Alexander Shcherbakov: “I was very reluctant to leave for Kiev. Alexander Shcherbakov: Lobanovsky sprinkled the messenger behind me

Everyone knows in the past the Nizhny Novgorod footballer, and now the coach, Alexander Nikolaevich Shcherbakov. Last autumn, Alexander Nikolayevich celebrated his 65th birthday, and now he is the mentor of the team of disabled amputees, advising the club of the third Russian division - FC Volga-Olympian. 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 Gorky "Volga" he played from 1966 to 1979. (with a break). Played 238 matches, scored 36 goals. Also played for "Chemist" (Dzerzhinsk), CSKA (Moscow). For the army team he played 3 games.
Was involved in the USSR youth team.
Coached the teams Volga (Gorky), Lokomotiv (Gorky), Znamya (Arzamas). He was a coach-consultant of FC Nizhny Novgorod. For seven years he has been training a team of disabled amputees at the Severny stadium in Nizhny Novgorod. He is a coach-consultant of FC Volga-Olimpiets.
Honored Worker physical culture Russia.

And in the corridor there is a line of journalists

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

It's scary to think even (smiles). Since the age of seven I have been doing my favorite sport. So fifty-eight. To be honest, I don't feel my age. It's a pity that time flies quickly. Such is the result of a long and short life.

- Where did you start playing football?

I lived in Kanavino. In the place where the Nizhny Novgorod circus is now located, there was a football field. So we came there and drove the ball from morning to evening. Then the “Zvezdochka” team appeared, which was created by the famous judge Semyon Naumovich Shapiro. With her we went to Moscow, Kiev, and other cities.

Then I moved from Kanavin to Sormovo, began to play at the Trud stadium. From there, from the training group, I 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 reserve squad, 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 a composition - a song. And they let me out in the "base", and I put three balls out of the five Kalinin "Volga". The next game with the leader - SKA Kiev, we win 1: 0, and I score again. This is my debut in Volga. (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 junior national team of the country. I remember playing at the opening of the Sochi stadium with the Czechs. After the transfer of Levan Nodia, I score a goal from the summer - to the near top nine, and the coach 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 so. In the last control meeting before leaving for Turkey, we play against CSKA, and one of the army men jumps on my hip with a knee. In ten minutes my leg was so swollen that I could not walk. So upset - words cannot convey. We became champions then, and Vitya Kuznetsov from Kiev scored a goal in the decisive match. Then he conveyed to me Lyadin's words that, they say, in a number of matches in Turkey, Shcherbakov was not enough.

And now CSKA Moscow is returning from Austria, equipped with everything right out of the box, Likhosherstny and I are going to meet the guys. Vladimir Mikhailovich Agapov tells us: “ Sit down to the fees". And I already have a ticket to Gorky in my hands. True, I was not announced for that final tournament. Like, for "Volga" this season, Shcherbakov was not played, and the strengthening 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 ... the legendary hockey player and coach Anatoly Tarasov took the lead: there were continuous "pancakes" from the barbells and throws over the thigh. Bubukin came before everyone else and “slept” on “pancakes” into joke, and the footballer Shagin just finished playing - his heart could not stand it. As for Tarasov, he football season also became the last for him - the experiment failed.

At 31, I hung up my boots

- Well, where did the curve take you?

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

Graduated, however, early - at the age of 31, although the strength was still to play. I came from the first training camp from the Crimea - we were actually playing there on the ice - and I tore the back of my thigh. I can't run at full strength, but they didn't believe me. Still, almost the entire first round had to be treated.

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

- And why, if not a secret?

What's the secret. I was, of course, offended that I was pulled out of CSKA in due time, but I 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 great football. Then he played, however, in the region for Radiy and Lokomotiv.

I played for the regional championship, having graduated from the High School of Art by that time. Omari Khasanovich Sharadze summoned 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 Yevgeny Goryansky, who by that time was already an honored coach of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. But Yevgeny Ivanovich stayed in Nizhny just a couple of days - his salary did not seem to suit him. Again, I am the only one of the coaches at Lokomotiv. And in the yard - February, it's time to go to the training camp ...

Then again the railway workers went to meet the trade unions. We learned that Mirzoyan, with whom we studied together at the High School of Theater, had just left Kostroma, and we “married” him to Loko. But, as they say, there should not be two housewives in the same kitchen. He began to recruit "Varangians" to the team, but I pulled up my own guys from Nizhny Novgorod: Leontyev, Kosmachev, Khlyustov ...

