Vasili Sergeyevich Kulkov (; 11 June 1966 – 10 October 2020) was a Russian

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

. Either a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

or defensive midfielder, he was best known for his spells at

Spartak Moscow Spartak Moscow may refer to the following teams based or formerly based in Moscow, Russia: * FC Spartak Moscow, an association football club * HC Spartak Moscow, a professional ice hockey team * Spartak GM Moscow, a semi-professional rugby club * WB ...

and Benfica. Having retired as a player, he continued his work in football as an assistant in various coaching and managerial crews. Diagnosed with brain cancer in 2019, he died on 10 October 2020, aged 54.

Club career

Kulkov was born in Moscow, Soviet Union. From 1984 until the end of his career he played for a host of clubs in Russia, coming to prominence most notably with hometown's FC Spartak Moscow, from where he left in 1991 for a Portuguese league stint with S.L. Benfica (where he played with countrymen

Aleksandr Mostovoi Aleksandr Vladimirovich Mostovoi (russian: link=no, Алекса́ндр Влади́мирович Мостово́й ; born 22 August 1968) is a Russian former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. Known as ''O Zar de ...

and

Sergei Yuran Sergei Nikolayevich Yuran (russian: link=no, Сергей Николаевич Юран, uk, Сергій Миколайович Юран ''Serhij Mykolajovyč Juran''; born 11 June 1969) is a Russian professional football manager and a forme ...

). At Benfica, Kulkov scored two great goals in the 1994 Cup Winners Cup game in Leverkusen to pull Benfica into semi finals. In the 1994–95 season, both Kulkov and Yuran joined

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, MHIH, OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portu ...

, being very important figures in the league's conquest. Aged 29, the former returned to Spartak, only to move shortly after to Millwall in the English

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

, where he failed to adjust immensely, appearing very rarely in a six-month loan. After two years with

FC Zenit Saint Petersburg Football Club Zenit (russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб «Зенит» ), also known as Zenit Saint Petersburg or simply Zenit, is a Russian professional association football, football club based in Saint Petersburg. Founded in ...

and one at

FC Krylia Sovetov Samara PFC Krylia Sovetov Samara (russian: Профессиональный футбольный клуб «Крылья Советов» Самара) is a football club from Russia based in Samara. It returned to the Russian Premier League for the 20 ...

, Kulkov returned to Portugal, joining

F.C. Alverca Futebol Clube de Alverca is a Portuguese Association football, football club based in Alverca do Ribatejo, Vila Franca de Xira. It currently plays in the Portuguese 3rd Division. History F.C. Alverca was founded on 1 September 1939. After many ...

– Benfica's feeder club but also in the top flight. He closed out his career with amateurs FC Shatura, aged 35. Kulkov then had some spells in coaching, notably assisting countryman Anatoliy Byshovets at

C.S. Marítimo Club Sport Marítimo MH M, commonly known as Marítimo ( locally ), is a Portuguese sports club founded in Funchal, Madeira, in 1910. Marítimo is best known for its football team playing in Portugal's top-flight competition, the Primeira Liga. ...

in 2003. Six years later he moved to Spartak Moscow's reserves, in the same capacity.

International career

Kulkov made his debut for the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

on 26 April 1989, in a

1990 FIFA World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second time (the first being Me ...

qualifier In linguistics, a modifier is an optional element in phrase structure or clause structure which ''modifies'' the meaning of another element in the structure. For instance, the adjective "red" acts as a modifier in the noun phrase "red ball", provi ...

against

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

. Despite playing regularly for the national team for several years, he did not participate in any major tournament: in 1990, he was not selected for the final stages in Italy, and missed

UEFA Euro 1992 The 1992 UEFA European Football Championship was hosted by Sweden between 10 and 26 June 1992. It was the ninth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA. Denmark won the 1992 championship, having qualifi ...

(with

CIS Cis or cis- may refer to: Places * Cis, Trentino, in Italy * In Poland: ** Cis, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, south-central ** Cis, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, north Math, science and biology * cis (mathematics) (cis(''θ'')), a trigonome ...

) and

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

due to injury. Before the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States ...

, several

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

players, including Kulkov, signed a letter demanding that team manager

Pavel Sadyrin Pavel Fyodorovich Sadyrin (russian: Павел Фёдорович Садырин; 18 September 1942 – 1 December 2001) was a Soviet and Russian footballer and manager. Career Sadyrin played as a midfielder for Zvezda Perm and Zenit Leningra ...

resign. The coach did not and the player refused to participate.

Honours

;Spartak Moscow * Soviet Top League: 1989 *

Russian Top League The Russian Premier League (RPL; russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is the top division professional association football league in Russia. It was established at the end of 2001 ...

: 1997 ;Benfica *

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

: 1993–94 * Taça de Portugal: 1992–93 ;Porto *

: 1994–95

References

External links

RussiaTeam profile
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kulkov, Vasili 1966 births 2020 deaths Deaths from brain tumor Footballers from Moscow Soviet footballers Russian footballers Association football defenders Association football midfielders Association football utility players Soviet Top League players Russian Premier League players FC Asmaral Moscow players FC Spartak Vladikavkaz players FC Spartak Moscow players FC Zenit Saint Petersburg players PFC Krylia Sovetov Samara players Primeira Liga players S.L. Benfica footballers FC Porto players F.C. Alverca players English Football League players Millwall F.C. players Soviet Union international footballers Russia international footballers Dual internationalists (football) Soviet expatriate footballers Russian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Portugal Expatriate footballers in England Russian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Russian football managers FC Dynamo Moscow reserves players Deaths from cancer in Russia