Maxim Shatskikh: fighter of rivals

One of the leading scorers in the history of the championships of Ukraine was a legionnaire from Uzbekistan, who, however, no one considers a legionnaire in Kyiv - only his own.

Its premiere at the Dynamo Stadium is from the unforgettable category. A double in the winning match of the Champions League qualifier with Zalgiris, a 2-0 victory - it seems that Shatskys fell in love in the capital immediately, and he thanked them with goals, goals and goals. The Shatskys had 276 of them in their careers and almost one and a half hundred - purely for Dynamo. How not to remember the football career of one of the most productive legionnaires of Ukrainian football and an outstanding Dynamo player?

Maxim Shatskikh was born on August 30, 1978 in Tashkent. His parents, having been involved in sports since their youth, supported the desire of their children to try their hand at football. Dad, a construction foreman and a former football player, and a mother who worked at a factory, did not mind that their sons Oleg and Maxim were engaged in the local youth sports school.

Oleg Shatskikh was the first to "shoot" - the brother of the future Dynamo player made his early debut in the main republican team - Pakhtakor, scoring a lot in the championship of Uzbekistan and holding the national team's record for the scoring streak (goals in six matches in a row). In 1995, 21-year-old Oleg was recognized as the best football player in Uzbekistan. They say that a little earlier, the elder Shatskikh was also on viewing at Dynamo Kiev... At the same time, his brother grew up, who was destined to glorify Uzbek football at the highest level.

Maxim began to study at the Pakhtakor Youth Sports School with the children's coach Sergei Kovalev. At first, the future scorer liked to play in goal and in the center of defense (isn’t this the reason for the intuitive understanding of the game from the “back side”?), However, the coaching staff quickly assessed the speed of Shatsky Jr. and quickly transferred him to the attack.

Max Shatskikh was considered one of the most promising young players in the Uzbek SSR - an ancient photo has preserved photographic evidence of how a future scorer is awarded after one of the many tournaments. Among the guests of honor is the legend of Pakhtakor Mirjalol Kasymov. They say that at that time Maxim was "on the radar" even of foreign clubs - the eminent Dane Frank Arnesen, Bobby Robson's assistant at PSV Eindhoven, saw him as a schoolboy and wanted to transport him to the Netherlands, and Tottenham's scout after one of the tournaments in England 15- he was allegedly ready to take the summer Shatskikh with him right away. Back in 1991, Max served balls at the game of the Soviet Higher League Pakhtakor - Dynamo (Kyiv). These were the two favorite teams of the young football player.

Fate decreed that Maxim Shatskikh did not play in the first team of Pakhtakor - he scored a lot for age teams, for reservists for the championship of the city of Tashkent, and when in 1995 the Yutko football club was created at private expense, headed by Sergey Kovalev, almost all of his graduates responded to the invitation of their children's coach, including Maxim. In 32 matches for the second-league Yutko, Shatskikh Jr. scored 24 goals. The Chilanzar club, which played in the final tournament for entering the Major League, quickly took Max on loan, and here Shatskikh scored three goals in four matches, confirming the level at the highest level.

And here is a sharp turn: in 1996, scouts took the young Maxim Shatskikh to Russia. The first run turned out to be unsuccessful - more experienced Mikaelyan, Markevich, Vyazmikin scored in the Saratov Sokol. In addition, the young Uzbek was injured, so that in 12 matches of the Russian First League he did not score a single goal - neither for Sokol, nor for Torpedo (Volzhsky), where he was lent. But in "Torpedo" coach Vladimir Dergach met Maxim, who took him with him to the Togliatti "Lada". There Shatskikh began to score, continued at Gazovik-Gazprom in Izhevsk, and at the time when he played at Dergach in Kaliningrad Baltika, all Russian giants were already interested in him. And at the cup match with Smolensk "Kristall", where Max scored three goals, there were breeders from Kyiv - the legendary Andrey Biba and Ivan Terletsky...

Zenit was close to intercepting the Uzbek collection, while CSKA Moscow and Spartak did not see the Shatskys during the viewing. It was a funny sight when Oleg Romantsev didn’t even talk to Maxim for a month of review, and after the rumor about Lobanovsky’s interest got around, the grandees rushed for the missed opportunity, but it was too late. On July 23, 1999, Maxim Shatskikh signed a contract with Dynamo Kyiv, which turned out to be more agile than the Russian giants, the next day he made his Dynamo debut in the Ukrainian Championship match against Karpaty Lvov, and four days later, for the first time, he entered the starting lineup of Kiev , gave his benefit performance in European competitions.

