Oleg Kuznetsov - the main defender of the "golden" "Dynamo in 1986. He won the USSR championship, the Cup Winners' Cup three times, and became the vice-champion of Europe-88. He was one of Dynamo's first legionnaires to join Rangers.
Oleg Kuznetsov (photo: uaf.ua)But in the biography of the legendary footballer, the last club in his career was CSKA Borisfen in 1995. How did this happen and what was the Kyiv team like at that time? TheUkrainian Footballwebsite spoke to Oleg Kuznetsov about this and more.
"In Borisfen, I was immediately given a car to rent - a brand new Volkswagen Golf"
- Oleh Volodymyrovych, how did it happen that you, a titled Dynamo player who played for Rangers, ended up at CSKA Borisfen?
- After my experience abroad, when my contract with Maccabi Haifa expired, I returned to Kyiv. I didn't have any special offers at the time, and I didn't want to go to another city, so I accepted an invitation from Borysfen. At the time, they were playing in the First League, but they had a lot of ambition, a good team and coaching staff. Kolotov, Bezsonov and Fomenko worked in the CSKA Borisfen structure. We were tasked with reaching the Premier League, which we successfully coped with.
- Dynamo didn't call you back then?
- There was an unclear situation there. There seemed to be some talks, but it didn't come to specifics. I was over 30 at the time and had no particular illusions about Dynamo.
- Who exactly from CSKA Borisfen made you an offer?
- A lot of Dynamo players worked there. First, Kolotov and Bessonov spoke to me, and then I had a meeting with the club's president Dmitry Zlobenko, where I signed the contract.
- What club impressed you?
- At the time, CSKA Borisfen looked very decent: both in terms of organisation and financial resources. Even in the First League, Borysfen's salaries and bonuses were no worse than those of the top league clubs.
- Borysfen used to go on training camps abroad, at that time only Dynamo could afford such a luxury.
- Yes. I remember we were at a training camp in Austria and stayed in a five-star hotel with a spa, beautiful fields and almost golden toilets. Also in Borisfen, I was immediately given a car to rent - a brand new Volkswagen Golf. Very few people did that back then.
- Did you keep the car?
- No, it wasn't a gift. When I left the team, I handed over the keys, and that was it.
"If Shevchenko failed to score against us, it means he didn't make any special impression on me"
- At that time, CSKA Borisfen had a striker in Andrii Gusin, who became the team's top scorer in the Premier League. I wonder how his transformation into a full-back went?
- It was already at Dynamo Lobanovskyi's side that he became a full-back, while at our side he played as a forward. I remember Andriy as very young, a bit clumsy, tall, without much athleticism. But at CSKA Borisfen, he had good ball carriers, so Gusin scored.
- Who did you mostly communicate with in the team?
- I talked more with the Dynamo players - Annenkov and Volosyan. We were friends not only in the team, but also on holidays with our wives.
- Was there much hazing? Maybe, as a veteran, they sent young people to buy beer?
- No. The team had a good friendly atmosphere, no one humiliated anyone.
- You played your first game in the Premier League in the fourth round against Shakhtar, when CSKA Borisfen defeated the Pitmen 4-0. Do you remember that match and what helped you beat the Donetsk team?
- I wouldn't say that it was a sensational result, we had a good team then - Vitaliy Reva was in goal, Annenkov, Revut, Volosyanko in defence, Pushkutsa, Gusin, Tsikhmeystruk in attack. And Shakhtar was not as strong then as it became in a few years with Akhmetov.
- But in a few rounds, you also took points from Dynamo, playing to a zero-all draw. What were your emotions going into the game against your former club?
- Of course, the mood was special. We had a lot of Dynamo players and everyone wanted to play well against their former club. It was also prestigious for our coach Fomenko to play well against Dynamo. We fought back for most of the match, but we still managed to draw.
- In that match, young Shevchenko played for Dynamo. How did you feel playing against him as a defender? Did you see him as a future world football star?
- If he failed to score, it means that he did not make any special impression on me.
- Were you given bonuses for scoring points at Dynamo? What were the salaries at CSKA Borisfen in general?
- As far as I remember, they gave me higher bonuses, but I don't remember the amount. Everyone had their own contract - some more, some less. There was no equalisation.
"The team flew on an An-26 military aircraft that carried paratroopers. The pilots were paid $100-200, so they were willing to fly even in a thunderstorm."
- What kind of coach was Fomenko? What were his similarities and differences with Lobanovskyi?
