Anatoliy Zayaev (October 27, 1931 – December 18, 2012) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

football player and a Ukrainian coach. Merited Coach of Ukraine.

Biography

Zayaev was born in

Simferopol Simferopol ( ), also known as Aqmescit, is the second-largest city on the Crimea, Crimean Peninsula. The city, along with the rest of Crimea, is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine, but controlled by Russia. It is considered the cap ...

in a big Assyrian family. Participant of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. His father was shot in 1938, his younger brother Oleksandr was killed during the German occupation of

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

, and his older brother Oleksiy perished in March 1945 in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. Zayaev graduated from the Simferopol State University and then worked at the city's meat factory. Simultaneously he was a player and administrator of the factory's team "Pishchevik". With his participation the Simferopol's team was accepted to play in the Class B of the Soviet competitions in 1958. In 1962 Tavriya placed third in the final stage of the Ukrainian championship. After that Zayaev left the team. On multiple occasions he was fired many times from the team's staff position. Tavriya started off very bad the 1963 season and for a long time could not win after which Antonin Sochnev was fired, while Zayaev returned to the team. He was an acting head coach and after his first game away the team won. The team started to revive and was able to avoid relegation. According to own admission Zayaev started to work as a coach since 1973 as he stashed a great deal of knowledge. During Soviet times Zayaev won the Ukrainian championship on several occasions, the

Cup of the Ukrainian SSR A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, ...

, the Ukrainian Spartakiad, led teams to the top of the

Soviet First League The Soviet First League in football () was the second highest division of Soviet football,Evgeni Kazakov. The Soviet First Football League (Первая лига СССР по футболу)''. History of Soviet football championships. Volume 1 ...

and semifinals of the

Soviet Cup The Soviet Cup, or USSR Cup (),, , , (Moldovan Cyrillic: Купа УРСС), , , . was the premier football cup competition in the Soviet Union conducted by the Football Federation of the Soviet Union. The 1991–92 season of the tournam ...

. Until the 1990s he worked for

SC Tavriya Simferopol Sports Club Tavriya () was a Ukrainian football club from Simferopol. Tavriya was a member of the Ukrainian Premier League from its founding and won the first Ukrainian Premier League 1992, Ukrainian Premier League making them one of three team ...

as the team director. In 1992, he became famous by obtaining the national title when

beat

FC Dynamo Kyiv The Football Club 'Dynamo Kyiv', also known as Dynamo Kyiv, or simply Dynamo, ( ) is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet ...

Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

. After 1995 Zayaev once again became not needed. After that went to

Chișinău Chișinău ( , , ; formerly known as Kishinev) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Moldova, largest city of Moldova. The city is Moldova's main industrial and commercial centre, and is located in the middle of the coun ...

to coach the local Constructorul Chișinău in 1996–97. The next season Zayaev led

MFK Mykolaiv MFС Mykolaiv (''Municipal Football Club "Mykolaiv"'', ) was a Ukrainian football club based in Mykolaiv. It is one of the oldest football clubs that exists in Ukraine. Originally was established as a football team of the Black Sea Shipyard, s ...

to the top of the

Ukrainian First League The Persha Liha ( ) or Ukrainian First League is a Ukrainian football league system, level of national football competitions (second tier) in Ukraine governed by the Professional Football League of Ukraine, Professional Football League at the disc ...

. In 1998-99 he coached

Prykarpattia Prykarpattia () is a Ukrainian term for Ciscarpathia, a physical geographical region for the northeastern Carpathian foothills.Vortman, D. Prykarpattia (ПРИКАРПАТТЯ)'. Encyclopedia of History of Ukraine. Located at the outer foot of ...

. After that Zayaev returned to Tavria for couple of more seasons. After being let go in 2005, Zayaev initiated the creation of a new club in

Yalta Yalta (: ) is a resort town, resort city on the south coast of the Crimean Peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea. It serves as the administrative center of Yalta Municipality, one of the regions within Crimea. Yalta, along with the rest of Crime ...

FC Yalos Yalta FC Yalos Yalta was a Ukrainian football club based in Yalta, Crimea. The club was founded in 2005. They competed in the Druha Liha for a season. After the 2005–06 season the club didn't submit a license and elected to remove themselves from th ...

, head coach of which was appointed

Oleksandr Haydash Oleksandr Mykolayovych Haydash (; Aleksandr Nikolaevich Gaydash (); born 7 August 1967 in Zhdanov (now Mariupol), Ukrainian SSR) is a former Ukrainian (until 2014) and Russian (since 2014) professional football striker and current manager. C ...

