Lev Yashin

Lev Ivanovich Yashin (Russian: Лев Ива́нович Я́шин; Moscow, October 22, 1929-ibidem, March 20, 1990), popularly known as the « Black Spider" or the "Black Panther", was a Soviet footballer, widely considered the best goalkeeper in the history of the sport. He was the first goalkeeper to use gloves and knee pads, accessories not used at that time by goalkeepers, in addition to directing his defense and going out to cut the game since he did not stay in the area, but rather participated as a more efficient defender. even creating attacking plays by sending the ball towards his offensive teammates. Yashin was the first and only goalkeeper to date to have won the Ballon d'Or (1963).

Yashin was a complete goalkeeper, of great stature, he was very agile and confident under the goal. He won five Soviet first division titles and three Soviet Union Cups with Dinamo Moscow, a club in which he spent his entire sporting career. With his national team he was champion at the Melbourne Olympic Games in 1956 and the European Championship in 1960.

He was the winner of many awards and recognitions, among the most recognized is having been awarded the Olympic Order by the IOC, elected the best goalkeeper of the century XX by the IFFHS, goalkeeper of the century XX by FIFA, awarded with the FIFA Order of Merit in 2013, included in the FIFA dream team in the history of the World Cup by FIFA, awarded the Order of Lenin and winner of the Ballon d'Or for < i>France Football, being the only goalkeeper to win it so far, which credits him as the best in the world in 1963 and until today, in history, among many other distinctions, it could be said that his goal was « impenetrable".

In 2019, the magazine France Football created the Ballon d'Or for goalkeepers in his honor under the name Yashin Trophy, and on December 14, 2020 he was included in the historic dream team of the Ballon d'Or.

Career

Lev Yashin worked picking melons with his father, who quickly noticed the great reflexes his son had when it came to picking the fruit on the fly and putting them into the truck. Each time, his father gave him the melons with a greater degree of difficulty, such as from truck to truck, this made a Spartak Moscow scout come to see him, as he wanted to check if the legend was true, since there were many comments about this type of skill. When he saw it, he realized that it was true and that's how Lev's sports career began, at only 16 years old. He began as an ice hockey goalkeeper on the team at the tool factory where he worked during World War II, but at the age of 17 he had to replace the goalkeeper of the soccer team, taking his first steps in this sport there. In 1949 he joined the F. K. Dinamo Moscow team associated with the Soviet police and security ministry, in which he spent his entire career, winning 5 Russian Leagues and three Cups.

He participated with his country's national team in 4 World Cups: Sweden 1958 (quarterfinals), being the most outstanding player on his team, Chile 1962 (quarterfinals), England 1966 (semifinals) and Mexico 1970 (quarterfinals). final). He played and won the first European Nations Cup (Euro Cup), in 1960. He represented his country on 78 occasions. He was named best European footballer in 1963. He retired at the age of 42 after having been there for more than two decades in charge of Dinamo's goal, in a tribute match between the Soviet team and a team from the rest of the world.

He holds the record for games played in the Soviet League, with 326 and in those 326 games he played, 270 ended with a clean sheet and saved more than 150 penalties in his entire career. In 1963 he received the Ballon d'Or, a trophy awarded to the best footballer in the world (at that time only to Europeans who played for teams from that continent), being the only goalkeeper to have been awarded this award.

Death

In 1986, after contracting thrombophlebitis while in Budapest, Hungary, Yashin had one of his legs amputated. He died on March 20, 1990 in Moscow, due to stomach cancer, and his remains rest in the Vagankovo Cemetery.

Legend

Lev Yashin is considered the best goalkeeper in World Cup history. The FIFA trophy for the best goalkeeper of that championship, which was awarded for the first time in 1994, is named after him. On December 27, 1999, he was chosen as the best Russian athlete of the century XX, by the sports journalists of their country.

National team

In 1954, Yashin was called up to the Soviet team and would go on to earn 78 caps. With the national team, he won the 1956 Summer Olympics, as well as the first European championship, the European Nations Cup in 1960. He also played in four World Cups, in 1958, 1962, 1966 and 1970. Yashin is credited with four clean sheets in the twelve games he played in the World Cup finals.

The 1958 World Cup, held in Sweden, put Yashin on the map for his performances, with the Soviet Union advancing to the quarterfinals. In a group stage match against eventual Cup champion Brazil, the Soviet team lost 2-0. Against a Brazil team that had Garrincha, Didí, Vavá and a 17-year-old Pelé in attack, Lev Yashin's performance prevented the score from becoming a scandalous rout.

Yashin was nominated for the Ballon d'Or in 1960 and 1961 and placed fifth and fourth, respectively. In 1962, despite suffering two concussions during the tournament, he once again led the team to the quarterfinals, before lose to the host country Chile. That tournament showed that Yashin was too human, having made some unusual mistakes. In the match against Colombia, in which the Soviet Union was leading 4-1, Yashin let in some soft goals, including a goal scored by Marcos Coll directly from a corner kick (the first and only goal scored directly from a corner in the History of the World Cup). The game ended in a 4-4 draw, which led the French newspaper L'Équipe to predict the end of Yashin's career. However, he made an outstanding save against Chile in the quarterfinals. Despite this, the Soviet Union suffered a 2-1 defeat and was eliminated from the World Cup. That World Cup was not for the Soviets.