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

In the meantime, I began to work closely with the team, we went for eleven rounds without defeat, but by various mean methods Mirzoyan survived me from Lokomotiv. Administrator Goryachev told me bluntly that they wanted to remove me. At the general meeting, I told about the Swedes, about the 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 the following words: “ This pot cannot be glued". He asked not to distance me from Lokomotiv, but I went to work in the sports committee, and then headed the Arzamas Znamya. But Mirzoyan also stayed for a short time in Gorky, failing the second half of the championship.

Koreans made to cry in Arzamas

- How do you remember the years spent in Arzamas?

We played the first season just fine. We fought for first places with a team from the Moldovan city of Bender and the richest club at that time - the capital "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 are coming to Moscow to play with Asmaral on the birthday of its owner Al-Khalidi. After the game, the banquet has already been ordered. Well, they give us a penalty, of course. As a result, we took the third place.

By the way, that year, we, the only ones from our clubs, beat the North Korean national team, which came on a tour to the Nizhny Novgorod region. Igor Gorelov then scored a goal. Then we gave them a banquet, 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 called me and said: 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 in the region, he created crazy conditions, and "Banner" eventually collapsed: it even got to the point that the players were taken away directly from the training camps ...

I spoke to Gorshkov about Kalitvintsev's "point"

- After coaching, you switched to a managerial position, heading the Volga region football federation.

Yes, we have created this federation virtually from scratch. We wrote the charter, having formalized it legally. And our organization quickly got on a professional track. For example, in Turkey they ordered a uniform and sold it to teams much cheaper than in stores. It was with us that about twenty teams played in the highest regional league alone, and compulsory competitions of two ages of 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 you didn’t forget about your coaching career either. In particular, there was another important stage in it, when you worked in the FC Nizhny Novgorod system.

At first, Egorov, Seidenberg, Perevertailo and myself were in our headquarters. 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 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 goals out of ten out of ten, being a player. It is much easier to deliver the ball to this “point” than to the penalty area. Here with her, we roughly, like Kalitvintsev, beat Kudryashov. Moreover, Bendz and Grigalava are textured defenders, they play mostly on fouls. But the ball did not reach Salugin, who would have been knocked down for sure - they didn’t hear me.

In this club, I am a consultant coach. I try to teach children 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 young people.

Interviewed by Sergey KOZUNOV

OUR DOSSIER

For Gorky "Volga" he played from 1966 to 1979. (with a break), scored 36 goals. Also played for "Chemist" (Dzerzhinsk), CSKA (Moscow). For the army team he played 3 games.

Was involved in the USSR youth team.

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

Honored Worker of Physical Culture of Russia.

Everyone knows in the past the Nizhny Novgorod footballer, and now the coach Alexander Nikolaevich SHCHERBAKOV. Last autumn, Alexander Nikolayevich celebrated his 65th birthday, and now he is the mentor of the team of disabled amputees, advising the club of the third Russian division - FC Volga-Olympian. Our unhurried conversation with Alexander Nikolaevich began about life and, of course, about football.

AND IN THE CORRIDOR - LINE OF JOURNALISTS

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

It's scary to think even (smiles). WITH I've been doing my favorite sport for seven years. So fifty-eight. To be honest, I don't feel my age. It's a pity that time flies fast. Such is the result of a long and short life.

- Where did you start playing football?

I lived in Kanavino. In the place where the Nizhny Novgorod circus is now located, there was a football field. So we came there and drove the ball from morning to evening. Then the “Zvezdochka” team appeared, which was created by the famous judge Semyon Naumovich Shapiro. With her we went to Moscow, Kiev, and other cities.

Then I moved from Kanavin to Sormovo, began to play at the Trud stadium. From there, from the training group, I 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 reserve squad, 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 Batanov, Valentin Filyakin, Valery Kalugin, Yuri Golov. Not a composition - a song. And they let me out in the "base", and I put three balls out of the five Kalinin "Volga". The next game with the leader - SKA Kiev, we win 1: 0, and I score again. This is my debut in Volga. (smiles). After the game, even a line of journalists in the corridor lined up behind me.

In the next season, he became the team's top scorer, having received an invitation to the national youth team. I remember playing at the opening of the Sochi stadium with the Czechs. After the transfer of Levan Nodia, I score a goal from the summer - to the nearest "nine", and the coach 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 so. In the last control meeting before leaving for Turkey, we play against CSKA, and one of the army men jumps on my hip with a knee. In ten minutes my leg was so swollen that I could not walk. So upset - words cannot convey. We became champions then, and Vitya Kuznetsov from Kiev scored a goal in the decisive match. Then he conveyed to me Lyadin's words that, they say, in a number of matches in Turkey, Shcherbakov was not enough.

