22 1929 October, the
Born in Moscow Lev Yashin — a legendary football goalkeeper. The "Black Panther" of the Soviet national team.
Yes, I'm in good shape today, no doubt about it - Muscovites are bursting with delight, I calmly interrupt transmissions And I pull out dead balls (Vysotsky to Yashin)
Lost his mother early.
At 13, during the war, he got a job as an apprentice mechanic at a defense plant. There, he became interested in football and began playing for the factory team.
He continued in the army: at one of the matches he was noticed by the coach of the youth team of Moscow Dynamo.
At 20, he started in goal for the main team, but unsuccessfully: he missed several annoying goals.
He was one of the first to venture beyond the goalkeeper's area and play throughout the penalty area. Leaving the empty net behind him, he drew laughter and whistles from the crowd. But gradually, this "out-of-bounds" play became Yashin's signature style.
In the 1954 season, when he was 24, he didn't miss a single goal and made the USSR national team. At 27, he won the Olympics with the team.
By the age of 30, he had become the country's best goalkeeper and the national team's number one. At 34, he became the first Soviet footballer and the first goalkeeper in history to win the prestigious Ballon d'Or award.
While working, I was not afraid to get my hands dirty, and I was not embarrassed to admit to myself my own weaknesses and imperfections.
He was a "player-coach" on the field. He anticipated the shot: he reacted not to the shot itself, but to the opponent's intention to hit the ball.
For his black goalkeeper uniform and acrobatic jumps he received the nickname "Black Panther".
My legs never wanted to launch me into the air on their own; on the contrary, every time I pushed off for another leap after the ball, I felt the force of gravity. The ball never stuck to my goalkeeper gloves; on the contrary, we always shared a relationship like that of a trainer with a cunning and unyielding animal.
At 42, he played his last match for his hometown club, Dynamo. He went into coaching, then to the Sports Committee and the Football Federation.
He died at 60 due to stomach cancer, complications from smoking and gangrene.
The best goalkeeper of the World Championship is awarded the Golden Glove in memory of Yashin.