Today the outstanding coach, Hero of Ukraine Valery Lobanovskyi would have turned 85 years old

06.01.2024 10:00

Photo of UAF press service

Valery Lobanovsky was born in Kyiv on January 6, 1939. He played as a striker for Dynamo Kyiv (1959-1964), Chornomorets Odessa (1965-1966), and Shakhtar Donetsk (1967-1968). Champion of the USSR in 1961. Winner of the USSR Cup in 1964. He played two matches for the USSR national team and two matches for the USSR Olympic team.

Photo by Volodymyr Rasner

Having switched to coaching after the end of his football career, he headed FC "Dnipro" Dnipropetrovsk (1968-1973) and "Dynamo" Kyiv (1973-1982, 1984-1990, 1996-2002). Under the leadership of Lobanovskyi, Dynamo Kyiv won eight times in the championship of the USSR and five times in the championship of Ukraine. The coach, together with the white and blue team, has six victories in the USSR Cup, three in the Ukrainian Cup, as well as triumphs in the Cup Winners' Cup in 1975 and 1986 and in the UEFA Super Cup in 1975.

The USSR national team led by Valery Lobanovsky was a bronze medalist at the 1976 Olympics and a silver medalist at the 1988 Euro Olympics, and the Kuwaiti national team, with which Valery Vasilyevich also worked, won a bronze medal at the 1994 Asian Games. Metr headed the national team of Ukraine in 2000-2001. 

Photo by Nicholas Barrel

Valery Lobanovsky was awarded the UEFA Rubin Order of Merit and the FIFA Order of Merit.

The legendary trainer died on May 13, 2002 in Zaporozhye.

The Valery Lobanovsky Tournament is held under the auspices of the Ukrainian Football Association.