"GLADIATOR BATTLES" IN CSKA

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

Then Lobanovsky sent my coach to Gorky for me. They also wanted to see me in the Odessa "Chernomorets". But I had my own "troubles" here. Volga's mentor Veniamin Petrovich Krylov really wanted to see me as his ... son-in-law. I am not in any. And he rearranged the put in the composition, stifled 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 squads, and there were only five recruits: Vitya Papaev, Yura Smirnov from Moscow Torpedo, Kairat's Likhosherstnykh, Seryozha Morozov from Dynamo Kiev, and your humble servant.

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

At the end of the 1974 season, messengers from Gorky were sent for me to CSKA. 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 "Volga" Evgeny Semenovich Dli, who worked together with Valery Fedorovich Kalugin, arrives.

At first, I did not agree, because they played me to replace Fedotov. And now we play in Dnepropetrovsk, in the rain, I get up in the "wall", and the player of "Dnipro" Lyabik hits me right in the periosteum. As a result - inflammation, and I was treated by Oleg Markovich Belakovsky for more than a month. I am being treated, I did not go to Austria, and the Gorky people, through some generals, came to the leadership of CSKA. And my wife already studied in Gorky at the sanitary faculty in Gorky, a daughter was born. I decided: "I'm coming back." Although I was still called then to Shakhtar Donetsk.

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

I would be here to return to CSKA, and the army team. legendary hockey player and coach Anatoly Tarasov took the lead: there were continuous "pancakes" from the barbells and throws over the thigh. Bubukin came before everyone else and “slept” on “pancakes” into joke, and the footballer Shagin just 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 his boots on a nail

- Well, where did the curve take you?

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

Graduated, however, early - at the age of 31, although the strength was still to play. I came from the first training camp from the Crimea - we were actually playing there on the ice - and I tore the back of my thigh. I can't run at full strength, but they didn't believe me. Still, almost the entire first round had to be treated. After the injury, they put me on the left-back, and in Kursk we win - 3: 1, and I score the ball. Everyone congratulates me, and I answered the guys: “This was my last game for Volga. We come back from the trip and immediately put my boots on a nail. "

And why, if not a secret?

What's the secret. I was, of course, offended that I was pulled out of CSKA in due time, but I 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 great football. Then he played, however, in the region for Radiy and Lokomotiv.

we arrive at the "locomotive", A

WE ARE ... NOT LET'S GAME

At the end of a player's career, as many footballers do, did they enter the HST?

Yes, I studied with Vadim Nikonov, Volodya Kozlov, Zhenya Lovchev, Alexander Mirzoyan, Vitaly Shevchenko. I realized then that scientific activity- it's mine. When we were finishing the Higher School of Theaters, Vyacheslav Koloskov then said: "You, Alexander Nikolaevich, need to either work in the top league, or do science."

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

Yes, I was offered to head the Gorky "Volga", for which very difficult times have come. Then all surcharges were removed from the guys, the leading players left. I had to recruit players from the area. Believe it or not, you had to look for literally every ruble for food. I did not sleep at night, I kept thinking how to rectify the situation. It's 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 come to the Lokomotiv stadium, and us. they are not allowed to play. Allegedly, the sports club "Krasnoe Sormovo" 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 myself went to Moscow

Submit players. As a result, the "Volga" was settled in some building under construction, and a commission appeared there. They began to look for the extreme. They summoned me to the chairman of the trade union committee. In general, I finished with the Volga. The next 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 the monument should be erected to Shcherbakov, who had worked for two years in such conditions.

There MUST NOT BE TWO HOUSES IN THE SAME KITCHEN

The next stage of your coaching career was Lokomotiv Nizhny Novgorod.

I played for the regional championship, having graduated from the High School of Art by that time. Omari Khasanovich Sharadze summoned 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 Yevgeny Goryansky, who by that time was already an honored coach of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. But Yevgeny Ivanovich stayed in Nizhny just a couple of days - his salary did not seem to suit him. Again, I am the only one of the coaches at Lokomotiv. And in the yard - February, it's time to go to the training camp.

Then again the railway workers went to meet the trade unions. We learned that Mirzoyan, with whom we studied together at the High School of Theater, had just left Kostroma, and we “married” him to Loko. But, as they say, there should not be two housewives in the same kitchen. He began to recruit "Varangians" to the team, but I pulled up my own guys from Nizhny Novgorod: Leontyev, 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, they won with a large score against some Swedish team, but the guys were not given the two hundred rubles they were supposed to for an international match. This eventually became a bone of contention.

