From Golovko to Petrakov. Ukrainian coaches who worked with the national teams of other countries

The appointment of the ex-coach of the Ukrainian national team Oleksandr Petrakov as a mentor of the Armenian national team is an extraordinary event. In any case, earlier only two domestic specialists, with one caveat, managed to work with teams representing UEFA. And in general, not many Ukrainian coaches received invitations to lead the main teams of other countries.

In Soviet times, our specialists were sent to countries “friendly” to the union, at the beginning of Ukrainian independence it was already more difficult to get an invitation, and later, until recently, our trainers managed to work only in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan. They remembered how domestic coaches worked in the national teams of other countries.

According to the Soviet order

Nikolai Golovko (Mali national team 1979-1982)

One of the best defenders in the history of Shakhtar, who has played more than 1,400 matches at all levels and in all competitions, after the end of his playing career, he became a coach. He received the title of “Honored” in the Ukrainian SSR, and then went to Mali for three years. True, not at the best time: in the period from 1970 to 1998, the team did not take part in the world championships, and it failed to qualify for the final part of the African Cup from 1974 to 1994.

Valery Yaremchenko (Syria 1985-1987)

In another exotic place in the mid-1980s, another ex-Shakhtar player Valery Yaremchenko found himself, who was brought to Syria.

“I got there from Shakhtar, where I worked as a coach. The first team at that time was headed by Viktor Nosov, and I was engaged in the “double”. My team was not bad, even good. But I talked with Nosov and understood that he did not see any prospects in his work in Donetsk. Therefore, I called Vyacheslav Koloskov, who held a position in the sports committee of the USSR. I say: “I’m young, I can work.” He did not give any bribes for assistance to anyone. About six months passed, they called me and asked me to bring the documents. Soon I was already packing my bags for Syria.

My family was very happy there. After the Soviet Union in Syria, life was like God’s in his bosom. The president of the Syrian federation, Farouk Buzo, was also the president of the Asian federation. The Syrian national team constantly traveled, because he organized trips to sparring for us. Countries took over our fees. After all, Syria is poor, and football requires appropriate preparation.”

In the selection for the 1986 World Cup, the Syrian team won its group with Yaremchenko, but lost to Iraq in the play-offs: 0:0 at home and 1:3 away.

Valery Lobanovsky (UAE team 1990-1992, Kuwait team 1993-1996)

As befits the best coach of the USSR and Ukraine, Valery Lobanovsky became the first Ukrainian specialist to achieve relatively serious success in working with foreign teams.

After the 1990 World Cup, which was unsuccessful for the USSR national team, the specialist decided to leave not only the post of coach of the national team, but also the position of head coach of Dynamo, choosing, it seemed, a somewhat unexpected and exotic option for his level – the national team of the United Arab Emirates. One of the reasons for this decision was later named by Lobanovsky himself.

“I have no doubt that you can’t work in a serious club team in Europe if you have to communicate with the players through an interpreter… With the national teams of such countries as the Emirates or Kuwait, direct work on the field or in theoretical classes takes much less time in total than in a club where players are in daily contact. And the offer was interesting both professionally and financially. It was an opportunity to get a different professional experience than before, to discover other horizons.”

It turned out successfully: under the leadership of Lobanovsky, the UAE team made it to the final of the 1992 Asian Cup, where it eventually took fourth place – at that time the best result in the history of the team. But then the coach had a conflict with the local federation, because of which the contract was terminated.

However, Lobanovsky did not remain without work for a long time, accepting the Kuwait national team and leading it to third place at the 1994 Asian Games. A year and a half later, Mater returned to Dynamo to build another outstanding team in the history of the club.

Mikhail Fomenko (team of Iraq 1990, national team of Guinea 1994)

The ex-coach of the Ukrainian national team in the late 1980s was in good standing in the USSR, and the modest Guria (not in terms of financial capabilities – it is unlikely that anyone could compare with the team, but in terms of history and status) even led to the top division of Soviet football . But in 1990, Georgian clubs decided to refuse to participate in the USSR tournaments, and the coach was offered to go to Iraq, to ​​the son of Saddam Hussein – Udeey, who was the curator of the football team, headed the National Olympic Committee.

“Trusted me. I arrived in Iraq having signed a contract through Sovintersport under the 1+2 scheme. Of the 5 thousand dollars of salary, 2 were automatically transferred to Moscow. After some time, Uday proposed to sign a new agreement – “2 + 1” with three times the salary and I should receive all the money. Hussein Jr. promised to come to an agreement with Sovintersport, ”said Fomenko.

According to the coach, he regretted that his work in Iraq ended early, after only eight months. But the war began, there was no way out. And four years later, Fomenko ended up on a short business trip to Africa, accepting the Guinea national team.

“They started working, and just then they had a change in the Cabinet of Ministers. I worked under a preliminary contract, which I concluded here. We played a couple of matches – I don’t remember where we played … Botswana is a country next to South Africa, which is also prosperous, and we beat the hosts there, in my opinion, 2-0 and returned in triumph. They defeated someone else, the Guineans are happy, there are no words: well, everyone, they say, let’s sign the contract, ”the coach recalled. But he himself admits that here, at the right time, he received a call with a job offer from CSKA-Borisfen.

Ukrainian breakthroughs

Vladimir Muntyan (Guinea national team 1995-1997)

The decision of the then mentor of the youth team of Ukraine, which solved the problem of reaching the final part of the 1996 Olympics, to leave for Africa was quite unexpected. The Ukrainian national team in the selection started well, the team was considered very promising, but, like many other teams, it was unnecessary to anyone at that time.

