Valery Kuzmich Nepomnyashchy (; born 7 August 1943) is a Russian

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

manager and a former player. Most famously he coached the

Cameroon national football team The Cameroon national football team (French language, French: ''Équipe du Cameroun de football''), also known as the Indomitable Lions (French: ''les lions indomptables''), represents Cameroon in men's international Association football, footb ...

when they surprisingly made the quarter-finals in the

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 ...

. From 1992 to 1994 he coached clubs in Turkey. In 1995, he became manager of

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

Yukong Elephants Jeju SK FC () is a South Korean professional football club based in Jeju Province that competes in the K League 1, the top division in South Korea. In the past, the club has been known as the Yukong Elephants, Bucheon SK, and Jeju United. Hist ...

(currently

Jeju United FC Jeju SK FC () is a South Korean professional football club based in Jeju Province that competes in the K League 1, the top division in South Korea. In the past, the club has been known as the Yukong Elephants, Bucheon SK, and Jeju United. Hist ...

), and in 1996 led them to a victory in League Cup. In 2001, he took over as

J. League The , commonly a.k.a. shortened to the , and officially known as the for sponsorship with Meiji Yasuda Life, is the men's association football league in Japan. It is responsible for organizing Japan's major professional football tournaments, i ...

club

Sanfrecce Hiroshima Sanfrecce Hiroshima () is a Japanese professional association football, football club based in Hiroshima. The club competes in the J1 League, top flight of the Japanese football league system. Sanfrecce is one of the most successful clubs in Ja ...

's manager from

Eddie Thomson Eddie Thomson (25 February 1947 – 21 February 2003) was a Scottish association football player and coach, who played as a defender. He played for Heart of Midlothian and Aberdeen in Scotland, San Antonio Thunder in the United States and ...

. He has also coached

Shanghai Shenhua Shanghai Shenhua Football Club () is a Chinese professional football club based in Shanghai, that competes in . Shanghai Shenhua plays its home matches at the Shanghai Stadium, located within Xuhui District. The owner of Shanghai Shenhua is ...

, (whom he led to a second-place finish for the first time in his career), from 2004 to 2005, and the

Uzbekistan national football team The Uzbekistan national football team ( / ) represents Uzbekistan in men's international Association football, football and is controlled by the Uzbekistan Football Association, the governing body for football in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan holds t ...

in 2006. He worked as a football commentator for a Russian television channel, “NTV-Plus”. In September 2008 he signed a 2-year contract with Russian club

Tom Tomsk FC Tom Tomsk () was a Russian professional football club, based in the Siberian city of Tomsk. The team played in Trud Stadium (Tomsk) before being dissolved in 2022. History The team was previously named ''Burevestnik'' (1957), ''Tomich'' (195 ...

Early life

Nepomnyashchy was born in

Altai Krai Altai Krai (, ) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai). It borders, clockwise from the west, Kazakhstan ( East Kazakhstan Region, Abai Region and Pavlodar Region), Novosibirsk and Kemerovo, and the Altai Republic. The krai's administrative ce ...

Soviet Union 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 ...

during

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 mother, pregnant with him, was evacuated there from

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, after his father was killed during the war. In 1947, they moved to the

Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic The Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Soviet Turkmenistan, the Turkmen SSR, TuSSR, Turkmenistan, or Turkmenia, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union located in Central Asia existed as a republic from 1925 to 199 ...

, nowadays

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...

, where he would start his youth career. He graduated from the

Turkmen State University Magtymguly Turkmen State University () is one of the leading universities in Turkmenistan, located in the capital city Ashgabat. It is named after Magtymguly Pyragy, a Turkmen poet. Its current rector is Bayramgul Orazdurdyyeva. History Tur ...

in 1969.