In the meantime, I began to work closely with the team, we went for eleven rounds without defeat, but by various mean methods Mirzoyan survived me from Lokomotiv. Administrator Goryachev told me bluntly that they wanted to remove me. At the general meeting, I told about the Swedes, about the 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 the following words: "This pot cannot be glued." He asked not to distance me from Lokomotiv, but I went to work in the sports committee, and then headed the Arzamas Znamya. But Mirzoyan also stayed for a short time in Gorky, failing the second half of the championship.

IN ARZAMAS MADE TO CRY Koreans

- How do you remember the years spent in Arzamas?

We played the first season just fine. We fought for first places with a team from the Moldovan city of Bender and the richest club at that time - the capital "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 are coming to Moscow to play with Asmaral on the birthday of its owner Al-Khalidi. After the game, the banquet has already been ordered. Well, they give us a penalty, of course. As a result, we took the third place.

By the way, that year we, the only ones from our clubs, beat the North Korean national team, which came on a tour to the Nizhny Novgorod region. Igor Gorelov then scored a goal. Then we gave them a banquet, 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 called me and said: 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 in the region, he created crazy conditions, and "Banner" eventually fell apart: it even went so far that the players were taken away directly from the training camps.

TOLD GORSHKOVA HOW TO BEAT THE VOLGA

After coaching, you switched to a managerial position, heading the Povolzhye Football Federation.

Yes, we have created this federation virtually from scratch. We wrote the charter, having formalized it legally. And our organization quickly got on a professional track. For example, in Turkey they ordered a uniform and sold it to teams much cheaper than in stores. It was with us that about twenty teams played in the highest regional league alone, and compulsory competitions of two ages of 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 you didn’t forget about your coaching career either. In particular, there was another important stage in it, when you worked in the FC Nizhny Novgorod system.

At first, Egorov, Seidenberg, Perevertailo and myself were in our headquarters. 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 and said thank you.

And by the way, I suggested to the head coach Alexander Gorshkov how to beat Volga in the second play-off match. There is a so-called "Kalitvintsev point" on the football field. He scored seven goals out of ten out of ten, being a player. It is much easier to deliver the ball to this “point” than to the penalty area. Here with her, we roughly, like Kalitvintsev, beat Kudryashov. Moreover, Bendz and Grigalava are textured defenders, they play mostly on fouls. But the ball did not reach Salugin, who would have been knocked down for sure - they didn’t hear me.

By the way, the next day “Khimik” played at “Severny” with Kirov's “Dynamo”, won 1: 0, and the ball was scored by Dzerzhinsky precisely from “Kalitvintsev's point”. By the way, I saw this throw and free kick from the Bulgarian national team, when Stoichkov was knocked down, he himself scored from the standard, and the Germans did not go to the World Cup in the end.

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

- One cannot but 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. The only pity is that amputee footballers cannot make their way into the Paralympic sports program. They deserve it long ago, although it is very difficult to work with them, believe me.

- What do you have to do with Volga-Olimpiets?

In this club, I am a consultant coach. I will try to teach the children 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 young people.

Alexander SHCHERBAKOV was one of the brightest footballers of the rich in talents Chornomorets in the 80s. As part of the "sailors" Alexander spent more than 8 full seasons, twice took the 4th place with the team in the USSR championship, scored against the famous "Werder".

THE PELE CALLED 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 in an organized way in different sports schools, or just in their yards with friends. As far back as I can remember, I have always adored football, in my childhood, from 6-7 years old, I never went outside without a ball, for that I was even nicknamed Pele in the yard. Now children have a huge selection of activities, computers, TV and so on, and then football was our main entertainment, who did not succeed, went to basketball or other sports. But football has always been in the first place for me.

Previously, the training groups, in particular, in our "Kryvbas", were accepted at the age of 13, and not at 7, as it is 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 from me to 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.

- You played 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 out as a substitute, although , in general, it was still a bit 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, Seryozha 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 they decide 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 ready, others that I was still too young. At SKA I had a difficult period, I don't know how much he helped me in developing my 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 are determined with what you want in life. In Kiev, I didn't play too much, as I had a severe fracture of my leg. Already at the age of 20, when I got to Mogilev, I finally revealed myself in football terms, but SKA for me became a kind of springboard for maturity.

INFORMATION JUDGES

- In Mogilev Dnipro you started 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 will say without false modesty, not bad. There was talk that clubs from Moscow and Minsk seemed to be interested in me, but the matter did not go beyond rumors. Later I learned from Anatoly Baidachny that the breeders of Chernomorets, in particular Valery Porkuyan, would be present at one of the games, and it turned out that they would come to look at me. Probably, they heard about me from the referees, it seems to me, they went to the matches of different leagues and, apparently, noticed me and told that there is such a promising player.

