Today, the seven-time champion of the USSR, two-time winner of the USSR Cup, winner of the Cup Winners' Cup and the UEFA Super Cup with Dynamo Kyiv Volodymyr Muntyan celebrates his 76th birthday.
Volodymyr Muntyan was born on September 14, 1946 in Kotovsk, Odessa region, but even before school he moved with his parents to Kyiv, so he is a student of capital football. While the parents (father - Fyodor Stepanovich - a fitter at an asphalt concrete plant, mother - Maria Leontyevna - a night nanny in a hospital) were busy at work, the schoolboy Volodya spent all the time after school playing with the ball. Together with other children from Chokolovka, I went to the SKA stadium to watch classes and two-way games of pupils of the Youth Sports School of the city department of public education. For happiness for the post-war kids, it was after training the elders to tinker with a real nipple ball. Who was the most skillful - he had more time to kick the ball. Hence the origins of the skill of Muntean and other Dynamo techies, who possessed the ball filigree, had a well-placed shot and original dribbling developed in such battles.
After one of the classes at the SKA stadium, when the boys rushed to the balls after the elders, Munya traditionally began to beat everyone and demonstrate spectacular tricks. And then an adult approached him and asked: “Listen, do you want to seriously play football? Show me what you're capable of." And Volodya began to juggle with his left-right, head, and then performed his favorite "Brazilian" trick - he ran with the ball, stopped abruptly and threw the ball with two legs from behind his back. Mikhail Borisovich Korsunsky, and it was he, the legendary Kyiv children's coach who will train a number of players for Dynamo, including Kanevsky, Sosnikhin, Levchenko and Muntyan, even asked Vova to perform an encore trick.
Muntean was a versatile and gifted sportsman. The schoolboy became the champion of Kyiv in acrobatics, winning the championship among 70 participants. He could perform somersaults, even one of the most difficult varieties of it - Arabic. He played volleyball, basketball, skating and skiing. But at the same time, he did not avoid serious injuries - broken legs and arms. When, after removing the cast after another fracture, Volodya's parents did not let him go to classes, he tried to go down from the balcony through the drainpipe. After that, the relatives reconciled themselves - they did not contradict the choice of their son.
Korsunsky assembled an excellent team from Altman in goal to Kashchei in attack, and Muntyan was its conductor. The Gorono team won tournament after tournament, they smashed their peers in the republican championships "dry", and when in 1963 in a friendly match between the youth teams of Kyiv and Moscow ours won, and Muntyan played especially brightly, personally Mikhail Koman - the recent star of the Dynamo attack, and at that time - a member of the coaching staff of the main club in Kyiv, invited the next day to come to Dynamo training. Volodya was embarrassed to approach the "stars", to show himself in front of the whole team, so he just looked at the lesson from the side. Only a few days later, when I met Byshovets on the street, I heard from him: “Why don’t you go to training? Dynamo is waiting for you." So since May 15, 1963, having written a statement, Vladimir Muntyan became a player in Dynamo Kyiv. He played for club teams in the youth championships of the city, the Ukrainian SSR and the USSR, and already under the leadership of Maslov, he ended up in a double.
Vladimir's debut in the main team of Dynamo took place on October 15, 1965 in Tashkent, and although the Kyiv team had not previously beaten Pakhtakor, this time they won 2:1. Until the last rounds, Dynamo fought for gold medals with Torpedo Moscow, and although in the end they were content with second place, it became clear to everyone that a very interesting team had been created in Kyiv again. In that championship, Muntyan played only three times, but already in the following year he became an “iron” player of the base, which was facilitated, not least, by the “business trip” of the leading Dynamo players to the final part of the 1966 World Cup. While they fought for medals in Great Britain, the youth played with dignity in the club.
From 1966 to 1969, for three seasons in a row, Dynamo under the leadership of Viktor Maslov did not miss the championship medals. And Muntyan personally spent his best season, perhaps just in the championship, when Maslov’s wards lost first place, having won “silver” - 41 matches on all fronts and Vladimir scored 12 goals, dragging the team on himself, and in 1969 he was recognized as the best football player of the USSR. In general, football selfishness was not inherent in Muntean's style. He always put team interests above personal interests, and in a situation where the other would hit himself, he preferred to draw to the right - an exquisite pass gave out at least a good hit, played for the club's result, and not his own.
