Fyodor Fyodorovich Cherenkov (; 25 July 1959 – 4 October 2014) 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 ...

and Russian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

who played for Spartak Moscow (1977–90 and 1991–94) and Red Star Football Club (1990–91).

Playing career

Cherenkov played for Spartak Moscow for almost his entire professional club career (1977–1994; he also played for the youth team between 1971–1977), aside from a brief spell with

Red Star Saint-Ouen Red Star Football Club (), known as Red Star FC or simply Red Star, is a French professional association football, football club founded in Paris in 1897, and is the fourth oldest French football club, after Standard AC of Paris, Le Havre AC a ...

from 1990–91. For the time spent in Spartak he received the Club Loyalty Award in 1989. He was awarded "The Attack Organizer" award in 1988 and 1989, as the most useful attack player. At international level, Cherenkov made 34 appearances for the Soviet Union national team, scoring 12 goals. He won a bronze medal at the

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad () and officially branded as Moscow 1980 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1980 in Moscow, Soviet Union, in present-day Russ ...

. Although widely regarded by Spartak's fans as the team's best player ever, he was always dropped by the national team on the eve of several major tournaments, including two World Cups and a European Championship.

Style of play

Cherenkov was an excellent passer and was also a good striker of the ball who scored many goals throughout his career. In his book on the history of Spartak, described him as "the longest-serving and most beloved of all Spartakovtsy":

A native Muscovite, Fiodr Cherenkov (b. 1959) was a product of Spartak's school. Navigating between midfield and forward, he played with an originality and eccentricity that endeared him to the public. Cherenkov was an enigmatic and fragile personality whose capacity for unexpected improvisation fit the Spartak image of the player as romantic artist. A true original, he was the embodiment of what many of Spartak's male Moscow supporters liked to believe about themselves. Lacking great speed but quick on his feet, small of stature but possessed of great guile, Cherenkov seemed to practice a new kind of masculinity, that of the urban trickster. By the time his Spartak career was over, he was the leading point producer (goal plus pass) in the team's history.Robert Edelman, ''Spartak Moscow: A History of the People's Team in the Workers' State'' (Cornell University Press, 2012; ), p. 279.

Cherenkov was considered to be the best Soviet footballer of the 1980s.

Coaching career

Cherenkov worked as a

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

of Spartak's reserve team after retiring.

Personal life and personality

A 2021 profile on ''

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC BBC Television, television, BBC Radio, radio and BBC Online, online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadc ...

'' relates that Cherenkov was a kind and approachable "regular guy" who could not understand his own fame. He suffered several attacks of an unknown mental illness during his playing career, and missed important games because of it, but was "widely seen as the best Soviet footballer of the decade". His daughter Anastasia was born in 1980. He died in 2014, at age 55, after collapsing outside his home. An autopsy at a Moscow hospital found a brain tumour. The profile described him as a "football genius".

Honours

Club

Spartak Moscow *

Soviet Top League The Soviet Top League, known after 1970 as the Higher League (), served as the top division (tier) of Soviet Union football from 1936 until 1991. The league's name was a conditional designation used for brevity since being completely owned and g ...

: 1979, 1987, 1989 *

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

: 1993 * Russian Cup: 1994

International

Soviet Union *

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...

bronze medal:

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

Individual

* The best 33 football players of the Soviet Union (9): No. 1 (1983, 1985, 1987, 1989); No. 2 (1980, 1982, 1988); No. 3 (1981, 1984) * Soviet Footballer of the Year: 1983, 1989 * Club Loyalty Award: 1989

References

External links

*
Profile at RussiaTeam
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cherenkov, Fyodor 1959 births 2014 deaths Moscow State Mining University alumni Men's association football midfielders Soviet men's footballers Russian men's footballers Footballers from Moscow Russian football managers FC Spartak Moscow players Red Star FC players Olympic footballers for the Soviet Union Olympic bronze medalists for the Soviet Union Footballers at the 1980 Summer Olympics Soviet Union men's international footballers Soviet expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in France Soviet expatriate sportspeople in France Soviet Top League players Ligue 2 players Russian Premier League players Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 1980 Summer Olympics Deaths from brain cancer in Russia Burials in Troyekurovskoye Cemetery 20th-century Russian sportsmen