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

Yes, I played a left midfielder, in this position I played in a sports school. I don’t know what it was connected with, probably because I 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. He also always said that it is better to have good control of one leg than mediocre both, in general, this determined my role. In addition, I was nimble, sharp, I could beat my opponent, I knew dribbling.

The three seasons that you spent at Chornomorets before leaving for Kiev 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 highest in 1983 became difficult 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 you have to look for the reasons for your failures in yourself, you need to work hard to gain a foothold in the top league. After that, I reconsidered my views, attitude, and everything began to improve, and 1984 became a successful year, both for the whole team and for me personally.

- Did you still play on the left?

No, I played a left midfielder only in my first Odessa season, and already starting in 1984, when I played in a double, Semyon Iosifovich pushed me forward from the very first games, and after a while I began to play the role of a striker. 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 oust Ivan Shariy, Volodya Fink, the Kingdom of Heaven from there: we had a very decent set of strikers, but I managed to get into the base, so that year I played with Belanov, but he left only in 1985.

WOULD HAVE PASSED REAL, IT WOULD HAVE TO TAKE 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 pass the German team and play on equal terms with Real Madrid?

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, knew that at that time Werder Bremen was crushing everyone left and right, and understood that it would not be easy, but still hoped for a positive result. In general, going out to any game, you hope to win, especially since we had a good team, the only drawback was the lack of experience in playing against European clubs of this level.

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

Hard to say. For example, our giants, such as Spartak and Dynamo Kiev, have always performed well, and Dynamo have won European cups. Another thing is that Chornomorets in 1985 did not play very well in the championship either. We played the return game with Werder Bremen after an extremely unsuccessful match with Moscow Spartak, 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 really appreciated our strength, saw mistakes and played more responsibly and in an organized manner. Werder Bremen were a very good level team, after a couple of years they became the champions of Germany, and then they won the Cup Winners' Cup. The composition of the Bremen was very good and, as it turned out later, the excellent coach Otto Rehagel was in charge of Werder Bremen, so the opponent was worthy.

- But the next rival was an even more worthy club, the stellar 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 did not differ in stability, both in the home championship and in the European cups - they could lose 1: 4 on the road, and win 4: 0 at home. I don't even know who was stronger, Werder Bremen or Real Madrid, they had to play with each other to find out, but we prevented it.

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

Maybe, although I wouldn't say that Werder Bremen played straight football, they somehow piled on, but their game was built across the flanks. But at our goal was Vitya Grishko, who played well, plus there were tall defenders, Valya Kovach, Vasya Ishak, Vadik Ploskina, who played well with their heads. In addition, it was on our side that in the away game for Werder Bremen was not played by Rudy Feller, one of the strongest strikers of this club. But this is football, someone did not play with them, someone with us, maybe they would still have lost to us on the aggregate of two meetings.

- What do you think, with Real Madrid there was only one goal or something more missing?

I believe that objectively speaking, it was possible to pass 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 would have behaved, how they would have looked in Odessa if they had to achieve a result.

But, in any case, we played with dignity, we were not defeated 0: 5, we managed to perform there normally and score the ball and play a draw at home. And if we had passed Real Madrid, we would probably have to win the UEFA Cup, otherwise we would not have been understood - how it is, two strongest teams knocked out, and then lost to the Bulgarians in the next round, and this was also possible, all the more so as, as I have already said, we did not perform well in the championship at that time. If it were 1984, when we had Romensky and Belanov, it would still be possible to talk about something.

SASHA, WHERE ARE YOU GOING?

- And in 1986, Alexander Shcherbakov passed away at Chernomorets. You followed Romensky and Belanov ...

Then I did not think that Dynamo was 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, first I wrote it, then I refused it, then I wrote the application again, that is, there was no specific decision. I went to Kiev without much desire, and when at the station I met with Semyon Iosifovich and the head of the team, and they asked me the question: "Sasha, where are you going?", I did not want to leave so much that I almost left with them. Probably, I had some kind of dissatisfaction, ambition ...

- Did you make the decision to move to Dynamo on your own or was there an instruction from Kiev?

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

- How did Dynamo Kiev seem to you?

The team, of course, was decent. The work was hard, but how else? There is no other way to achieve the result.

Was your playing style suitable for Dynamo Kiev? Not all technical footballers fit into Valery Lobanovsky's game model ...

It's not about style. Did Belanov fit the style of Chornomorets or Zavarov to Dynamo? Not in this case. Any player can fit into some kind of game scheme and 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. It would probably be easier for him, too, to open up in Moscow "Spartak", but he played in Kiev "Dynamo". It's not about style, football is the same and the requirements are the same. Maybe 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 say to you when you arrived at Dynamo?

