Valeriy Semenovych Porkuyan ( uk, Валерій Семенович Поркуян, born 4 October 1944 in

Kirovohrad Kropyvnytskyi ( uk, Кропивницький, Kropyvnytskyi ) is a city in central Ukraine on the Inhul river with a population of . It is an administrative center of the Kirovohrad Oblast. Over its history, Kropyvnytskyi has changed its nam ...

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...

, now

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

) is a former

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

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 ...

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...

n descent who played for

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 officia ...

Playing career

Club

Porkuyan began playing for the youth team of

's local club, Zvezda. In 1962 he made the transition to the senior team of Zvezda. After three successful seasons there he was spotted by a former Chernomorets Odessa player and then assistant coach, Matvey Cherkassky, who helped him transfer from the

Soviet Second League B The Soviet Second League B or Soviet Lower Second League was an auxiliary fourth tier of the Soviet league system, because it was not consistent as it existed only for six seasons and somewhat randomly. It was the fourth highest division of Soviet ...

to 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 ...

club Chernomorets. That season he played alongside

Valeri Lobanovsky Valeriy Vasylyovych Lobanovskyi ( uk, Вале́рій Васи́льович Лобано́вський ; russian: Вале́рий Васи́льевич Лобано́вский; 6 January 1939 – 13 May 2002) was а Ukrainian football playe ...

, who was finishing up his playing career in Odessa. His form there attracted the attention of many top clubs, including

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 Dnipro, but he was eventually moved to

. At 21 years of age he made the first team in his first season with the team. On the strength of that first season, when he scored 7 goals, he was chosen by the head-coach of

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 ...

, Nikolai Morozov to travel to the 1966 FIFA World Cup. Porkuyan won three Soviet Top League championships with Dynamo Kyiv (in 1966,

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

and

1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * Janu ...

), as well as the

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 ...

in 1966. But despite those triumphs he failed to secure a spot in a very competitive team at the time. In 1970, he made a return to Odessa to once again play with Chornomorets. He had two solid seasons there, despite the club being relegated to the

Soviet First League The Soviet First League in football (russian: Первая лига СССР по футболу) was the second highest division of Soviet football,Evgeni Kazakov. The Soviet First Football League (Первая лига СССР по футбо ...

. In 1972, he was invited to move to Dnipro, who were coached by his former teammate

. He made the majority of his playing appearances with Dnipro in the 4 years he spent there. He retired from playing in 1976.

International

He earned 8 caps and scored 4 goals for the

. Incredibly he scored his four goals in his first three international matches during the 1966 FIFA World Cup. He also was selected to play in the 1970 FIFA World Cup, but did not play any matches. He is the only active player of FC Chornomorets Odessa to have featured in a World Cup team.

Coaching career

After retiring from playing he moved into coaching the following year in 1976, becoming assistant coach with SC Tavriya Simferopol. Along the way he had stints coaching amateur teams playing in the lower divisions. But since the 1980s he, almost continuously, has been connected with Chornomorets Odessa in a coaching capacity.

Honours

Club

Dynamo Kyiv *

Champion: 1966,

Champion: 1966

Individual

* Merited Master of Sports: 1966 *

FIFA World Cup Bronze Boot 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 ...

: 1966

External links

Russian National Team history page

Statistics at Odessa Football
{{DEFAULTSORT:Porkujan, Valeriy 1944 births Living people Sportspeople from Kropyvnytskyi Soviet footballers Ukrainian people of Armenian descent Ukrainian footballers 1966 FIFA World Cup players 1970 FIFA World Cup players FC Chornomorets Odesa players FC Dynamo Kyiv players FC Zirka Kropyvnytskyi players FC Dnipro players Soviet Top League players Soviet Union international footballers FC Chornomorets-2 Odesa managers FC Okean Kerch managers Soviet football managers Ukrainian football managers Association football forwards Ethnic Armenian sportspeople Soviet Armenians