Everyone knows the name of Valery Gazzayev in the football world. In the past, a player, a coach, and now a politician, he made a great contribution to the development and popularization of sports in Russia.
Childhood and career start
Valery grew up in an Ossetian family. His father, a formerly famous wrestler, supported his son's interest in sports. The boy preferred ball to children's toys, but he got into professional football late, as a teenager. The coach of the local “Spartak” did not believe in the success of the newcomer and waited for him to leave the team. But that did not happen. The will to win and enormous hard work allowed him to quickly reach the level of comrades. At the age of 16, the footballer made his debut in the main team of Spartak. By then, he had become a freshman at the Agricultural Institute. For the sake of football, I had to leave school.
After two successful seasons, Gazzaev was drafted into the army. The service took place in the Rostov football team SKA.
At the age of twenty, the talent of Gazzayev, a scorer, was revealed. The young man became interested in Moscow “Locomotive” and he moved to the capital.
Soccer player and coach
The athlete played not only for the club "railroad", but also represented the national team. The first great success was the victory at the 1976 European Youth Championship.
Gazzaev was especially vividly able to demonstrate his football talent in Moscow Dynamo. Coach Alexander Sevidov helped the young striker to become part of the legendary team. The final match for the USSR Cup between Dynamo and Zenit was a prime example of successful cooperation.
Gazzaev didn’t have a relationship with the new coach of the capital’s team, Eduard Malofeev, and in 1986 he moved to Dynamo Tbilisi. But even there, not finding mutual understanding with the coaches, the athlete decided to end the player’s career. He was 32 years old. Gazzaev has always been distinguished by leadership and a complex character.
During this period, Valery received two diplomas: legal and higher school coaches.
Years later, he returned to his native Ordzhonikidze. At the age of 35, a new page in the biography of the athlete Gazzaev began. He led the coaching staff of the Spartak team, which gave him a ticket to life. The first season of 1979 was a failure - 17th in the standings. But the very next year, having returned to the First League, Spartak began to rise rapidly in the ranking of football teams.
The successes of Gazzayev, a mentor, were noticed, and in 1991 he was offered to return to the Dynamo club Moscow as a mentor. A year later, the team took the third line of the Russian championship. But there were no new victories. After a devastating score of 0: 6 with the German “Eintracht”, the coach could not cope with the psychological trauma and resigned.
Valery Georgievich returned to his homeland again. Now Ordzhonikidze bore a new name - Vladikavkaz. By that time, the revived Spartak had achieved unprecedented success, becoming the country's silver medalist. In 1995, under the new name “Spartak-Alania”, coach Gazzaev led the team to the top line of the Russian championship. He gave the Vladikavkaz club five years, and again the team received gold and silver championships.
The mentor devoted the next stage of his life to the club CSKA in the capital, where Gazzaev moved at the turn of the century. Since 2001, for the "army" began the era of glory. The very next year, having beaten the Zenit finals, they took the Russian Cup. A year later, they confirmed their gold and then for many years did not leave the top three. But the UEFA Cup in 2005 became the most triumphant victory of the “red-blue”. Russian football has reached such heights for the first time.