Valery Vasilyevich did not speak much. I came to the training camp in Georgia when they were already over. He was ill then, and I talked to him for literally five minutes. He simply said: “Switch to another job, to new tasks. Rebuild, train. "

- What position were you employed in Kiev?

Ahead.

Recently Semyon Altman cited you as an example, as a person who started in one position and opened in a different role. What position did you consider yours, where was it most convenient for you?

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

WITHOUT FANFAR AND ACCUSATIONS

A year later you returned to Odessa, but in the first league. How were you greeted, how did your second visit to Chornomorets turn out?

Okay, how could they have met me? There was no fanfare, no one considered it a traitor either. This is life and 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 best at Chornomorets ...

Yes, in the first round I scored 9 goals, and in the second 3, but this is not connected with the fact that I surrendered somewhere in the game, just in the match with Nikopol Kolos my rib was broken. For some time no one could determine what was the matter, I was just choking. Then they took a picture, and the cause of the pain was found out. Therefore, I suffered for a while, and did not play. I went out on the field bandaged, they rubbed me with the finalgon, everything was on fire, but the half could play. And this, of course, affected the quality of the game.

You played at 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?

Changes are 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", "Dnipro" 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 operated on, a series of injuries followed, 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 to the training camp and through some club channels agreed that Igor Savelyev and I would come to several 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, with me were Volodya Zinich and Vasya Mokan. It turned out that this is a normal city, and the club has a good president and well-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 leading 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 cannot say that it was something special. But it never hurts to be in a different environment, a new team, a country.

- Then there was the Israeli period in your career.

After Poland, I returned to Ukraine. I hope I helped Chornomorets to take the third place in the championship, having played 10 games in the second round, after which I was invited to the Israeli top-league team 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 Ukrainian championship was then even stronger, by inertia the teams retained their players. Then the collective escape began, everyone started to leave, and a recession set in. Today the level of the Ukrainian championship, it seems to me, is normal, although I am not ready to compare it with the Israeli championship. Such parallels are difficult to draw.

- One can judge by the First Channel Cup ...

You cannot compare the Dynamo and Shakhtar championship with those of Maccabi and Hapoel, it is clear that Kiev and Donetsk stand apart. It is also difficult to compare Spartak and CSKA with these teams in one tournament. There would be a general championship, then it would be possible to seriously compare the level of the teams.

DON'T EXTEND THE CONTRACT WHICH WAS NOT

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

Now I am in Odessa and give this interview, and before that I was out of our city for five years - I worked at CSKA Kiev, spent two years as a coach at Obolon Kiev and two years in Cherkassy. Cherkasy Dnipro last year became a team in the first league, but it so happened that I was not allowed to complete my work with this club. As they wrote in the press, “the contract with me was not extended,” although I did not have any contract with the Cherkassians 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 that they did not renew my contract with me. There was no one from the management, they were in Kiev, then I found out everything with them by phone. But this is already history ...

You always give the impression of one of the most intelligent representatives of the coaching department of our country. In your opinion, is it hard 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 leads 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 a rather impulsive person, demanding, I can and shout.

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Alexander SHCHERBAKOV was one of the brightest footballers of the rich in talents Chornomorets in the 80s. As part of the "sailors" Alexander spent more than 8 full seasons, twice took the 4th place with the team in the USSR championship, scored against the famous "Werder".

THE PELE CALLED 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 in an organized way in different sports schools, or just in their yards with their comrades. As far back as I can remember, I have always adored football, in my childhood, from 6-7 years old, I never went outside without a ball, for that I was even nicknamed Pele in the yard. Now children have a huge selection of activities, computers, TV and so on, and then football was our main entertainment, who did not succeed, went to basketball or other sports. But football has always been in the first place for me.
Previously, in the training groups, in particular, in our "Kryvbas", they were accepted at the age of 13, and not at 7, as it is 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 to bring me a test, 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 exert 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.
- You played 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. Ahmed Latifovich Aleskerov came to our team, it was he who began to connect me to the games, I was involved in several matches, came out as a substitute, although, in general, it was still a bit 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, Seryozha 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 they decide 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 ready, others that I was still too young. At SKA I had a difficult period, I don't know how much he helped me in developing my 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 are determined with what you want in life. In Kiev, I didn't play too much, as I had a severe fracture of my leg. Already at the age of 20, when I got to Mogilev, I finally revealed myself in football terms, but SKA for me became a kind of springboard for maturity.

