Valeriy Semenovych Porkuyan (, born 4 October 1944 in

Kirovohrad Kropyvnytskyi (, ) is a city in central Ukraine, situated on the Inhul River. It serves as the administrative center of Kirovohrad Oblast. Population: Over its history, Kropyvnytskyi has changed its name several times. The settlement was k ...

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. ...

, now

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

) is a former Ukrainian

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 lea ...

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

n descent who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

for several clubs in the Soviet Union, including

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

, and the

USSR national football team The Soviet Union national football team () was the national football team who represented the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1992. After the breakup of the Union the team was transformed into the CIS national football team. FIFA and UEFA considers ...

Playing career

Club

Porkuyan began playing for the youth team of

's local club, Zvezda. In 1962 he made the transition to the senior team of Zvezda. After three successful seasons there he was spotted by a former Chernomorets Odesa player and then assistant coach,

Matvey Cherkassky Matvei or Matvey (Матвей) is the Russian language variation of Matthew. Notable people with the name include: * Matvey Blanter (1903–1990), Russian composer of popular and film music * Matvei Bronstein (1906–1938), Soviet theoretical phy ...

, who helped him transfer from the

Soviet Second League B The Soviet Second League B or Soviet Lower Second League was an auxiliary fourth tier of the Soviet league system, because it was not consistent as it existed only for six seasons and somewhat randomly. It was the fourth highest division of Soviet ...

to the

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 ...

club Chernomorets. That season he played alongside

Valeri Lobanovsky Valeriy Vasylyovych Lobanovskyi (, ; 6 January 1939 – 13 May 2002) was а Soviet and Ukrainian football player and manager. He was Master of Sports of the USSR, Distinguished Coach of the USSR, and a laureate of the UEFA Order of Merit in Rub ...

, who was finishing up his playing career in Odesa. His form there attracted the attention of many top clubs, including

Spartak Moscow Spartak Moscow may refer to the following teams based or formerly based in Moscow, Russia: * FC Spartak Moscow, an association football club * HC Spartak Moscow, a professional ice hockey team * Spartak GM Moscow, a semi-professional rugby club * ...

and

Dnipro Dnipro is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper River, Dnipro River, from which it takes its name. Dnipro is t ...

, but he was eventually moved to

. At 21 years of age he made the first team in his first season with the team. On the strength of that first season, when he scored 7 goals, he was chosen by the head-coach of

, Nikolai Morozov to travel to the

1966 FIFA World Cup The 1966 FIFA World Cup was the eighth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in England from 11 to 30 July 1966. England defeated West Germany 4–2 in the 1966 FI ...

. Porkuyan won three Soviet Top League championships with Dynamo Kyiv (in

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...

and

1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...

), as well as 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 ...

in 1966. But despite those triumphs he failed to secure a spot in a very competitive team at the time. In 1970, he made a return to Odesa to once again play with Chornomorets. He had two solid seasons there, despite the club being relegated to 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 ...

. In 1972, he was invited to move to Dnipro, who were coached by his former teammate

. He made the majority of his playing appearances with Dnipro in the 4 years he spent there. He retired from playing in 1976.

International

Porkuyan earned 8 caps and scored 4 goals for the

. Incredibly he scored his four goals in his first three international matches during the

, scoring twice against

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

on his debut. Porkuyan scored in the USSR's quarter final victory against

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

, and scored his fourth goal of the tournament in a 2–1 loss to

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

in the semi-final. He also was selected to play in the

1970 FIFA World Cup The 1970 FIFA World Cup was the 9th edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's senior national teams. Held from 31 May to ...

, but did not play any matches. He is the only active player of

FC Chornomorets Odesa FC Chornomorets Odesa ( ) is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club based in Odesa, Ukraine. According to the club's website, it was formed in 1936 as ''Dynamo'', but until 2002 it carried a logo with 1958 and 1959

to have featured in a World Cup team.

Coaching career

After retiring from playing he moved into coaching the following year in 1976, becoming assistant coach with

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 ...

. Along the way he had stints coaching amateur teams playing in the lower divisions. But since the 1980s he, almost continuously, has been connected with Chornomorets Odesa in a coaching capacity.

Honours

Club

Dynamo Kyiv *

Champion:

Champion: 1966

Individual

* Merited Master of Sports: 1966 * FIFA World Cup Bronze Boot: 1966

References

External links

Russian National Team history page

Statistics at Odesa Football
{{DEFAULTSORT:Porkujan, Valeriy 1944 births Living people Footballers from Kropyvnytskyi Soviet men's footballers Ukrainian people of Armenian descent Ukrainian men's footballers 1966 FIFA World Cup players 1970 FIFA World Cup players FC Chornomorets Odesa players FC Dynamo Kyiv players FC Zirka Kropyvnytskyi players FC Dnipro players Soviet Top League players Soviet Union men's international footballers FC Chornomorets-2 Odesa managers FC Ocean Kerch managers Soviet football managers Ukrainian football managers Men's association football forwards Ethnic Armenian sportspeople Soviet Armenians 20th-century Ukrainian sportsmen