. Although the team placed fourth in its first season in the

Ukrainian Second League The Ukrainian Second League (, ''Druha Liha'') is a professional football league in Ukraine which is part of the Professional Football League of Ukraine, a collective member of the Ukrainian Association of Football. As the third tier it was establ ...

, it has folded and did not participated in the following seasons. After that Zayaev created another club near

Bakhchisaray Bakhchysarai is a city in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Bakhchysarai Raion (district), as well as the former capital of the Crimean Khanate. Its main landmark is Hansaray, the only extant p ...

, IKS-Academy Kuibysheve. In 2010 the head coach of

Ruslan Zabransky acquired him as a coach-consultant. In 2012 Zayaev worked in

Metalurh Zaporizhia The Sports club "Metalurh Zaporizhzhia" (, ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Zaporizhzhia. Reestablished in 2017, it is a " phoenix club" of the original Soviet factory "team of masters" Metalurh that existed in 1935–2016 o ...

Death

He was killed in a traffic accident on Tuesday evening December 18, 2012, while driving own vehicle. The accident took place on the highway

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

less than a mile away from

Melitopol Melitopol is a city and municipality in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, southeastern Ukraine. It is situated on the Molochna River, which flows through the eastern edge of the city into the Molochnyi Lyman estuary. Melitopol is the second-largest city ...

. Zayaev who was driving

Honda CR-V The Honda CR-V (A variant model is called Honda Breeze in China By GAC-Honda since 2019，The CR-V is still manufactured by Dongfeng Honda) is a compact crossover SUV manufactured by Japanese automaker Honda since 1995. Initial models of the C ...

went into the oncoming traffic lane and collided with a towing truck that was moving towards

Zaporizhia Zaporizhzhia, formerly known as Aleksandrovsk or Oleksandrivsk until 1921, is a city in southeast Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper River. It is the administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Zaporizhzhia has a population of ...

. From the collision the towing truck caught fire and its driver burned inside.

Coaching style

Because Zayaev did not have a specialized education, he often was called a "self-taught" coach. He considers psychology as the basis for building training process, an ability to manage human relationships. In recognition of the former players "Tavriya", Zayayev required result not only in the successful performance of the team on the field, but also by the ability to build relationships with football referees.

Honours

Achievements

* Higher League of Ukraine ** Winner: 1992 *

Ukrainian Cup The Ukrainian Cup ( ) is an association football national knockout cup competition run by the Ukrainian Association of Football. The competition is conducted almost exclusively among professional clubs. Since the 2003–04 season, the Cup winner qu ...

** Final: 1993-94

Recognition and awards

* Merited Coach of Ukraine * Merited Coach of Moldova *

Order of Merit The Order of Merit () is an order of merit for the Commonwealth realms, recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by Edward VII, admission into the order r ...

2nd and 3rd degreesPresidential ukase #1096/2011

Private life

His wife Alla is seven years younger than him. His son was the president of

(January 1992 - May 1994) and was killed on May 1, 1994. He was survived by his wife and two children.

Letter to the President of Ukraine (Viktor Yanukovych)

A year before his death, Zayaev wrote a letter to the

President of Ukraine The president of Ukraine (, ) is the head of state of Ukraine. The president represents the nation in international relations, administers the foreign political activity of the state, conducts negotiations and concludes international treaties. ...

Viktor Yanukovych Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych (born 9 July 1950) is a Ukrainian politician who served as the fourth president of Ukraine from 2010 to 2014. He also served as the prime minister of Ukraine several times between 2002 and 2007 and was a member of t ...

asking to take under own control the investigation of his son's murder case. In the letter Zayaev not only identified killers who as he claimed were known to him, but also particular officials: judge, prosecutor, investigator, SBU agents who were covering the killers.

References

External links

It is necessary to fight on two frontlines
. "Karpaty info center". April 27, 2012. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zayayev, Anatoliy 1931 births Soviet football managers Ukrainian football managers FC Chayka-VMS Sevastopol managers SC Tavriya Simferopol managers MFC Mykolaiv managers FC Spartak Ivano-Frankivsk managers FC Polissya Zhytomyr managers FC Dnipro Cherkasy managers FC Metalurh Zaporizhzhia managers FC Dnipro non-playing staff SC Tavriya Simferopol non-playing staff FC Metalurh Zaporizhzhia non-playing staff 2012 deaths Ukrainian Premier League managers Ukrainian First League managers Footballers from Simferopol Tavrida National V.I. Vernadsky University alumni Ukrainian people of Assyrian descent Road incident deaths in Ukraine Assyrian sportspeople