“The decision is mature. To a large extent, not by my will. We have been creating the team for three years, looked at dozens of candidates, and decided on the composition. But all this time, it turned out, she was needed by me and my assistants. The federation sent us to the ministry – they say, they are engaged in Olympians there, these are not our concerns. In the ministry, football was considered an internal affair of the federation. So, balancing between the two departments, I had to beat up the thresholds, prove that I didn’t need the national team, beat out uniforms, inventory, organize fees with a fight. It got to the point of absurdity: for the match with Estonia, which took place in late autumn, in cool weather, we could not equip the entire team in a single uniform. The issue of issuing insulated jackets with national symbols for substitute players for two hours was decided at the level of the ministry, ”recalled Muntean.

By the way, he got into the national team of Guinea after Mikhail Fomenko. It turned out pretty well: under the leadership of Muntyan, who worked with the team for two years, the team reached the final of the African Cup, where they played without the Ukrainian.

Viktor Pozhechevsky (Team of Turkmenistan 1998-1999)

The specialist, who even worked with Vorskla from the KFK USSR championship before playing in European competitions from Ukraine (at the same time “grabbing” the bronze of the 1996/1997 national championship), received an offer to lead the national team of Turkmenistan and become a consultant at that time to the country’s main club, Kopetdag, in 1998 .

Having moved to Ashgabat, Pozhechevsky moved there, having issued citizenship, and several Ukrainian players – including Sosenko, Bondarenko, Kislov. And in general, then Turkmenistan had a pretty nice team, which, under the leadership of the Ukrainian, made it to the quarterfinals of the Asian Games. But Pozhechevsky did not continue working with the team, returning to Ukraine at the beginning of 1999.

Vladimir Bessonov (Turkmenistan 2002-2023)

Soon another Ukrainian appeared in Turkmenistan – Vladimir Bessonov. True, his cooperation with the national team and Nissa, in which he, like Pozhechevsky at first in Kopetdag, was a consultant, was not successful.

“They owe it, they didn’t give it back – God bless them. I didn’t get richer or poorer. In Brazil, boys are born with a ball, and in Turkmenistan – with a horse. No attention to football. The balls were in trouble. From Kyiv he asked his friends to send 20 pieces – they were immediately taken away for souvenirs. The form for the national team of Turkmenistan was also presented by these businessmen friends. The richest country, and everyone cares about football, ”recalled Bessonov, whom the Federation could not organize sparring even with the teams of neighboring countries.

And the coach himself, before the start of the Asian Cup selection, broke the contract and left the team. By the way, Turkmenistan finished the qualifying tournament in first place in its group, ahead of the teams of the United Arab Emirates, Syria and Sri Lanka. In the final tournament, she became the third in her group after Uzbekistan and Iraq.

Semyon Altman – Moldova (2019)

The specialist who worked in Korea with Anatoly Byshovets, who is discussed below, and in the national team of Ukraine with Oleg Blokhin, independently “received” the national team relatively recently – in 2019.

Altman was invited to the post of sports director of the Football Federation of Moldova, and after the head coach of the national team Alexander Spiridon was dismissed due to unsatisfactory results, he temporarily headed the team.

It didn’t work out very well. Moldova, under the leadership of Altman, lost four matches in the Euro 2020 qualification without scoring a single goal: Andorra (0:1) and Iceland (0:3) – away, Turkey (0:4) and Albania (0:4) – at home.

Ukrainians by origin

Vladimir Salkov – Uzbekistan (2000-2001)

One of the most successful coaches in the history of Donetsk Shakhtar until the beginning of the Lucescu era. With the Miners, he won silver and bronze of the USSR championship, reached the Cup final. Of course, there is a debate about whether Salkov, who was born in Donetsk and devoted half of his life to our football, but then moved to Russia and received Russian citizenship after the collapse of the USSR, is a Ukrainian coach. It will simply fix: in 2000-2011, Salkov worked with the national team of Uzbekistan. Yes, already having a Russian passport.

Anatoly Byshovets (Korea 1994-1996)

A similar story has a native of Kiev Anatoly Byshovets. Having won the 1988 Games with the USSR Olympic team, and with the Euro 1992 national qualifying tournament, the specialist failed with the CIS team in the final part of the European Championship.

Later, the coach did not succeed in the Cypriot AEL, which could not be kept in the top league. But Byshovets had a pretty good period in Korea, in the national team of which he worked first as a consultant, and then as a head coach, simultaneously leading the country’s Olympic team.

With Byshovets, the first team took fourth place at the 1994 Asian Games, losing in the small final to Lobanovsky’s Kuwait, and the Olympic team went to the Games in Atlanta, but failed to make it to the playoffs there. We will not talk about working with the Russian national team.

Azerbaijani who became Ukrainian

Ahmed Alexerov (Azerbaijan, 1999)

But there are also examples to the contrary. Akhmed Alekserov, who was born in Baku, but gave many years to Chernomorets as a coach (winner of the USSR First League, bronze medalist of the Higher League, debut in European competitions), worked in four countries – his native Azerbaijan, which became his native Ukraine, as well as in Moldova and Russia. Recognized as an honored coach of Ukraine. In 2012, he was awarded a commemorative star on the Alley of Football Glory in Chernomorets, in Odessa, and died.

And in 1999, from March to October, he played nine matches at the helm of the Azerbaijani national team. Seven – official, within the framework of the selection of Euro-2000, two – friendly. The result – one victory, two draws (including with Portugal in the selection) and seven defeats.

Bogdan Gryschuk