Lev Yashin
Full Name: Lev Ivanovich Yashin
Club Appearances: 326 (Dynamo Moscow) - 1949-1971
National Appearances: 78 (USSR)
Height: 6ft 2.5in
Date of Birth: 22/10/1929, Moscow, USSR
Biography
Having been born and raised in Moscow, Lev Yashin spent his entire goalkeeping career at Dynamo Moscow, and enjoyed a tremendous period as national keeper of the USSR team.
Ice cold
Despite going on to be voted the World’s Best Goalkeeper a record six times (a record which still stands to this day) Yashin failed to be selected for the Dynamo Moscow football team on three separate occasions. As a result, he actually kept goal for the city’s Ice Hockey team, HC Dynamo Moscow, where, in 1953, he won the USSR ice hockey cup!
Footballing Success
Despite his forays into the winter sports, Lev Yashin managed to win the USSR Football Championship an incredible five times, and to lift the USSR Cup on three occasions during his tenure at the club, between 1949 and 1971.
National Call Up
Lev Yashin finally played for the USSR national side in 1953, and went on to achieve good things: winning the 1956 Olympic Games, the 1960 European Championship and playing in three world cups.
Fifa obviously hold Yashin in high regard, as they created the Lev Yashin Award, which goes to the best goalkeeper of a World cup tournament (recent winners include Oliver Kahn and Gianluigi Buffon).
Lev Yashin also won the European Footballer of the Year Award in 1963, and remains, to this day, the only goalkeeper ever to have done so.
Penalty Saving Technique
Lev Yashin is reputed to have saved over 150 penalties during his career. His technique? Simple: “to have a smoke to calm your nerves, then toss back a strong drink to tone your muscles.”
“The joy of seeing Yuri Gagarin flying in space is only superseded by the joy of a good penalty save.”
The Black Spider
Yashin became known as the Black Spider for both his all black outfit and his incredible spider like (8-legged) ability to get his hands (or feet) to anything which came his way. Many fans also knew him as the Black Panther.
Best of World?
Yashin’s huge talent was showcased most notably in a match between England and a “Rest of World XI” in which Yashin made a string of incredible saves against the team which would lift the World Cup just three years later.
Watch Lev Yahin in Action- Video
Watch the below tribute to Lev Yashin’s talents from archived video and pictures:
A tremendous goalkeeper, who is still widely regarded as the greatest ever.
[...] the Germany selectors thought, the great Lev Yashin considered Bert Trautmann to be the only goalkeeper, apart from the Black Panther himself, to be [...]