95 years since the birth of Lev Yashin!

The future idol of millions spent his childhood in a house on Millionnaya Street in Moscow, and after the start of the World War II, he moved to Ulyanovsk with his family. At the age of 12, Yashin began helping adults at a defense plant, and at 16 he received his first award - a medal for valiant labor during the war.

Returning to Moscow, Lev became interested in football and learned the basics at the Krasny Oktyabr stadium, playing for the plant's youth team. There, due to his height, he was assigned to the position of goalkeeper, predetermining his future fate. In 1948, he joined the army, where he ended up in the Ministry of Internal Affairs troops and began to play for the football team of the unit, which played in the championship of the Dynamo district council.

In one of the matches, the young goalkeeper was noticed by the coach of the white-blue youth team, Arkady Chernyshev, who invited him to his training. So, in 1949, Yashin began playing for the Dynamo reserve team, and the following year he debuted in the main team. However, the first games were unsuccessful, and he received his next chance only three years later.

During this time, Lev Ivanovich mastered the skills of a hockey goalkeeper and even won the USSR Cup with Dynamo, but still decided to focus on football and worked tirelessly at the training sessions of the second team. In the summer of 1953, Yashin returned to the main team and staked out a place in the goal for himself for 18 years.

In addition to his incredible play on the goal line, beautiful jumps and unshakable self-confidence, Yashin is remembered as an innovator of goalkeeping art. He began to move around the entire penalty area and go far out of the goal, covering the defenders and prompting them. Yashin was one of the first to throw the ball in with his hand, starting quick counterattacks. His style was later adopted by other goalkeepers in the USSR and Europe.

In total, Lev Ivanovich played 358 matches for Dynamo (the fourth highest in the club's history), in 178 of which he kept clean sheet (a club record), and helped his beloved club win five USSR championships and three national cups. As part of the USSR national team, he became European champion and Olympic gold medalist, and also played in three World Cups.

Yashin was included in the list of "33 best football players of the USSR" 16 times, 13 of them as number 1, and he received his main individual award at the end of the 1963 season, when Dynamo conceded only 8 goals in 29 matches. More than 60 years have passed since then, and the Golden Ball has not been awarded to any goalkeeper since.

After finishing his career as a football player, Yashin graduated from the coaching school at the State Central Institute of Physical Culture, was the head of the Dynamo team and deputy head of the football and hockey department of the Dynamo Central Council.