In July 1999, shortly after the sale of Shevchenko to Milan, Valery Lobanovsky decided to put the 20-year-old legionary, who had never played in the major leagues, into the main squad, immediately in the starting lineup in the Champions League qualification! With two accurate shots, Maxim Shatskikh ensured the Dynamo victory over Zalgiris, then scored in each of the matches with Aalborg, and in the Champions League group stage he scored an important goal in the home meeting with Bayer (a victory over Leverkusen - 4: 2). In his incredible debut season in 1999/2000, Shatskikh scored 24 goals in 41 matches. Since that time, despite injuries and competition, Maxim became the leading striker of the Kyiv superclub for ten years.

Interestingly, after his debut at Dynamo on August 18, 1999, Maxim made his debut in the national team of Uzbekistan - immediately scoring a hat-trick in a friendly match with Azerbaijan (5: 1). By 2014, Shatsky scored 34 goals in 61 matches for the national team of his country of birth. And now Maxim remains the best scorer in Uzbekistan in history, becoming the semi-finalist of the 2011 Asian Cup, twice entering the top three football players of the continent, and also becoming the Player of the Year in Uzbekistan four times.

How to assess the place of the Shatskys in the history of Dynamo? He became the first legionnaire of the championships of Ukraine, who overcame the top 100. Twice he became the top scorer of the season in the Premier League (moreover, the figure of 22 goals in 2003 was a record for the EC / VL / UPL for many years until the arrival of Shakhtar legionnaires), three times - in the Ukrainian Cup. A paradoxical situation - Maxim was called "wooden", and he broke almost all legionary and bombardier records. The Shatskys were reproached for the lack of equipment and shortcomings of the school - and he scored against PSV, Anderlecht, Newcastle, Juventus, Arsenal, Roma, Real Madrid. Pinocchio, you say? Well, well ... In 75 matches of European competitions, Maxim scored 23 goals and gave 5 assists - at the time when Shatskikh completed international performances, he remained the top Asian of the Champions League. Shatskikh is a 6-time champion and 5-time winner of the Ukrainian Cup, two-time winner of the Super Cup.

“I think that Valery Lobanovsky’s interest in Maxim was attracted, first of all, by his excellent physical data. With a height of 185 cm and a weight of 75 kg, he is a real athlete. At 21, he was already a solid, well-formed player. But the most important thing is the style, the manner of playing this striker, which fit into Lobanovsky's schemes. The main requirement that the famous Ukrainian coach made to his players was an understanding of modern football. If the player does not want or cannot learn this and starts asking why he should run there and not here, or why such loads, and not some, it is useless to work with that player, even if he is talented, ”the success of his pet later explained in "Dynamo" Sergey Kovalev.

In 10 partial seasons at Dynamo, Maxim Shatskikh scored 142 goals in 328 games. There were options to play in the Western European Championships - Bobby Robson himself, after the MX16 goal against Newcastle, wanted to see him in the United squad. West Ham and West Bromwich Albion showed substantive interest, and already in 2008 Galatasaray wanted to strengthen themselves as an experienced scorer. As a result, only after all these rumors, Maxim was released to Lokomotiv Astana, where he joined the Spartak veterans Tikhonov and Titov, scored 10 goals in 16 matches and became the vice-champion of Kazakhstan. However, outside of Ukraine, the player, who had already become our citizen, was already uncomfortable.

Shatskikh returned to our championship, having played for Arsenal (Kyiv), Chornomorets and Hoverla for several more years, and already completing his performances in Vinnikovsky Rukh, he also added an exotic silver medal of the vice-champion of Ukraine among amateurs, playing out on the same team with Aliyev.

Maksim Aleksandrovich began coaching at Dynamo, which became his family in 2016 at the Lobanovsky Academy, later as an assistant to head coach Alexander Khatskevich. Undoubtedly, with his phenomenal experience, team and sports character and the desire to realize himself in the profession, Maxim Shatskikh, who is now heading the Tashkent Pakhtakor, will succeed in this field as well.