Lena Buryak kicked the ball for the first time when he was about seven, taking part in football "battles" together with the neighbour children. They used to play on the sand of the Peresyp beach in Odessa, playing football till they were completely exhausted, and then, falling on the sand, they rested and continued playing, after which they went for a swim in the salty warm Black Sea. Years later, Leonid found out that just like him, on endless beaches, the path to football began for many thousands of footballers from Brazil.
Leonid Buryak. Photo by A. PopovAt the age of 9, his father Joseph Ignatovich gave his son a real football and cleats for his birthday. He was happy to see the ball. At the age of 10, together with his friends, Lenya came to the Prodmash stadium, where a children's team was being recruited. The team was coached by well-known Odessa footballer Valentin Blinder.
After a few years Leonid and three more of his peers were invited to a tryout for Chornomorets. At the age of 15 the gifted boy was already transferred to "Sailors" reserve team, which was coached by Matvey Cherkassky. He invited the ninth-grader to Varna, to the team's preparatory training camp. There were lots of such training camps in Buryak's football career, but the first one is certainly unforgettable.
Husband, father, grandfather - the pride of the family
On July 10, the famous midfielder of Kyiv Dynamo and the former USSR national football team celebrates his 70th anniversary.
Behind the bright years spent in big football and family life. His wife Zhanna, world champion in rhythmic gymnastics, with whom Leonid has been walking hand in hand for 48 years, is proud of his husband.
Leonid's son Andrey, a graduate of the Kiev Institute of International Relations (now he works for the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and heads one of the departments) and his daughter Oksana are proud of their father. One day representatives of the renowned Stuttgart Ballet Academy came to Kiev to select their gifted children. Oksana, a student at the Kiev dance school, caught their eye. She then received an excellent choreographic education in Germany, learned three languages and worked successfully for many years with the Stuttgart Ballet. Oksana now continues to live in Germany and works as a choreographer there. Oksana and Andrei have given their parents five grandchildren - three boys and two girls.
Aleksandr, for example, is now seven years old. He has his grandfather's football genes. He is a midfielder of one of the children's teams of Bayern Munich football academy. One day for 40 minutes the grandfather and his grandson worked with the ball on the football ground. The happy boy ran home and, turning to his mother, said: "Grandpa is good at football, he scores a lot with his foot and head."
For many years the midfielder from God has delighted millions of fans with his game. He called one of his books "I lived in a happy football time". Leonid Buryak continues to serve football now.
Andrei Biba's third successful attempt
And now about the achievements of Leonid Buryak in the big football. True, I will not list all of them.
The player of the national youth team, who perfectly owns the ball, knows how to lead the game and has a powerful kick, has not been kept at Chornomorets for long. The selectors of Moscow teams (Dynamo, Spartak, CSKA), Zenit St. Petersburg and Kyiv Dynamo turned their attention to Buryak. But Leonid was in no hurry to leave Chornomorets.
Andriy Biba came to Odessa for him three times. But only with the third attempt of the envoy of Dynamo Leonid made a decision, having received the consent of his mother Maria Mykolaivna and coach Sergiy Shaposhnikov to move to the club he had always dreamt to play for.
Leonid was familiar with some Dynamo players - Oleg Blokhin, Valeriy Zuev, Aleksandr Damin - from the youth national team.
10 national championships medals, 5 cups, 2 European trophies
Buryak made his debut in "Dynamo" on April 7, 1973, in a match against Ararat. Playing for Dynamo, midfielder played 304 matches against 25 clubs. He had 6 times spoiled for Chornomorets goalkeepers and 5 times - for Spartak and Torpedo. He also awarded 22 penalties in matches of the national championship. In total he scored 57 goals for Dynamo.
There are 10 sets of awards in Leonid's collection: 5 gold, 4 silver and 1 bronze. Together with his partners he made the victory lap together with the National Cup for 5 times, scoring 12 goals in 52 Cup matches. For 8 seasons in a row Buryak was included in the list of "33 best players in the championship", 5 times - as number 1. He is a member of the "Grigory Fedotov Club", having scored 108 goals - an excellent record as a midfielder.
In May 1975, after defeating Hungarian Ferencvaros 3:0 in Basel in the final of the Cup Winners' Cup, Dinamo won an honorary European trophy for the first time. And in autumn Leonid Buryak's team won the UEFA Super Cup by beating twice (1:0 in Munich and 2:0 in Kyiv) the Champions Cup winner Bayern, which included 7 world champions. He had played 51 matches and scored 14 goals in European competitions for Dynamo.
Leonid Buryak has become an honoured master of sports at the age of 21. Only Eduard Streltsov managed to win such an honorary title earlier, at the age of 19.
He scored, not only when playing for Dynamo
Buryak has played 59 matches for the former USSR national team, scoring 11 goals. He won the bronze medal at the Montreal Olympics in 1976. In the game for third place Valeriy Lobanovskiy's charges beat (2-0) the Brazilian team.
After leaving Dynamo for different reasons Buryak spent several seasons playing for Torpedo and Metalist Kharkiv, in the staff of which he has won two more national cups, becoming 7-times winner of this honourable trophy in the end.
Fellow players from his home Dynamo, players from other clubs of the formerly united country, as well as famous people from outside the world of football flew to congratulate him on his 50th birthday. The ticket price, regardless of sector, was symbolic - 1 hryvna. This decision was taken by Buryak himself. All proceeds from ticket sales at half-time were given to representatives of the lyceum where children of the deceased law enforcement officers studied.
The match on 10 July 2013 also drew a full house. His former rivals in the national championships, Shakhtar Donetsk players came to Kyiv to congratulate Leonid Iosifovich on his 60th birthday: Viktor Grachev, Sergei Atelkin, Igor Leonov, Dmitry Shutkov, Alexander Sopko... Their opponents, promoted to the pitch as captain, were Viktor Chanov, Mikhail Mikhailov, Igor Belanov, Aleksandr Zavarov, Andriy Bal, Vladimir Bessonov, Yuriy Maksimov and others.
Leonid Iosifovich Buryak, whose motto in life is "The happiest man is the one who gives happiness to the greatest number of people", currently works at the home club. He is an ambassador of Dynamo (Kyiv) and represents the club from the capital of Ukraine on the European football stage.
Happy anniversary, Football Maestro!
Oleksandr LYPENKO for Dynamo.kiev.ua
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