Valery Ivanovich Voronin (russian: Валерий Иванович Воронин; 17 July 1939 – 22 May 1984) was a Soviet

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 ...

who represented

Torpedo Moscow Football Club Torpedo Moscow (russian: link=no, ФК "Торпедо" Москва, ''FK Torpedo Moskva''), known as Torpedo Moscow, is a Russian professional football club based in Moscow that was founded in 1924 and returned to the Russian Pre ...

and the Soviet national team. He was a versatile defensive midfielder whose impressive technical abilities and hard tackling made him one of the most complete midfielders of the 1960s. He was also capable of playing as a central defender.

Early life

Valery Voronin was born in Moscow, on 17 July 1939. He started playing football in the child team of the Kauchuk factory in 1952. Then Valery moved to the famous FShM, the youth football school that raised many famous players including

Igor Chislenko Igor Leonidovich Chislenko (russian: Игорь Леонидович Численко, 4 January 1939 — 22 September 1994) was a Soviet association football player. He played over 200 league games for FC Dinamo Moscow, winning two Soviet leag ...

and

Vladimir Fedotov Vladimir Grigoryevich Fedotov (russian: Владимир Григорьевич Федотов; 18 January 1943 – 29 March 2009) was a Soviet football striker and manager who holds the all-time record of caps for CSKA Moscow. He was the son of ...

. He played for FShM until 1958 when he joined

Career

During his club career, Voronin played for FC Torpedo Moscow, winning the championship twice, and was the

Soviet Footballer of the Year The award Soviet Footballer of the Year was awarded to the best footballer of the Soviet Union from 1964 until 1991. The poll was conducted among journalists by the weekly sport newspaper '' Football'' (Football-Hockey). Each journalist named his o ...

in 1964 and 1965. Between 1960 and 1968 Voronin earned 63 caps and scored 5 goals for the

USSR national football team The Soviet Union national football team ( rus, сбо́рная СССР по футбо́лу, r=sbórnaya SSSR po futbólu) was the national football team of the former Soviet Union. After the breakup of the Union the team was transformed i ...

, and represented the country in the

1962 FIFA World Cup The 1962 FIFA World Cup was the seventh edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It was held from 30 May to 17 June 1962 in Chile. The qualification rounds took place be ...

and the 1966 FIFA World Cup World Cups. Voronin was considered an individualist which at times conflicted with the ethos of his national team. During the summer of 1968, he was involved in a serious car accident from which he recovered physically but which left him psychologically scarred. He became a heavy drinker and in May 1984 was found murdered. The investigation into his murder never turned up any leads.

Honours

Club

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 ...

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Jan ...

, 1965 *

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 ( Moldov ...

: 1960 *

: 1964, 1965

Individual

: 1964, 1965 *

FIFA World Cup All-Star Team At the end of each FIFA World Cup final tournament, several awards are presented to the players and teams who have distinguished themselves in various aspects of the game. Awards *There are currently five post-tournament awards from the FIFA ...

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wor ...

References

1939 births 1984 deaths Soviet men's footballers Russian men's footballers 1962 FIFA World Cup players 1964 European Nations' Cup players 1966 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1968 players Soviet Top League players FC Torpedo Moscow players Footballers from Moscow Soviet Union men's international footballers Men's association football midfielders Unsolved murders in the Soviet Union {{russia-footy-midfielder-1930s-stub