Lev Yashin

The future European champion, Lev Yashin was born on October 22, 1929 in the Bogorodsky district of Moscow to a working-class family - his parents worked at a factory. Lev had been involved in sports since childhood. Together with other children, he played football, hockey, and lapta. His most amazing hobby was ski jumping from homemade ramps, which were sheds covered in snow.

"We fell, hurt ourselves, got huge bruises, but we learned to stand firmly on our feet, not to be afraid of heights, to control our bodies," - Lev Ivanovich believed that it was extreme sports that prepared him well for a career as a professional football player.

In October 1941, the defense plant where Lev's father worked was evacuated to Ulyanovsk. The whole family moved there, so Yashin celebrated his 12th birthday unloading a train with factory machines.

At the age of 16, Lev Yashin received his first award - the medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War."

"At first, he helped unload wagons with equipment, and a year later stood at the machine himself. That's when he started smoking. The shift lasted four hours, then a short break and a new cycle. This continued day after day. Lev later said: there was no strength left to leave the workshop. He slept in a box for shells," his wife Valentina Timofeevna recalled.

At the age of 18, Yashin went to serve in the armed forces and was assigned to a unit of the internal troops in Moscow. He couldn't do without football in the army, where he played for the team of the district council of the Dynamo. There, he was noticed by the Dynamo coach Arkady Chernyshev, who invited the demobilized soldier to the youth team. From then on, Lev Yashin played only for the white-blues, until the end of his career in 1971.

At first, Yashin combined football with hockey (from 1950 to 1953). In 1953, he even became the winner of the USSR Hockey Cup and the bronze medalist of the national championship, also playing as a goalkeeper.

Lev Yashin spent 22 seasons for Dynamo football club: he became the USSR champion five times (1954, 1955, 1957, 1959 and 1963) and won the national Cup three times (1953, 1967, 1970).

“It was very comfortable and confident to play with Lev Ivanovich. On the field and during the break he could scold you pretty well, but no one was offended, because it was always very fair criticism. And in life he was the kindest person. It’s rare to meet people who always wish you well and sincerely want a young player to progress,” recalled Yuri Semin.

In 1954, Lev Yashin began playing for the USSR national team, for which he played 74 matches. Together with the national team, Yashin won the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne and the first ever European Championship in 1960.

He played in the final stages of the World Championships three times: in 1958 in Sweden, in 1962 in Chile and in 1966 in England. At the last of them, the Soviet Union team was closest to the podium. The Soviet team confidently won the group tournament, and then defeated the Hungarians, who had beaten the Brazilians a week earlier.

Unfortunately, the semi-final match with the West German team and the match for 3rd place with the Portuguese were not so successful for the Soviet team. Nevertheless, Yashin won the true love of the fans and was awarded a personal ovation.

On October 23, 1963, at Wembley Stadium in London, Lev Yashin played for the World Team against England in a famous match dedicated to the centenary of English football. The hosts won 2-1, but our goalkeeper did not miss a single goal.

“If my name has remained in football, I owe it not to Mother Nature or lucky genes. Probably, first of all, to those who made up the environment in which I grew up and was brought up, who taught me to work and play football. I owe it to the circumstances that made my life this way and not otherwise. I probably owe it to myself, too, because, while working, I was not afraid to get my hands dirty, my lips did not curl from work sweat, I was not embarrassed to admit to myself my weaknesses and my own imperfections,” said Lev Yashin.

In 1963, Yashin was awarded the prize for the best footballer in Europe, the Golden Ball, from the weekly France Football. Neither before nor after has any goalkeeper in the world been awarded this honor.

On May 27, 1971, Lev Yashin's farewell match took place in Luzhniki in the presence of 103 thousand spectators. In this match, the team of the All-Union Sports Society Dynamo played against the World Stars team, for which Eusebio, Bobby Charlton, Gerd Müller and many others played.

At 41, Yashin endured an entire half of intense play against the best football players on the planet, leaving his goal intact. Vladimir Pilguy, who came out for the second half, missed two goals, but did not allow the great goalkeeper's last match to end in defeat for his team.

"Dynamo Constellation" is a unique project launched on the day of Alexey Khomich's 100th anniversary in March 2020. Based on the results of the fan vote, the final roster of 11 outstanding Dynamo players was formed. During 2020 and 2021, 11 stars included in the constellation were named after legendary Dynamo football players: Alexey Khomich, Lev Yashin, Mikhail Yakushin, Konstantin Beskov, Mikhail Semichastny, Igor Chislenko, Sergei Solovyov, Valery Maslov, Viktor Tsarev, Igor Dobrovolsky and Alexander Novikov.