INFORMATION JUDGES

In Mogilev Dnipro you started 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 squad and playing, I will say without false modesty, not bad. There was talk that clubs from Moscow and Minsk seemed to be interested in me, but the matter did not go beyond rumors. Later I learned from Anatoly Baidachny that the breeders of Chernomorets, in particular Valery Porkuyan, would be present at one of the games, and it turned out that they would come to look at me. Probably, they heard about me from the referees, it seems to me, they went to the matches of different leagues and, apparently, noticed me and told that there is such a promising player.
- When you came to Chornomorets, did you play in midfield?
- Yes, I played a left midfielder, in this position I played in a sports school. I don’t know what it was connected with, probably because I 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. He also always said that it is better to have good control of one leg than mediocre both, in general, this determined my role. In addition, I was nimble, sharp, I could beat my opponent, I knew dribbling.
- The three seasons that you spent at Chornomorets before leaving for Kiev 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 highest in 1983 became difficult 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 you have to look for the reasons for your failures in yourself, you need to work hard to gain a foothold in the top league. After that, I reconsidered my views, attitude, and everything began to improve, and 1984 became a successful year, both for the whole team and for me personally.
- Did you still play on the left?
- No, I played a left midfielder only in my first Odessa season, and since 1984, when I played in a double, Semyon Iosifovich pushed me forward from the very first games, and after a while I began to play the role of a forward already at the core.
- Was it connected with the subsequent departure of Igor Belanov?
- No, on the contrary, in 1984 he was still at Chornomorets and I was paired with him. In order to get into the squad, I had to oust Ivan Shariy, Volodya Fink, the Kingdom of Heaven from there: we had a very decent set of strikers, but I managed to get into the base, so that year I played with Belanov, but he left only in 1985.

WOULD HAVE PASSED REAL, IT WOULD HAVE TO TAKE 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 pass the German team and play on equal terms with Real Madrid?
- Then we did not even think about how we would play, tear us apart or compete on equal terms. We followed the press reports, knew that at that time Werder Bremen was crushing everyone left and right, and understood that it would not be easy, but still hoped for a positive result. In general, going out to any game, you hope to win, especially since we had a good team, the only drawback was the lack of experience in playing against European clubs of this level.
- Maybe the time of those games influenced the successful result, because in the early autumn our teams often took over the European ones due to the fact that our season was in full swing, and there it was just beginning? Or was it just that the class of Soviet teams was comparable to the European ones?
- Hard to say. For example, our giants, such as Spartak and Dynamo Kiev, have always performed well, and Dynamo have won European cups. Another thing is that Chornomorets in 1985 did not play very well in the championship either. We played the return game with Werder Bremen after an extremely unsuccessful match with Moscow Spartak, 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 really appreciated our strength, saw mistakes and played more responsibly and in an organized manner. Werder Bremen were a very good level team, after a couple of years they became the champions of Germany, and then they won the Cup Winners' Cup. The composition of the Bremen was very good and, as it turned out later, the excellent coach Otto Rehagel was in charge of Werder Bremen, so the opponent was worthy.
- But the next rival was an even more worthy club, the stellar 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 did not differ in stability, both in the home championship and in the European cups - they could lose 1: 4 on the road, and win 4: 0 at home. I don't even know who was stronger, Werder Bremen or Real Madrid, they had to play with each other to find out, but we prevented it.
- Maybe the football played by the Germans was more suitable for the technical Chornomorets?
- Maybe, although I wouldn't say that Werder Bremen played straight football, they somehow piled on, but their game was built across the flanks. But at our goal was Vitya Grishko, who played well, plus there were tall defenders, Valya Kovach, Vasya Ishak, Vadik Ploskina, who played well with their heads. In addition, it was on our side that in the away game for Werder Bremen was not played by Rudy Feller, one of the strongest strikers of this club. But this is football, someone did not play with them, someone with us, maybe they would still have lost to us on the aggregate of two meetings.
- What do you think, with Real Madrid there was only one goal or something more missing?
- I believe that objectively speaking, it was possible to pass 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 would have behaved, how they would have looked in Odessa if they had to achieve a result.
But, in any case, we played with dignity, we were not defeated 0: 5, we managed to perform there normally and score the ball and play a draw at home. And if we had passed Real Madrid, we would probably have to win the UEFA Cup, otherwise we would not have been understood - how it is, two strongest teams knocked out, and then lost to the Bulgarians in the next round, and this was also possible, all the more so as, as I have already said, we did not perform well in the championship at that time. If it were 1984, when we had Romensky and Belanov, it would still be possible to talk about something.

SASHA, WHERE ARE YOU GOING?

