Vitaliy Volodymyrovych Starukhin (; 6 June 1949 – 9 August 2000) was a Ukrainian professional

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 ...

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 ...

. He is considered by many fans to one be the greatest players to ever play for

Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk () is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club that was based in the city of Donetsk until 2014 when, due to the War in Donbas (2014–2022), War in Donbas, the club was forced to move to Lvi ...

. In 1979, he was awarded

Player of the year award Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year. In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is held on b ...

. In 1979 Starukhin played couple of games for

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 ...

at the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR. In 2011 Vitaly Starukhin, together with

Oleg Blokhin Oleg Vladimirovich Blokhin, or Oleh Volodymyrovych Blokhin (, ; born 5 November 1952), is a Ukrainian former football player and manager. Regarded as one of the greatest footballers of his generation, Blokhin was a standout striker for Dynamo ...

and

Igor Belanov Igor Ivanovich Belanov () or Ihor Ivanovych Bielanov (; born 25 September 1960) is a Soviet and Ukrainian former professional footballer who played as a striker. He made a name for himself at Dynamo Kyiv, winning five major titles as well as th ...

was named as "the legends of Ukrainian football" at the Victory of Football awards.

Career statistics

Honours

Shakhtar Donetsk *Soviet Top League: runner-up 1975, 1979; bronze 1978 *

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 ...

: 1980 Individual *

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 ...

top scorer: 1979 (26 goals) *Soviet Footballer of the Year: 1979 *Best rookie player: 1973

References

External links

* 1949 births 2000 deaths Footballers from Minsk Deaths from pneumonia in Ukraine Soviet men's footballers Soviet Union men's international footballers Ukrainian men's footballers Men's association football forwards SC Odesa players FC Vorskla Poltava players FC Shakhtar Donetsk players Soviet Top League players FC Shakhtar Donetsk non-playing staff 20th-century Ukrainian sportsmen {{Ukraine-footy-forward-1940s-stub