Yuri Mikhailovich Kovtun (russian: Юрий Михайлович Ковтун; born 5 January 1970) is a Russian

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 ...

coach and a former defender, well known as a 1990s

Russia national football team The Russia national football team (russian: Сборная России по футболу, Sbornaya Rossii po futbolu) represents the Russia, Russian Federation in men's international association football. It is controlled by the Russian Footb ...

player, as well as

Dynamo Moscow MGO VFSO "Dynamo" (russian: МГО ВФСО «Динамо»), commonly known as Dynamo Moscow (russian: Динамо Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. Founded by Felix Dzerzhinsky on 18 April 1923, Dynamo Moscow was the first ...

and

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 ...

stopper. He is an assistant coach of

FC Rodina Moscow FC Rodina Moscow (russian: ФК «Родина» Москва) is a Russian football team based in Moscow that will play in the second-tier Russian First League The Russian First League (russian: Первая лига, Pervaya liga), formerl ...

Playing career

Kovtun's career started in minor Russian club Luch Azov in 1988. Then he started his career as a professional player in

FC SKA Rostov-na-Donu FC SKA Rostov-on-Don (russian: ФК СКА Ростов-на-Дону) is a Russian association football club based in Rostov-on-Don. The club's history includes becoming runners-up of the Soviet Top League in 1966 and winning the Soviet Cup in ...

and

FC Rostselmash Rostov-on-Don FC Rostov (russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб Ростов) is a Russian professional football club based in Rostov-on-Don, Rostov Oblast. The club are members of the Russian Premier League, and play at the Rostov Arena. After the ...

. In 1992,

Rostselmash Rostselmash (russian: Ростсельмаш) is a Russian agricultural equipment company, based in Rostov-on-Don. It was founded in 1929. It primarily produces combine harvesters. The company income in 2005 was 400 million dollars. The company nam ...

and Kovtun starred in the first

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 ...

n championship where they unexpectedly promoted to 8th place. Kovtun was impressive during the season so two top teams were interested in him at the same time : Dynamo and

. In 1993, Kovtun chose Dynamo Moscow and became their key player for years, until his move to Spartak in 1999. Whereas Kovtun's only honour during his 6-year spell in Dynamo was a Russian Cup in 1995, he won 3 titles in 1999, 2000 and 2001 after joining Spartak. Moreover, he took part in numerous

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

games and found himself a regular Russian national football team player.

International career

Kovtun played for the Russian international team 50 times, scoring 2 goals. The most notable moments of his international career were his long shot goal to

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

during a 2002 World Cup qualifier and an own goal in a 0–1 away loss to

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

Euro 2000 qualifying. He was a part of the Russian squad in the

Euro 96 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

and World Cup 2002 finals. Kovtun was sent off in a Euro '96 match for a lunge at

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Dieter Eilts Dieter Eilts (born 13 December 1964) is a German former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. After retiring as a player, he began a managerial career and also worked for SV Werder Bremen as director of the football academy. Play ...

Strongnesses and weaknesses

Kovtun's strong points as a defender were mainly great tackling, tight marking of opponents and scoring goals in the crucial matches. The main weakness of his game throughout his career was a lack of pace and acceleration. Stemming from this lack of speed, he often had to play too dirty so he could easily receive yellow cards or even be sent off (he holds the Russian League record for number of bookings).

Current activity

During 2005, already a Spartak's veteran, he could not gain a place in the first team and most of the season he played for the reserves. In January 2006, he left Spartak Moscow for just relegated into

Russian First Division The Russian First League (russian: Первая лига, Pervaya liga), formerly called Russian First Division (russian: Первый дивизион) and Russian Football National League (FNL) (russian: Первенство Футбольн� ...

Alania Vladikavkaz FC Alania Vladikavkaz (russian: "Алания" (Владикавказ), os, Футболон клуб "Алани" (Дзæуджыхъæу)) is a Russian football team from Vladikavkaz. Founded in 1921, the club played in the Soviet Top League ...

. He retired in 2007 and became a manager for

FC MVD Rossii Moscow FC MVD Rossii (russian: ФК МВД России Москва) is a Russian football club from Moscow, founded in 2007. It represents the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. Historically the ministry was represented by FC Dynamo Moscow, but Dyna ...

. FC MVD promoted to the

under his supervision. On the 8th of June, 2009, Kovtun resigned from FC MVD manager position and was replaced by

Vladimir Eshtrekov Vladimir Khazrailovich Eshtrekov (russian: Владимир Хазраилович Эштреков; born 16 May 1947) is a Russian football manager and former Soviet international player. He played 163 games in the USSR championships and scored ...

Honours

* 1999, 2000, 2001 Russian Premier League * 1995, 2003 Russian Cup

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kovtun, Yuri 1970 births Living people Russian footballers Russian football managers FC APK Morozovsk players FC Rostov players FC Spartak Moscow players FC Dynamo Moscow players FC Spartak Vladikavkaz players FC Arsenal Tula players UEFA Euro 1996 players 2002 FIFA World Cup players Russia international footballers FC SKA Rostov-on-Don players Russian Premier League players Association football defenders People from Azov FC Tosno players FC MVD Rossii Moscow players Sportspeople from Rostov Oblast