To the 80th anniversary of the birth of Valeriy Lobanovskyi

The name of Valeriy Vasylyovych Lobanovskyi is well known in the sports world. The extraordinary person. He embodied all Soviet and Ukrainian football, repeatedly raised "Dynamo” Kyiv and national team to the highest football tops.

In the State Polytechnic Museum at the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, the beginning of the study and research of the personality of Valeriy Lobanovskyi was laid back in 2007. Then SPM received a request from the information and analytical service of TV channels "Inter" and "K1" with a request to provide information about the training of Valeriy Lobanovskyi in Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, his classmates, who could share memories of student years to prepare a story about a prominent football player, coach and man, who can claim the title of Great Ukrainian in the TV project of 2007-2008. Of the 100 named great Ukrainians, the Hero of Ukraine Valeriy Lobanovskyi was first chosen in the top ten, and in the end took 6th place with 51,564 votes.

In school years, after completing homework with friends, everyone went to do their own thing. Valeriy went to the Kyiv youth sports school №1, where he played football. He did not miss a single game, constantly practised headers. His mother said: "All children are like children, but my boy has a ball in his head, on his head, over his head." It was clear: football is something special to him, God-given, something he could not live without. Valeriy's parents encouraged him to play football and attended matches with his participation.

The pages of Valeriy Lobanovskyi's life are directly related to Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, as he studied here and played for the institute football team. This period is of great interest to sports fans.

Museum staff found V. Lobanovskyi's personal file in the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute archive. The file was opened on September 1, 1956, when V. Lobanovskyi entered the institute at the Faculty of Thermal Engineering, majoring in "turbine construction". There are applications of the future coach, autobiography, questionnaire with personal data, Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute student's transcript, etc.  The documents contain interesting information. For example, from the autobiography we learn that Valeriy was the head of the class, the head of the school’s pupils’ committee.

It is clear from the transcript that V. Lobanovskyi studied well in the first years. And at the same time - he played football.

"At that time, Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute was one of the leading universities in the country in terms of sports performance. The stadium was crowded with people interested in sport from morning till night. Just when I was playing for the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute football team, I was noticed and invited to the backup team of "Dynamo" Kyiv. And this, not surprisingly, was greatly facilitated by the native polytechnic institute, "Valeriy Lobanovskyi said in an interview published in the Kyiv Polytechnic newspaper on November 17, 1988.

Here is how Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute graduate V. Bilous, who remember one of the football matches well, tells about Lobanovskyi: "It was a rainy day for the electroacoustic faculty football team. Powerful heat engineers literally "hung" on its goalpost. The agile red striker was especially annoying. He easily bypassed the line of defence, his shots on goal were extremely strong and accurate. Of the eleven "unanswered" goals, he scored nine. The name of the "red” was Valeriy Lobanovskyi. " And for the first time he started training his famous curl kick at the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute stadium.

 Curl is when during the corner kick Lobanovskyi gave the ball a spin around an inclined axis - as a result, a leather ball fell in a complex arc behind the goalkeeper under the crossbar. No one could repeat this kick for a long time. It was called - "Lobanovskyi's corner".

Among the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute graduate students, V. Lobanovskyi had friends who studied 1-2 years higher, but they were united by football. These are G. Lyubchyk, professor of the TES department, and P. Kudelia - associate professor of the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute TPT department.

For some time Lobanovsky had to choose between studying and football (competitions for the championship of Kyiv,  he championship of the USSR), there were many passes, debts on examinations and leaving on a repeated course on the basis of petitions of All-Union physical culture and sports society "Dynamo" and Council of the Union of sports societies and organizations of the Ukrainian SSR because of his employment in big football. In 1964, the "Dynamo" Kyiv team underwent serious changes. The club was headed by Victor Maslov, known both for his coaching achievements and a peculiar character, which manifested itself immediately: he removed several leading players from the team , among whom was a favourite of the Kiev public - forward Valeriy Lobanovskyi. Lobanovskyi joins the team of masters "Chornomorets" (Odessa). In December of the same year, he wrote an application for expulsion by choice from the 5th year of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, where he studied for a total of 8 years, including 3 years of academic breaks.

In Odessa, he was given an apartment in the heart of the city - on Babel (now - Yevreyska), 42. He also decided to complete his studies and transferred to Odessa Polytechnic Institute. In 1966 he defended his diploma project on "Gas supply of auxiliary shops of the Dzerzhinsky steel plant" with a grade of "good" and received the qualification of "industrial heat engineer". In July 2011, a memorial plaque was unveiled to him at the Odessa Polytechnic University (formerly OPI).

In total, as a player Valeriy Lobanovskyi played 253 matches in the USSR championship in the major league and scored 71 goals (in "Dynamo” Kyiv - 144 matches and 42 goals, respectively, in "Chornomorets” Odessa - 59 and 15, in "Shakhtar” Donetsk - 50 and 14). Valeriy Lobanovskyi was only 28 years old at the end of his playing career.

Everyone knows what happened to the former student of the Faculty of Thermal Engineering after. He became a world-famous coach.

Lobanovskyi's classmates (Komsomol organiser Zh. Tymoshenko, V. Zuev, O. Pushanko) carried friendship through the whole life. They were his support in times of triumphs and trials. And after death of V. V. Lobanovskyi, his school friends continue to be loyal, now to his family. Thanks to friends, the Lobanovskyi family and the director of the school № 319 S.M. Kolesnykova, in September 2007 the school № 319 of Holosiivskyi district was named after Lobanovskyi and a memorial plaque was installed. And in 2015, Chervonozoryany Avenue became V. Lobanovskyi Avenue.

On August 28, 2014, in front of the first building of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, the Alley of Stars of prominent scientists and graduates of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute was laid. Among them is the star of V.V. Lobanovskyi.

And as long as the football is played in Ukraine, no one will forget the name of Valeriy Vasylyovych Lobanovskyi! 

Lyubov Bakayeva, the researcher of SPM at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute