Oleg Blokhin
| Olympic medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men’s Football | ||
 |
1972 Munich | Team competition |
|
1976 Montreal | Team competition |
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Oleg Blokhin | ||
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) | ||
| Position(s) | Forward | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | Ukraine | ||
Oleg Volodymyrovych Blokhin (born November 5, 1952 in Kiev, Soviet Union, now Ukraine), is a Ukrainian soccer coach, and was formerly a striker for the USSR national football team. He was named European Footballer of the Year in 1975.
A former Dynamo Kiev player, Blokhin is the USSR national championship's all-time leader and goalscorer with 211 goals, as well as making more appearances than any other player with 432 appearances. He won the championship 8 times. He led Dynamo to the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1975 and 1986. Blokhin is the USSR national football team's most capped player with 112 caps, as well as their all time leading goalscorer with 42 goals, he played in the 1982 and 1986 Football World Cups. He was one of the first Soviet players to play abroad, signing for Austria's Vorwärts Steyr in 1988, he also played in Greece with Aris.
After retiring as a player, Blokhin coached Greek clubs Olympiakos, PAOK, and Ionikos. He has been serving as the head coach of the Ukrainian national team since September 2003. Under his leadership, Ukraine qualified for the 2006 World Cup.
In 2002 Oleg Blokhin was elected to Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's parliament) for a second term. In October 2002 he joined the United Social Democratic Party of Ukraine. Recently Oleg has showed no political activity, concentrating on his coaching job.
Blokhin was married to Irina Deriugina, the prominent Soviet/Ukrainian gymnast and world champion in free-stand exercise, but the couple divorced in early 1990s. They have a daughter. During 2006 World Cup, Oleg Blokhin is the head coach of the Ukraine's national team.
Racist comment
In 2006, Blokhin was quoted as saying "The more Ukrainians that play in the national league, the more examples for the young generation. Let them learn from Shevchenko or Blokhin and not from some Zumba-Bumba whom they took off a tree, gave him two bananas and now he plays in the Ukrainian League. I remember when I played football, if we lost a game it was not easy to walk the Kiev streets - there were many friends out there who could beat you up for that. But is there any sense in beating up a foreigner? Okay, you beat him up - next thing he does is pack up and go." [1][2][3]
Notes
- ^ The soccer Nazis' losing battle by Tony Karon, Los Angeles Times, June 9, 2006
- ^ Setting the scene by Jen Chang, ESPNsoccernet, June 8, 2006
- ^ Daily Record January,2006
- 1952 births
- Living people
- Ukrainian footballers
- Dynamo Kyiv players
- Soviet footballers
- European Footballers of the Year
- Ukrainian football managers
- Olympic bronze medalists
- Olympic footballers of the Soviet Union
- Natives of Kiev
- Footballers at the 1972 Summer Olympics
- Footballers at the 1976 Summer Olympics
- Olympiacos managers
- Ukrainian politicians
- FIFA World Cup 1986 players