Leonid Buriak, a former Dynamo footballer and coach, and now the club's ambassador, shared his memories of Valeriy Lobanovsky on the anniversary of the Meter's birthday.
Leonid Buriak (photo: fcdynamo.com)- Today is the 85th anniversary of the birth of Valery Lobanovsky. What thoughts did you come to the monument with today?
- It's great that even after all these years people remember Valery Lobanovsky. We see a lot of children, which is also very important - they will grow up and pass on his legacy to their children. What Lobanovsky did in these times, especially with all the events that are happening, will be very difficult to repeat.
He was ahead of his time, he did something that no one else in the former Soviet Union had managed to do. He was not just a coach, but also a teacher and psychologist. Many generations of good coaches and players grew up on his example.
I am immensely grateful to him, as I came to Dynamo as a promising good boy, and grew into a footballer, a coach, and won everything I could. My family appreciates this, and I always remember Valery Vasilyevich with warmth, I will never say a bad word about him to anyone. Of course, it was hard to work with him, the training process was difficult, but we won everything, and I am grateful to him for that. May he rest in peace...
- Would he continue to play football at such a respectable age if he were alive?
- 85 is a very respectable age, not only for work but also for life. But I'm sure he would have been around football, maybe he would have become an advisor to the president.
- It's probably not easy for any coach to work during the war...
- You know, in the last years before his death, he was very apolitical, giving his own assessment of everything. Valeriy Vasilyevich was also very competent, as a psychologist and analyst he could assess everything. I think he would not be lost even now.
- Today you addressed children. Do you think they should know the history of the club and its outstanding personalities?
- Yes, of course they should. It's great that all this is passed on to them, they know who Valery Lobanovsky, Oleg Blokhin, Vladimir Bezsonov, etc. are. We have to slowly adjust, not as drastically as we would like - I mean both politics and the church - but everything will come back to the way it should be.
