Vasyl Karlovych Rats ( uk, Василь Карлович Рац; hu, Rácz László) (born 25 March 1961) is a Ukrainian former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He participated in two

World Cups A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

with the

Soviet Union national football team The Soviet Union national football team ( rus, сбо́рная СССР по футбо́лу, r=sbórnaya SSSR po futbólu) was the national Association football, football team of the former Soviet Union. After the Dissolution of the Soviet U ...

Club career

Rats played several seasons with

FC Dynamo Kyiv Football Club Dynamo Kyiv (, ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Dynamo Sports Society, the club as a separate business entity was offici ...

, where he won the

Soviet Top League The Soviet Top League, known after 1970 as the Higher League (russian: Чемпионат СССР по футболу: Высшая лига), served as the top division of Soviet Union football from 1936 until 1991. The professional top level ...

three times.

International career

Rats earned 47 caps and scored 4 goals for the

USSR 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 nationa ...

, from 1986 to 1990. He played in two World Cups, in 1986 and 1990. In the 1986 World Cup he scored a goal with a 27-meter shot against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

in a 1–1 draw in the first round: a headed clearance by

was picked up by

Ihor Belanov Igor Ivanovich Belanov ( rus, И́горь Ива́нович Бела́нов) or Ihor Ivanovych Bielanov ( uk, Ігор Іванович Бєланов; born 25 September 1960) is a Ukrainian former professional footballer who played as a stri ...

and laid off to Rats, who on the first touch, struck the ball powerfully from several yards outside the area past French goalkeeper

Joël Bats Joël Bats (born 4 January 1957) is a French former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He spent his entire senior club career in his native France, appearing in a total of 553 competitive club matches and 504 Division 1 matche ...

and into the top left corner of the net. During

Euro 1988 The 1988 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in West Germany from 10 to 25 June 1988. It was the eighth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA. The tournament crowned the Nethe ...

his goal secured

a 1–0 victory in the group stage over eventual champions

The Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

reached the final, but were unable to repeat their achievement in the group stage and lost 2–0.

Honours

: 1985, 1986, 1990 *

Soviet Cup The Soviet Cup, or USSR Cup (russian: Кубок СССР),, be, Кубак СССР, uz, СССР Кубоги, kk, КСРО Кубогы, ka, სსრკ თასი, az, ССРИ кубоку, lt, TSRS taurė, ro, Cupa URSS (Moldova ...

: 1982, 1987, 1990 *

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

: 1986 *

UEFA Euro 1988 The 1988 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in West Germany from 10 to 25 June 1988. It was the eighth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA. The tournament crowned Netherlan ...

Runner-up: 1988

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rats, Vasyl 1961 births Living people Ukrainian people of Hungarian descent Soviet footballers Soviet expatriate footballers Ukrainian footballers Ukrainian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate footballers in Hungary Ukrainian football managers FC Nyva Vinnytsia players FC Dynamo Kyiv players FC Karpaty Lviv players La Liga players RCD Espanyol footballers Ferencvárosi TC footballers 1986 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1988 players 1990 FIFA World Cup players Soviet Union international footballers Soviet Top League players Ukrainian Premier League managers Soviet expatriate sportspeople in Spain Soviet expatriate sportspeople in Hungary Ukrainian expatriate sportspeople in Hungary FC Obolon Kyiv managers Soviet people of Hungarian descent Association football midfielders Recipients of the Order of Merit (Ukraine), 3rd class Sportspeople from Zakarpattia Oblast