And in 1986, Alexander Shcherbakov was no more at Chernomorets. You followed 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, first I wrote it, then I refused it, then I wrote the application again, that is, there was no specific decision. I went to Kiev without much desire, and when at the station I met with Semyon Iosifovich and the head of the team, and they asked me the question: "Sasha, where are you going?", I did not want to leave so much that I almost left with them. Probably, I had some kind of dissatisfaction, ambition ...
- Did you make the decision to move to Dynamo on your own or was there an instruction from Kiev?
- No, no pressure was exerted on me, it was entirely my decision. I was then invited by both Dnipro and Moscow Spartak, I don't even know why I chose Dynamo, perhaps I wanted to play in the USSR national team, or maybe my friendship with Igor Belanov played a role, who by that time had already played in Kiev. In general, I was reluctant to leave, whether it was done correctly or not, it happened like this.
- How did Dynamo Kiev seem to you?
- The team, of course, was decent. The work was hard, but how else? There is no other way to achieve the result.
- Was your playing style suitable for Dynamo Kiev? Not all technical footballers fit into Valery Lobanovsky's game model ...
- It's not about style. Did Belanov fit the style of Chornomorets or Zavarov to Dynamo? Not in this case. Any player can fit into some kind of game scheme and 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. It would probably be easier for him, too, to open up in Moscow "Spartak", but he played in Kiev "Dynamo". It's not about style, football is the same and the requirements are the same. Maybe 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 say to you when you arrived at Dynamo?
- Valery Vasilyevich did not talk much. I came to the training camp in Georgia when they were already over. He was ill then, and I talked to him for literally five minutes. He simply said: “Switch to another job, to new tasks. Rebuild, train. "
- What position were you employed in Kiev?
- Ahead.
- Recently Semyon Altman cited you as an example, as a person who started in one position and opened in a different role. What position did you consider yours, where was it most convenient for you?
- You can't talk about convenience here. Here we need to talk about where the player brings the maximum benefit, where can he better realize himself? At Chornomorets, they saw that I could be useful in front, while the other guys on the left in the midfield could play stronger. Why not?

WITHOUT FANFAR AND ACCUSATIONS

A year later you returned to Odessa, but in the first league. How were you greeted, how did your second visit to Chornomorets turn out?
- Okay, how could they have met me? There was no fanfare, no one considered it a traitor either. This is life and 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 best at Chornomorets ...
- Yes, in the first round I scored 9 goals, and in the second 3, but this is not due to the fact that I lost somewhere in the game, just in the match with Nikopol Kolos my rib was broken. For some time no one could determine what was the matter, I was just choking. Then they took a picture, and the cause of the pain was found out. Therefore, I suffered for a while, and did not play. I went out on the field bandaged, they rubbed me with the finalgon, everything was on fire, but the half could play. And this, of course, affected the quality of the game.
- You played at 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?
- Changes are 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", "Dnipro" 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 operated on, a series of injuries followed, 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 to the training camp and through some club channels agreed that Igor Savelyev and I would come to several 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 for the Karpaty (Krosno) team in the Polish second league. We went there in a group, with me were Volodya Zinich and Vasya Mokan. It turned out that this is a normal city, and the club has a good president and well-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 leading 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 in the second league they also paid normal money, although I cannot say that it was something special. But it never hurts to be in a different environment, a new team, a country.
- Then there was the Israeli period in your career.
- After Poland, I returned to Ukraine. I hope I helped Chornomorets to take the third place in the championship, having played 10 games in the second round, after which I was invited to the Israeli top-league team 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 Ukrainian championship was then even stronger, by inertia the teams retained their players. Then the collective escape began, everyone started to leave, and a recession set in. Today the level of the Ukrainian championship, it seems to me, is normal, although I am not ready to compare it with the Israeli championship. Such parallels are difficult to draw.
- One can judge by the First Channel Cup ...
- You cannot compare the Dynamo and Shakhtar championship with those of Maccabi and Hapoel, it is clear that Kiev and Donetsk stand apart. It is also difficult to compare Spartak and CSKA with these teams in one tournament. There would be a general championship, then it would be possible to seriously compare the level of the teams.

DON'T EXTEND THE CONTRACT WHICH WAS NOT

Alexander Ivanovich, tell us about your coaching activity, what are you doing now?
- Now I am in Odessa and give this interview, and before that I was out of our city for five years - I worked at CSKA Kiev, spent two years as a coach at Obolon Kiev and two years in Cherkassy. Cherkasy Dnipro last year became a team in the first league, but it so happened that I was not allowed to complete my work with this club. As they wrote in the press, “the contract with me was not extended,” although I did not have any contract with the Cherkassians 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 that they did not renew my contract with me. There was no one from the management, they were in Kiev, then I found out everything with them by phone. But this is already history ...
- You always give the impression of one of the most intelligent representatives of the coaching department of our country. In your opinion, is it hard 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 leads 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 a rather impulsive person, demanding, I can and shout.