- There were some similarities between them. Mikhail Ivanovich [Fomenko] loved discipline in any team. Like Lobanovskyi, he spent a lot of time watching games. There used to be no highlights, so you had to watch the whole game. A lot of time was devoted to theory. It happened that we analysed one half of our game one day, and the next day - the second half. We also analysed the games of our rivals.
In terms of intensity, the training sessions were also similar to Lobanovskyi's. Fomenko devoted a lot of time to tactics, telling and showing many game moments on the mock-up. It was a combined process - something from Fomenko, something from Lobanovskyi. But I was already an experienced footballer, and everything suited me.
- You scored your only goal for CSKA Borisfen against Niva Vinnytsia. Can you recall what it was like?
- I don't remember the details, most likely, I played on a corner and scored with my head.
- Did the army help CSKA Borisfen in any way?
- The team flew on an An-26 military aircraft that carried paratroopers. There were two or three seats for the coaches, and the players sat on the benches along the side, covered with army blankets, facing each other. But we were fine with it. It was better than travelling by bus for several hours.
The plane flew in any weather. The pilots were paid $100-200, so they were willing to fly even in a thunderstorm.
"CSKA Borysfen could hardly become a grandeur like Dynamo and Shakhtar, but it could be on the level of Dnipro and Metalist."
- You finished your career as a footballer at CSKA Borysfen after the first round. Why was that?
- The problems were superimposed on each other. Firstly, my health was not the same: my back and knee hurt. Secondly, there were delays in salaries and bonuses. It became clear that the club was having problems, so I had no desire to stay and play for free.
- Why did Fomenko leave? Is it true that Zlobenko caught him drunk at a training session and fired him?
- He probably also felt that the CSKA-Borisfen era was coming to an end. The fact that Fomenko was drunk at training is complete nonsense. I've never seen him drunk in training. When I was already a coach and worked in his staff, we could have a few drinks, but definitely not before training, but in our free time. Most likely, CSKA Borysfen simply came up with an excuse to explain the coach's departure.
- There are many stories about Fomenko's difficult character. Do you remember his fight with Jishkariani?
- Yes, Fomenko's character was tough, but you can also understand Dzhishkariani's Georgian nature. Their conflict was not in front of me, but I heard about it. Fomenko made a complaint to Dzhishkariani during the break, and the latter became indignant in response. "Mikhail Ivanovich is a simple guy, and if he hadn't been detained at the time, I'm sure he could have given the Georgian a good beating. Especially since Jishkariani was 50 kg and 150 cm tall.
But these are working moments, it happens in every team. Emotions were released and dispersed. As Lobanovsky said: "The worst thing is when the coach doesn't notice you." For example, 11 Dynamo players are sitting after a bad game, and Lobanovskyi starts: "Yaremchuk and Ratz, you played badly." But if Lobanovsky stops communicating with the player, the player has to look for a new team.
- In the second round, CSKA Borisfen started to slip a bit and eventually finished fourth. What do you think, if you had managed to keep the squad and Stange had come with Dnipro players in the summer, what places could the team have fought for?
- "CSKA Borisfen could hardly have become a giant like Dynamo and Shakhtar, but it could have competed for third place on the level of Dnipro and Metalist. The team had good potential, but everything was decided by the pre-football moments.
- I heard that Zlobenko had plans to build an exact copy of Anderlecht's stadium in Kyiv, he even went to Belgium and brought an architect from there.
- The plans were good, and at the beginning CSKA Borisfen's financial situation was very decent. But then, apparently, he ran out of money, and with it his plans.
"At the bank, I often played the role of a wedding general"
- How did it happen that you ended up working in a bank after your career?
- My good friends offered me this option. The president of the bank wanted to set up a mini-football team and a championship for bank teams. I coached the team in the evening and worked in the bank's PR department during the day, in charge of public relations.
- What were your responsibilities?
- I would arrive at the office at 9am and sit until lunchtime, reading newspapers. For example, a newspaper would come in and I would find and cut out a mention of our bank. I also often played the role of a wedding general, travelling with the bank's president to various meetings. Sometimes this helped to close deals - they recognised me, not him, and he was very surprised later.
In the evening, three times a week, I coached the bank's team. We paid the players a salary of $50 a month, which was not bad in 1996. We didn't recruit professional footballers, but people who hadn't played anywhere. It is clear that I could have recruited conditional Mykhailychenkos to the team, but I did not do so.
However, Mykhailychenko and Protsiuk often came to play with us. But I told them right away: "You can run around with us, but you won't play for the bank" (laughs).
Andrii Piskun
