Rinat Fayzrakhmanovich Dasayev (, ; born 13 June 1957) is a 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 ...

coach and a former

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

. Throughout his club career, he played for Volgar Astrakhan, Spartak Moscow and

Sevilla Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Seville ...

. At international level, he played at three World Cups with the Soviet national team, also winning 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 ...

and a runners-up medal at

UEFA Euro 1988 The 1988 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in West Germany from 10 to 25 June 1988. It was the eighth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA. France national football team, Fr ...

. Regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in the world during the 1980s, he is considered the second-best Soviet goalkeeper ever behind Lev Yashin.IFFHS' Century Elections
- rsssf.org - by Karel Stokkermans, RSSSF. He was awarded the title of the World’s Best Goalkeeper of the Year award in 1988 by the

IFFHS The International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) is an organisation that chronicles the history and records of association football. It was founded in 1984 by Alfredo Pöge in Leipzig. The IFFHS was based in Abu Dhabi for so ...

. In a 1999 poll by the same organisation, he was elected the sixteenth greatest European goalkeeper of the twentieth century, alongside

Gianpiero Combi Gianpiero Combi (; 20 November 1902 – 12 August 1956) was an Italian association football, footballer who played as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper.

, and the seventeenth greatest goalkeeper of the century. In 2004, he was named by

Pelé Edson Arantes do Nascimento (; 23 October 1940 – 29 December 2022), better known by his nickname Pelé (), was a Brazilian professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. Widely reg ...

as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers. Following his retirement, he worked as a coach, and currently serves as a goalkeeping consultant with FC Spartak-2 Moscow and Spartak's youth teams.

Club career

Dasayev played as a goalkeeper for the Russian football club Spartak Moscow during most of the 1980s. He won the Soviet championship in 1979 and 1987 and was named Best Soviet Goalkeeper by ''Ogonyok'' (''Огонëк'') magazine in 1980, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1988. In 1982, he was named Soviet Footballer of the Year. After his contract ran out with the Spanish club

Sevilla FC Sevilla Fútbol Club () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, that competes in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. The club was formed on 25 January ...

in the early 1990s, Dasayev retired from the sport.

International career

Dasayev played for the Soviet national team at the

, winning the

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...

. He appeared in the

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...

, 1986 and

1990 FIFA World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second ...

s, as well as the Euro 88, where the Soviet Union reached the final, only to lose out to the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. In total, he was capped 91 times from 1979 to 1990, being the second-most capped player ever for the Soviet Union.

Style of play

Nicknamed "The Iron Curtain" and "The Cat", Dasayev is considered to be one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, and one of the best players in the world in his position during the 1980s; he is also regarded as the second-best Russian goalkeeper ever after Yashin. In addition to his shot-stopping abilities as a goalkeeper, Dasayev was also known for his trademark sudden long throws, which he would make immediately after stopping a shot, in order to start quick counter-attacks from the back; he was also known for his particular diving technique, which often saw him attempt saves with only one arm, in a similar manner to his Italian contemporary Franco Tancredi. A tall and well-rounded goalkeeper with a slender physique, he possessed an excellent positional sense, and often positioned himself in very deep positions, rarely straying from his goal-line, and preferring to remain between the posts throughout the course of a match. He was also known for his efficient, rather than spectacular, playing style, as well as his ability to organise his defence. Considered to be the goalkeeping heir of Lev Yashin in Soviet football, he often drew wide praise for his ability in the press. However, critical opinion of Dasayev was occasionally divided; Italian sports journalist Gianni Brera, for example, believed that he was overrated in the media.

After retirement

Dasayev retired from professional football in the early 1990s, following his time with Sevilla. In 2001, he traveled to Vietnam to play some friendly matches between legend players of Spartak Moscow and Hanoi XI, which ended 3–3. He was appointed as the 2008 UEFA Champions League Final Ambassador. Dasayev was a member of Russia's committee that won the bid to hold the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded t ...

. Unlike most of other legends and football pundits in Russia following Russia's quarter-finals feat in 2018 World Cup, Dasayev criticized the Russian team and believed quarter-finals can't be considered as an achievement. He had to retire from active coaching in late 2018 due to knee injuries and currently works as goalkeeping consultant with FC Spartak-2 Moscow and Spartak's youth teams.

Personal life

Dasayev is a Muslim.

Honours

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; runner-up: 1980, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1985 *

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 ...

runner-up: 1981 Soviet Union *

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

runner-up: 1988 Individual * The best 33 football players of the Soviet Union (10): No. 1 (1979–1983, 1985–1988); No. 2 (1984) * Soviet Footballer of the Year: 1982 * Soviet Goalkeeper of the Year Award (5) * Guerin Sportivo All-Star Team: 1982, 1983, 1986 * ADN Eastern European Footballer of the Season: 1983 *

Onze Mondial ''Onze Mondial'' is a French language quarterly football magazine published in Paris, France. History and profile The magazine was established with name ''Onze'' in 1976. In 1989 the magazine merged with another sports magazine, ''Mondial'', an ...

: 1983, 1988 * World XI: 1984, 1986, 1987 *

IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper The IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper is a association football, football award given annually since 1987 to the best Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper of the year as voted by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics ...

: 1988 * UEFA Jubilee Poll (2004): #97 * Golden Foot Legends Award: 2015 *

FIFA 100 The FIFA 100 is a list compiled by Brazilian professional footballer Pelé featuring his choices of the "greatest living footballers" at the time of its release. The list was unveiled on 4 March 2004 during a gala ceremony at the Natural Histor ...

References

External links

Rinat Dasayev at goalkeepersaredifferent.com
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dasayev, Rinat 1957 births Living people Tatar sportspeople Tatar people of Russia Footballers from Astrakhan 1982 FIFA World Cup players 1986 FIFA World Cup players 1990 FIFA World Cup players FC Spartak Moscow players FC Torpedo Moscow managers FC Spartak Moscow managers FIFA 100 Men's association football goalkeepers Footballers at the 1980 Summer Olympics La Liga players Olympic footballers for the Soviet Union Olympic bronze medalists for the Soviet Union Soviet expatriate sportspeople in Spain Sevilla FC players Soviet men's footballers Soviet Union men's international footballers Soviet expatriate men's footballers Soviet Top League players UEFA Euro 1988 players Expatriate men's footballers in Spain FC Volgar Astrakhan players Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 1980 Summer Olympics Russian men's footballers Russian football managers Russian Muslims Association football goalkeeping coaches 20th-century Russian sportsmen