Despite the disappointment of the 1962 World Cup, Yashin bounced back to win the Ballon d'Or in December 1963. One of his best performances that year was the 1963 England vs Rest of the World football match, where he made a series of spectacular stops. From that moment on, he was known to the world as the Black Spider because he wore a distinctive all-black outfit (a color that is not seen on the court) and because he looked like he had eight arms to save him. most. But to his fans, he was always the fearless Black Panther. He often played in a burnt brick-colored cloth cap. Yashin led the Soviet team to its best FIFA World Cup performance, a fourth-place finish at the 1966 World Cup held in England.

Always willing to give advice to his teammates, Yashin even made a fourth trip to the 1970 World Cup final, held in Mexico, as a third-choice substitute and assistant coach. The Soviet team reached the quarterfinals again. In 1971, in Moscow, he played his last match with MBC Dinamo Moscow. Lev Yashin's FIFA testimonial match was held at Moscow's Lenin Stadium with one hundred thousand fans and a host of football stars in attendance, including Pelé, Eusébio and Franz Beckenbauer.

Participations in Olympic Games

Tournament	Headquarters	Outcome
1956 Olympic Games	Australia	Gold Medal

Participations in World Cups

Tournament	Headquarters	Outcome
1958 Football World Cup	Sweden	Final rooms
1962 World Cup Football	Chile	Final rooms
1966 World Cup Soccer	England	Fourth
1970 World Cup Soccer/Football	Mexico	Final rooms

Participations in Euro Cups

Tournament	Headquarters	Outcome
Euro 1960	France	Champion
Euro 1964	Spain	Subfield
Euro Cup 1968	Italy	Fourth place

Palmarés

National titles

Title	Equipment	country	Year
USSR Cup	Dinamo Moscow	Soviet Union	1953
First division of the USSR			1954
First division of the USSR			1955
First division of the USSR			1957
First division of the USSR			1959
First division of the USSR			1963
USSR Cup			1966-67
USSR Cup			1970

International titles

Title	Equipment	Headquarters	Year
Olympic Games	Selection of the USSR	Australia	1956
Euro		France	1960

Individual distinctions

Playing style and recognitions

Lev Yashin was first class, a real super goalkeeper. His positional game was excellent, but all he did was first. It was the model for the doorman for the next 10 to 15 years, no doubt. I visualized myself doing some of the things I was doing, although I already played in the first division, I used to learn from him. —The English legend Gordon Banks, voted as the second best doorman behind Yashin, the 20th century.

Yashin was “the incomparable goalkeeper of the century”.

Considered by many in the sport to be the greatest goalkeeper in the history of the game, Yashin was an imposing presence in goal due to his tall stature, and was highly regarded for his athleticism, agility, positional sense, bravery and exceptional reflexes, which allowed him to make acrobatic and spectacular saves. Yashin remains the only goalkeeper to have won the Ballon d'Or in 1963. He also saved 151 penalty kicks during his career, more than any other goalkeeper in history, and kept more than 270 clean sheets. For his outstanding service to the people and country, Yashin was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1967, the highest award of the USSR.

Yashin revolutionized the role of goalkeeper like no other before him, being always ready to act as an extra advocate and “initiating dangerous counterattacks with his positioning and quick shots. -

A vocal and authoritative figure between the posts, Yashin is known for revolutionizing the goalkeeping position: he shouted orders to his defenders, came off his line to intercept crosses and also ran out to meet attackers, performed at one point. in which the goalkeepers spent 90 minutes standing in the goal waiting to be called into action. Yashin always organized his team's defensive play, often so strongly that even his wife accused him of shouting too much on the field. He rarely captained his teams, as the later accepted custom of naming a goalkeeper captain was practically unheard of at the time, but his leadership on the field was always evident. Yashin was one of the goalkeepers who began the practice of hitting balls in difficult situations instead of trying to catch them. Other innovative practices that he developed were quickly throwing the ball to start a counterattack, leaving the penalty area to anticipate danger, and commanding and organizing defenders, practices now quite common among goalkeepers. When asked what his secret was, he replied that the trick was to "smoke a cigarette to calm your nerves and then drink a strong drink to tone your muscles."

In 1994, FIFA established the Lev Yashin Award for the best goalkeeper in the World Cup finals. FIFA polls named Yashin as the only goalkeeper in the world team of the XX century. World Soccer magazine named him among its hundred best players of the XX century. Many commentators consider Yashin the greatest goalkeeper in football history, which has led to him being voted goalkeeper on the world's most all-time teams (including the FIFA World Cup All-Time Team and the FIFA dream team). In 2020, Yashin was included in the Ballon d'Or dream team, the best eleven of all time.

Legacy

The following works are dedicated to Yashin:

• Song Вратарь (Porterof Vladimir Vysotsky.
• Poema Года летятYears passRobert Rozhdestvensky.
• Poema Вратарь выходит из ворот (The doorman comes out of the gateYevgeny Yevtushenko, 1974.
• A biographical film in Russian about his life, entitled Lev Yashin: Goalie of My Dreams, was launched on October 22, 2017. His director, Oleg Kapanets, produced earlier Gagarin: First in Space.
• The new $1 billion stadium of MBC Dinamo Moscow, VTB Arena, is officially called Lev Yashin Stadium.
• Several streets bear the name of Yashin in Russian cities, and there are multiple monuments of Yashin, both in Russia and abroad.
• Yashin appears in the FIFA video game series of EA Sports: it was added as a Ultimate Team icon in FIFA 18, along with many other sport legends.
• In 2018, Yashin appeared in a new commemorative ticket of 100 rubles from the Central Bank of Russia that celebrated the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Yashin also appeared in the official World Cup poster published in November 2017.

Ice hockey career

Yashin also played ice hockey (also as a goalkeeper) and won the Soviet Cup in March 1953. He stopped playing ice hockey in 1954 to concentrate on his football career.