Oleh Valeriyovych Protasov ( uk, Олег Валерійович Протасов; born 4 February 1964) is a Ukrainian and

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

. He was a key member of the Soviet Union national team throughout the 1980s; his 28 goals for the Soviet Union are second in the team's history, behind Oleh Blokhin's 42. It should be considered that his first name is often spelled as Oleg on most of international rosters, particularly during his playing career. Between October 2014 and March 2015, he was the head coach of Romanian club Astra Giurgiu.

Playing career

Club

Oleh Protasov started playing football at the age of 8 years old in his hometown of Dnipropetrovsk in Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, where he played until 1987. In 1987, Protasov moved to play for the

- Ukrainian football giants, Dynamo Kyiv. In all, in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, he won the Soviet Championship twice and was named

Soviet Footballer of the Year The award Soviet Footballer of the Year was awarded to the best footballer of the Soviet Union from 1964 until 1991. The poll was conducted among journalists by the weekly sport newspaper ''Football'' (Football-Hockey). Each journalist named his o ...

in 1987. He scored 125 goals in the Soviet Championship, making him the 8th best scorer of all-time of the Championship. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, Oleh Protasov got a chance to play abroad. In 1990, he joined Greek side

Olympiacos Piraeus Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós ( el, Ολυμπιακός Σύνδεσμος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς, Olympic Club of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number ...

. Leaving Olympiacos in 1994, he played in

Gamba Osaka is a Japanese professional football club based in Suita, Osaka Prefecture. The club plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. The club's name ''Gamba'' comes from the Japanese , meaning "to do your best" or "to ...

, Veria FC, and finally

Proodeftiki FC Proodeftiki Football Club, also known as Proodeftiki Piraeus, simply as Proodeftiki, or with its full name as A.O. Proodeftiki Neolea ( el, Αθλητικός Όμιλος Προοδευτική Νεολαία, transliterated "Athlitikós Όmilo ...

, from where he retired in 1999.

International

Protasov played for the Soviet Union 68 times, including at the 1986 and 1990

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the ' (FIFA), the ...

s, as well as Euro 88, where he scored two goals. He also played one game for the Ukraine national team, in 1994. In 1983 Protasov took part in the Summer Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR in the team of Ukrainian SSR.

Coaching career

After retiring as a player, Protasov went into coaching, and led

to the Greek title in 2003. In 2005, he coached Romanian team

Steaua București Steaua or Steaua București may refer to: * CSA Steaua București, a Romanian multi-sports club * CSA Steaua București (football), the football team of the multi-sports club * Fotbal Club FCSB, a football team that used this name between 2003 ...

Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk

In December 2005, Oleh Protasov returned in Ukraine to coach his hometown team, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, after an impressive

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, cla ...

performance with

. Protasov left by his own choice and was on very good terms with the entire team and owners of the club. In his first 2005–06 season as Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk's coach, Oleh Protasov led the team to a 6th-place finish in the Ukrainian Premier League. In the next, 2006–07 season, Protasov improved on this, finishing 4th in the league. In the 2007–08 season his side unexpectedly led the title race ahead of the winter break, before a poor second half left his side in 4th once again. Dnipro sacked him on 29 August 2008 after an embarrassing defeat from AC Bellinzona in UEFA cup qualification match.

Kuban Krasnodar

After that, Protasov took over

FC Kuban Krasnodar FC Kuban (russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб "Кубань" Краснодар) was a Russian football club based in Krasnodar. The team began playing in the Russian Premier League in 2011, after it was promoted for winning the R ...

in the nearby region of Russia. Kuban had been recently relegated to the Russian First League. Under Protasov's leadership, the club finished 2nd in the league, with an 8-point lead over their nearest competitors. This finish earned them right to be promoted to the

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is the top division professional association football league in Russia. It was established at the end of 200 ...

. However FC Kuban was hard-hit by the global financial crisis of 2008–2009, which greatly decreased the club's budget. In a mutual agreement with the club, Protasov left the club on 19 November 2008.

Iraklis Thessaloniki

Then, he signed a two-year deal worth 400,000 euro per year with Iraklis Thessaloniki, starting from the summer of 2009. On 30 October, it was announced by Iraklis F.C. the termination of their contract, after 5 continual defeats in Super League and Greek Cup.

Astra Giurgiu

On 13 October 2014, Oleg became manager of FC Astra Giurgiu. He was sacked on 2 March 2015.

Aris Thessaloniki

Protasov agreed on a three years contract with Aris Thessaloniki, though Arvanitidis expel from head of football department position of the club, led to amateur Aris to terminate the deal after 15 minutes of its announcement.

Honours

Club

Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk * Soviet Top League: 1983 * USSR Federation Cup: 1986 Dynamo Kyiv *Soviet Top League: 1990 * Soviet Cup: 1989–90 Olympiacos *

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup ( el, Κύπελλο Ελλάδος Ποδοσφαίρου), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Kypello Elladas is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second most i ...

: 1991–92

International

Soviet Union *

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition is contes ...

: Runner-up 1988

Individual

: 1987 * Soviet Top League top scorer (3): 1985, 1987, 1990 *UEFA Silver Boot: 1984

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

Personal

Protasov is married to Natalia (née – Lemeshko), a daughter of Yevhen Lemeshko. He is a naturalised citizen of

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wit ...

and is able to speak

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

, alongside English, Russian and his native Ukrainian.

References

External links

Info on Dnipro official website
(in list)
Oleh Protasov at Kopanyi-Myach.info
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Protasov, Oleh 1964 births Living people Footballers from Dnipro Soviet footballers Soviet Union international footballers Soviet expatriate footballers Ukrainian emigrants to Greece Naturalized citizens of Greece Ukrainian footballers Ukraine international footballers Ukrainian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Greece Expatriate footballers in Japan Soviet expatriate sportspeople in Greece Ukrainian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Ukrainian expatriate sportspeople in Japan Ukrainian football managers Soviet Top League players FC Dnipro players FC Dynamo Kyiv players Olympiacos F.C. players Super League Greece players Gamba Osaka players Veria F.C. players Proodeftiki F.C. players 1986 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1988 players 1990 FIFA World Cup players Association football forwards J1 League players Dual internationalists (football) Olympiacos F.C. managers Expatriate football managers in Cyprus Super League Greece managers Expatriate football managers in Greece AEL Limassol managers FC Steaua București managers FC Dnipro managers Ukrainian Premier League managers FC Kuban Krasnodar managers FC Rostov managers Iraklis Thessaloniki F.C. managers Russian Premier League managers FC Astana managers Veria F.C. managers FC Dinamo Minsk managers FC Astra Giurgiu managers Ukrainian expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Russia Expatriate football managers in Belarus Expatriate football managers in Romania Expatriate football managers in Kazakhstan Ukrainian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Ukrainian expatriate sportspeople in Belarus Ukrainian expatriate sportspeople in Romania Ukrainian expatriate sportspeople in Kazakhstan Football Federation of Ukraine officials Recipients of the Order of Merit (Ukraine), 3rd class