Career

Nepomnyashchy would start his career as a footballer where his greatest achievement was to play as a striker for third tier Soviet football club Spartak Samarkand. His career was however cut short due to health problems and he had to retire at the age of 25 years. This saw him move into physical education and coaching that would see him land a job within the football coaching sports committee of Turkmenistan from 1970 to 1978. By 1979 he would achieve his first assistant coaching job with third tier Turkmen football club Kolhozchi Ashkhabad and by 1982 he was named as their head coach where he led them to eighth in his debut season. By the end of 1983 Nepomnyashchy had returned to the Turkmenistan Sports committee until in 1984 when he was doing training courses in Moscow, he was asked by the Russian Office of football if he wanted to work abroad. Nepomnyashchy soon accepted the offer and was expected to provide training courses and assistance to developing countries such as Algeria, Tunisia and Suriname. Nepomnyashchy would find these trips as too frustrating and periodical in there planning until

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

offered him a concrete proposal. Initially Nepomnyashchy thought that the Russian funded aid would see him coach one of the Cameroon youth teams, however with the previous manager

Claude Le Roy Claude Le Roy (; born 6 February 1948) is a French football manager and former player, who gained prominence at international level as coach to the Cameroon, Senegal and Ghana national teams. Managerial career Le Roy has had a varied manageria ...

deciding to leave to join

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

there was an unexpected vacancy for the senior Head coach position, which Nepomnyashchy took and signed a two-year contract with the team. At first Nepomnyashchy would struggle with the French language and had to use an interpreter, however he would eventually get his message across on what he wanted his team to do and they would qualify for the

. Drawn in Group B they unexpectedly beat reigning champions

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

as well as

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

to book their place within the last 16. After beating

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

2-1 in extra-time Cameroon eventually lost to

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in the Quarter-Finals. While he was offered an extension to his contract, Nepomnyashchy decided to leave the team after his contract expired to take on a more lucrative position with the

Chinese Football Association The Chinese Football Association (), abbreviated as CFA (), is the governing body for association football, beach soccer and futsal in the People's Republic of China (Mainland China). The CFA organizes the men's and women's national teams an ...

as a technical consultant. In the

1992–93 1.Lig The 1992-93 Süper Lig, Turkish First Football League season had 16 teams in competition. Galatasaray S.K. (football team), Galatasaray S.K. won the championship. League table Results Top scorers References Turkey - List of final tabl ...

season Nepomnyashchy would return to management with Turkish side

Gençlerbirliği S.K. Gençlerbirliği Spor Kulübü (pronounced ), commonly known as Gençlerbirliği, is a Turkish sports club based in Ankara. Formed in 1923, Gençlerbirliği are nicknamed ''Ankara Rüzgârı'' (The Wind of Ankara) or simply ''Gençler'' (The Yo ...

before joining another Turkish side in Ankaragücü the following season. After an uninspired time within Turkey he would move to South Korea where he had a successful spell with Bucheon Yukong where he won the

1996 Korean League Cup The 1996 Korean League Cup, also known as the Adidas Cup 1996, was the sixth competition of the Korean League Cup. Table Matches ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ...

with them. After his time in South Korea ended he returned to Russia for

FC Dynamo Stavropol PFC Dynamo Stavropol () is an association football club from Stavropol, south Russia, best known for winning the 1949 RSFSR championship in one of the 9 zones. In recent years it played mostly in Russian Second League, the third league in the na ...

where he acted as a consultant in 1999 before returning to Asia where he went on to manage several different clubs before returning to national team management when he coached

Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...

after having a spell with one of its clubs, Pakhtakor FK where he won the 2006 league title with them.

Managerial statistics

Honours

As a manager

Yukong Elephants / Bucheon SK *

Korean League Cup The Korean League Cup was a professional football competition in South Korean football. It was held by the K League Federation from 1986 to 2012. Sponsorship Results Finals Titles by club K League's principle of official statistics is tha ...

Winner: 1996 Pakhtakor FK * Champion of

Uzbek League Uzbekistan Super League (; ), known as Artel Uzbekistan Super League due to sponsorship reasons (; ), is the top division of professional football in Uzbekistan. It is operated under the auspices of the Uzbekistan Professional Football League a ...

: 2006 * Cup holder in

Uzbekistan Cup The O‘zbekiston Kubogi ( or ), known simply as Uzbek Cup, is the top knockout tournament in Uzbek football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football pl ...

: 2006

Individual

* Honored coach of the Turkmen SSR (1990) * Legion of Honor (Cameroon, 1990) * Award for "Contribution to the development of the South Korean Football" (1996) * Best Coach of the Year in China (2000) * The badge "For Services to the Tomsk region" (2010)

References

External links