I left, but in Poland they also paid normal money in the second league, although I can’t say that it was something special. But it never hurts to be in a different environment, a new team, a country.
- Then there was also the Israeli period in your career.
- After Poland, I returned to Ukraine. Helped, I hope, "Chernomorets" to take third place in the championship, having played 10 games in the second round, after which I was invited to the Israeli team of the major league "Hapoel" (Beer Sheva).
- You happened to play in the championships of Poland, Hungary, Ukraine and Israel in the first half of the 90s, how different was the level of football in these countries then?
- I think that the championship of Ukraine was then even stronger, by inertia the teams retained the players. Then a collective escape began, everyone started to leave, and a recession set in. Today, the level of the Ukrainian championship, I think, is normal, although I'm not ready to compare it with the Israeli championship. It is difficult to draw such parallels.
- You can judge by the Cup of the First Channel ...
- You can't compare the league match between Dynamo and Shakhtar with those de Maccabi and Hapoel, it's clear that Kyiv and Donetsk stand apart. It is also difficult to compare Spartak and CSKA with these teams in one tournament. If there was a general championship, then it would be possible to seriously compare the level of teams.

DID NOT RENEW A CONTRACT WHICH DIDN'T EXIST

Alexander Ivanovich, tell us about your coaching activities, what are you doing now?
- Now I am in Odessa and I am giving this interview, and before that I was outside our city for five years - I worked at CSKA Kiev, spent two years as a coach at Obolon Kyiv and two years in Cherkasy. Dnipro Cherkasy last year became a team of the first league, but it so happened that I was not allowed to complete the work with this club. As they wrote in the press, “the contract was not extended with me,” although I didn’t have any contract with the Cherkassy people at all, only a gentleman’s agreement. At that time I was with the team at the training camp in Evpatoria, and when I returned, the team leader showed me a paper from the club president stating that they were not renewing my contract with me. None of the management was there, they were in Kyiv, then I clarified everything with them by phone. But that's history...
- You always make an impression of one of the most intelligent representatives of the coaching department of our country. In your opinion, is it difficult for an intelligent person to work as a coach in modern football?
- I think it's possible. An example of this is Semyon Iosifovich Altman, he perfectly manages the team, and at the same time a person who practically does not raise his voice. I am seriously different in private conversation and at work. I am quite an impulsive person, demanding, I can scream.

Spectacular pumping of the body - Health Portal

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