Valeriy Lobanovskyi

Valeriy Lobanovskyi was born in Kyiv on 6 January 1939. He graduated with a silver medal from Kyiv School No. 319 (now a lyceum named after him on Valeriia Lobanovskoho Avenue), trained at Football School No. 1 and enrolled at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. As a left winger for Dynamo Kyiv (1957–1964) he won the 1961 Soviet championship — the first ever taken by a club from outside Moscow — and became famous for curling corner kicks straight into the net.

He was Dynamo’s head coach three times: in 1973–1982, 1984–1990 and 1996–2002. Under him the club won the European Cup Winners’ Cup (1975, 1986) and the UEFA Super Cup (1975), eight Soviet titles, and reached the Champions League semi-final in 1999. He coached the USSR three times (runners-up at Euro 1988) and Ukraine in 2000–2001. His scientific, data-driven approach changed world football.

In May 2002 he collapsed on the bench during a match in Zaporizhzhia and died on 13 May. He was buried at Baikove Cemetery and posthumously named Hero of Ukraine, and that same year the Dynamo Stadium at 3 Hrushevskoho Street was named after him. In May 2003 a monument was unveiled beside the stadium, showing Lobanovskyi seated on the coach’s bench as if watching a match.