When coaches changed at Dynamo, Muntean remained one of the indispensable. Maslov, Sevidov, Lobanovsky - each of them appreciated the teamwork and skill of the club's leading midfielder. “One of the best midfielders of Soviet football in all the years. Perfectly coordinated, light, mobile, distinguished by high ball handling technique, good starting speed, tactical ingenuity. A rare game intuition, the ability to make a sharp pass, a strike from both feet allowed Munteanu, who was used to the role of a dispatcher, to organically fit into the more athletic game of Lobanovsky's team, ”his contemporaries characterized him in this way. Valery Lobanovsky wrote: "This midfielder, who owned a unique style and a peculiar vision of the game, demonstrated impeccable technique, cat-like soft handling of the ball, excellent coordination, the ability to instantly make the right decisions and at the same time deliver an accurate strong blow."
The first of the Soviet footballers, Muntean won seven gold medals of the USSR championship (later only Blokhin repeated this achievement), and there were 11 medals in total. Gold - 1966, 1967, 1968, 1971, 1974, 1975 and 1977, silver - 1969, 1972, 1973 and 1976 (o). Winner of the USSR Cup in 1966 and 1974, finalist in 1973. Winner of the Cup Winners' Cup and European Super Cup in 1975. For 13 years in the first club team of Dynamo Kyiv masters (14 seasons, including the experimental half-seasons of 1976), he played 420 matches in all tournaments, scored 77 goals, including 70 goals in 371 matches of the championship, and played 32 matches in European competitions, 6 goals. In the lists of "33 best" - eight times: No. 1 (1968, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1975), No. 3 (1966, 1967). He played 49 matches for the USSR national team, scored 7 goals. Participant of the final tournament of the 1970 World Cup, bronze medalist of the 1976 Olympics.
The ending of Vladimir Fedorovich's performances turned out to be somewhat blurry due to third-party circumstances: injuries, car accidents and club troubles. Lobanovsky carried out the reconstruction of the roster, but after unsatisfactory, in the opinion of the authorities, results and a rebellion of the players, he was almost dismissed, and the tandem with Bazilevich broke up forever. So, in 1977, he stopped playing for Dynamo. However, he remained in his native club and started working as a coach in youth club teams and the school for training the team of masters.
When Muntean finished playing at 31, other clubs called him, but Vladimir refused all invitations, including those with a view to medals and European cups. I just couldn’t imagine what would come out in a T-shirt of another club against Dynamo Kyiv. Therefore, he accepted another Kyiv club, SKA, as a playing coach. And he gave a ticket to big football to several talented army recruits at once.
In 1980, Vladimir Muntyan even resumed performances for some time, heading the Kyiv SKA. He worked at the Kiev Higher Tank Engineering Military School at the Department of Physical Training of the Faculty for the Training of Foreign Specialists, as well as in the city and republican federations (all the more, he himself completed postgraduate studies and defended his thesis). And in the mid-80s he went on a long business trip abroad, leading the COSFAP team (Antananarivo, Madagascar) in 1986-88. And under the guidance of a Soviet-Ukrainian specialist, this club, which represented the department of security forces, became the champion of the country for the first and last time in its history.
It was Volodymyr Muntyan who stood at the origins of the systematic training of young football players in independent Ukraine, heading the Olympic team in 1992-94. The poor were terrible: the sports committee and the then federation did not even allocate equipment, Muntean's salary was 18 US dollars, and other employees - coaches, massage therapists, administrators - received their salaries through the Muntean Foundation.
Then he worked as the head coach of the Guinea national team, with which he took part in the final tournament of the African Cup of Nations. Brought FC Cherkasy to the leaders of the First League, which almost rose in the class in 1998-99. Gave a ticket to big football to several players in the amateur team "Orion" (Kyiv) in 1999. From 2000 to 2011 he worked with a number of teams - Tavria, Obolon, Alania, Kryvbas, Vorskla. He headed the youth team of Dynamo, and it was under his leadership in the coaching staff of Muntyan that Sergei Rebrov gained invaluable first coaching experience.
Such is he, Vladimir Fedorovich. In each of his teams, in each team, he revealed the best qualities of his wards. Repeatedly, it was he who created the foundation on which interesting, competitive teams developed in subsequent years. Separately, it should be said about the selfless work of V.F. Muntyan in the veterans' union. Since the beginning of the 90s, the Muntyan Foundation has been working, and now Volodymyr Muntyan is the president of the public organization Veterans of FC Dynamo Kyiv. Without particularly "PR" and not advertising their good deeds, Dynamo Veterans unite to support those who have given their whole lives to football. Many were helped with surgeries and treatment. Supported in difficult recent years. That is why all colleagues respect Vladimir Fedorovich - because for him brotherhood, friendship, support are not an empty phrase.