Vladimir Pilguy

Vladimir Mikhailovich Pilguy was born on January 26, 1948 in Dnipropetrovsk. His father was an ardent football fan and always took his son to the stadium. And at home, the future Dynamo goalkeeper spent time listening to radio reports. According to him, even then the name Yashin had a magical effect on him.

Pilguy began his career in the children's team of the Dnipropetrovsk club Stroitel, from where he moved to Dnipro, where he later became the main goalkeeper under the then-new coach Valeriy Lobanovsky.

In 1969, Dnipro became the first in its group of the first league and had to play a transition tournament for the right to enter the elite division. Before it, a competition with the participation of four teams was held in Moscow, where the second coach of Dynamo Adamas Golodets approached the young goalkeeper and said that Lev Yashin would like to see him on the team.

Despite such a tempting invitation, Pilguy replied that he would move to Dynamo only if Dnipro did not make it to the top league. In the end, they took only second place in the transition tournament, and the goalkeeper kept his promise.

According to Vladimir Mikhailovich, the main thing he learned from Yashin was simplicity and modesty. Lev Ivanovich always supported his young teammate, who felt a certain pressure when he came on as a substitute.

"I never felt that Yashin treated me with a sense of superiority. He supported me like a father, even if he screwed up somewhere. Any goalkeeper feels that he made a mistake. Having made a mistake on the field, I immediately sat in the corner of the locker room, head on my chest. Lev Ivanovich would come up to me and say, "Why are you hanging your head? Until you let in your five hundred goals, you won't become a goalkeeper," Pilguy said.

In Yashin's farewell match with the world team in May 1971, it was Pilguy who replaced the legendary goalkeeper in the 52nd minute. For a long time afterwards, there was a legend that Lev Ivanovich symbolically handed over his gloves to his young colleague. In fact, their gloves were different sizes, and the players simply hugged.

"It didn't take me long to appreciate his capabilities. Fast, quick-witted, agile, with instant reactions, well-coordinated, he showed great promise. We trained together, and when the day of my farewell match came, at the beginning of the second half I gave up my post in goal to Volodya Pilguy, confident that this post had fallen into good hands," Yashin said.

In his first season with Dynamo, Pilguy won the silver medal in the USSR championship and the national Cup. In 1972, he played in the final of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, and the following season he was recognized as the best goalkeeper of the USSR. He only failed to become the national champion - he missed the 1976 season after an operation.

According to the goalkeeper, the victory in the USSR Cup in 1977 stands out for him, after which the trophy spent the whole night in his apartment. In total, Vladimir Pilguy played 12 seasons for Dynamo and played 270 official matches. After the end of his sports career, he was the president of the club, a goalkeeper coach and an advisor to the director of the white-blue academy.

Vladimir Mikhailovich always tried to play in such a way as not to injure anyone. He always went for the ball until the end, but never intimidated the opposing forwards, who sometimes gave him a hard time.

“Forwards, as a rule, assessed the situation in the penalty area adequately. But there was one striking exception: Starukhin in Donetsk. He was going for all the balls. In one episode, he hit me on purpose, and I passed out. I came to my senses in the Botkin Hospital. I saw my wife sitting there crying, and it seemed like I had just been on the field,” Pilguy said.

Vladimir Mikhailovich met his wife Irina in his youth and has never been separated from her since. He always brought her gifts from his trips, and she was jealous when his husband's fans called them at home and wrote letters. But this only made their love stronger.

"He is an incorrigible romantic. He brought me a bouquet of flowers from every trip. He even managed to ask Valeriy Vasilyevich Lobanovsky for an hour off from the base on the day of an official match to congratulate me on my 17th birthday," said Irina Pilguy.