Seven-time USSR football champion Yevgeny Rudakov defended the gates of the Kiev football club for almost his entire playing career. He was called that - the Moscow legend of Dynamo Kiev. Of the domestic goalkeepers, he was the most titled after the famous L. Yashin.
Biography
Eugene was born in the south-east of Moscow in January 1942. He played his first match in this city. Then there were many wastelands that the Moscow guys and older people adapted for their games. It is unknown who won then, Rudakov only remembered for sure that he was standing at the gate.
Later, Rudakov will become a pupil of the sports school "Torpedo". It was the only football team in his area, the rest (Spartak, Dynamo, CSKA, Lokomotiv) were in the northern part of the capital. At 17, he will be enrolled in the youth team. However, at that time the club had enough strong goalkeepers, so coach V. Maslov advised him to find a team where he would not be on the bench.
Rudakov leaves for the Ukrainian city of Nikolaev and begins playing there for the “Shipbuilder”. True, not for long - already in 1963, Evgeni Rudakov became a member of Dynamo Kyiv. According to the memoirs of Yevgeny Vasilyevich himself, he accepted the invitation to the team only the third time. Before that, everyone could not believe that the Dynamo leadership really appreciated it and was ready to take it into the composition.
In 1964, Maslov came to Dynamo (everyone called him just Grandfather). It was with his submission that Rudakov appeared in the starting lineup for the game with Wings of the Soviets.
The debut of the young goalkeeper in Dynamo was amazing - Eugene held nine “zero” meetings out of eleven. In total, Rudakov spent 15 seasons in the Kiev team and it was here that he received recognition. He helped the club win first place in the Cup Winners Cup (1975) and the UEFA Super Cup.
Great merit in the professional development of the goalkeeper belongs to Izzkovsky. He forced all athletes, and Rudakov was no exception, to train until the "seventh sweat" and even more, put them the equipment. According to the recollections of teammates, the playing style of Eugene resembled the style of the famous L. Yashin, which was an idol for him. Outwardly discreet, without "special effects", with exits from the gate. Of the foreign goalkeepers, Rudakov particularly distinguished the Englishman Gordon Banks - he tried to adopt the technique of catching the ball from him.
Ended, and in the “Dynamo” was fierce competition. Rudakov played at the same time that the team had the understudy of the famous L. Yashin, Viktor Bannikov. Therefore, a couple of years, Eugene played more for the double than for the main team. But in 1966, Bannikov was included in the application for the World Cup, and Rudakov became at that time the main goalkeeper. He played reliably, and from that moment began to speak on a par with Bannikov.
There were times in Eugene’s career when it seemed that you could forget about sports. For example, in 1970 the national team was in Colombia, they were preparing for the World Cup. There was a control game, and it was in it that Rudakov broke his shoulder. Naturally, this World Cup was held without Eugene. Doctors were generally cautious in forecasts for recovery, many predicted the end of the game practice. But Rudakov managed to recover and return to the field, although it took a whole year to do this.
A friendly cartoon by Yevgeny Rudakov from I. Sokolov.
Rudakov almost always played in Dynamo sweater, even playing for the national team in other countries. This was not prohibited, because superstitious goalkeepers preferred to play in clothes that were happy for them.
Rudakov played a lot for the USSR national team - 48 official matches in the international arena, plus 37 friendly matches. He performed at the European Championship, was at the Olympics (6 matches). Listing all of his team awards will take a lot of time. Of personal achievements, the following can be noted:
- in 1971 - footballer of the year in Ukraine;
- three times the goalkeeper of the year (1969, 1971, 1972);
- twice nominated for the Golden Ball (best result - 12th place);
- in 1972 he entered the symbolic national team of Europe;
- repeatedly entered the lists of the best football players of the USSR and the Ukrainian SSR, etc.
Coaching career
Goalkeeper career ended in 1977. The assets were such successes:
- seven-time champion of the USSR
- Olympic medalist (bronze)
- three-time USSR Cup winner
And many medals by which you can tell the story of Soviet football.
Evgeni Rudakov did not work with adult football players for long. These were the Spartak teams from Ivano-Frankivsk (in 1979) and the Flint (in 1994). Nevertheless, he was more attracted to working with children, the first group of which he recruited immediately after the completion of his playing career. For more than ten years he trained at the base of his native club. Then he went to the Kiev sports boarding school. In general, children's football has occupied the goalkeeper's heart for more than 30 years.
