Vitaliy Starukhin, one of the best strikers in the history of Donetsk Shakhtar, would have turned 74 today. The legendary striker died in 2000 but is still remembered by football fans around the world. Starukhin played for Shakhtar for nine years and set a record for the number of goals scored for the team that stood for more than 30 years. His story of how he appeared in Donetsk is nothing short of a detective novel. FanDay.net recaps the most famous football biography “Babusi” and takes a look at the life and career of Vitaliy Starukhin.
Today one of the best strikers in the history of Donetsk Shakhtar Vitaliy Starukhin could be 74 years old. The legendary striker died in 2000.
If a footballer who played in the Premier League only for a team that never won the championship is recognized as the best player in the Soviet Union, it says something. Vitaly Starukhin is one of them.
The legendary Shakhtar striker didn’t play long, but was brilliant. The record he set for the number of goals scored for Pitmen stood for more than 30 years, and the story of his appearance in Donetsk is detective in nature.
FanDay.net recaps the most famous football biography “Babusi”.
Night escape from Poltava on “rafik” Shakhtar and goals under a fictitious surname
Vitaly Starukhin was born on June 6, 1949 in Minsk in the family of the commander of the Zvezda partisan detachment. I started playing football quite late. At the age of 11, he tried himself as a goalkeeper at the Minsk Youth Sports School. Soon after, he trained again as a midfielder. At the same time he plays basketball and volleyball.
As part of the radio plant team, Sputnik became a two-time champion of the republic. Military service began at the place of residence in the Guards, after which he was transferred to the Odessa SKA.
After demobilization, he joined Poltava Builder, where coach Yuri Voinov first tried him as a striker due to the lack of players in this role. Two years later, he became a Shakhtar player, where he played for nine years until the end of his career.
“In those years, the concept of such a transfer did not exist,” said commentator Vyacheslav Sharafudinov. – The builders didn’t want to release Starukhin, so the miners had to kidnap him. For starters, we got his wife’s consent. Vitaly had nowhere to retreat, and under the cover of night, he escaped from the base, sitting in a specially prepared “rafik”.
Builder’s management made an unprecedented noise, as a result of which Starukhin was banned from playing for the Donetsk club. In this regard, he played his first match in Pitmen’s reserve under the name of Chernykh. Yes, that’s the problem – an unknown striker, who scored a goal in almost every match, was called up to the youth team of the USSR.
Vitaly Starukhin. Photo: Google
To hide the forgery, the Donetsk club sent a telegram to Moscow, in which he said that Chernykh fell ill with meningitis. At the same time, Vitaliy continued to play for Shakhtar under another pseudonym. Eventually, the conflict was hushed up.
Only Luis Adriano and Andrey Vorobey are cooler
He made his debut for Shakhtar’s first team in August 1972 in a friendly against Cuba. He scored immediately – with his head, of course. Well, the peak of his career came in 1979, when Starukhin became the top scorer of the USSR championship (26 goals) and was recognized as the best player in the country.
“He just played with his head,” recalls former Shakhtar, Dynamo and USSR national team goalkeeper Viktor Chanov. – I see everything in the jump, including the movement of the goalkeeper. And in the last split second he can turn his head so that it is useless to catch.
When the sniper turned 32, Shakhtar took a course to restore the squad, rejecting the services of a veteran, even though he was still in excellent physical shape. “Babusia”, as Donetsk fans affectionately called him, did not survive such a blow, decided to quit football.
According to the footballer, his decision was influenced by Viktor Nosov, who decided to assert himself in the coaching position by attracting young people to the first team.
Viktor Nosov. Photo: Vorskla
There is also an opinion that Starukhin has missed the first team after he, after his replacement in the match with Spartak Moscow, had a fun discussion with Nikolai Latysh on the bench, and this episode was broadcast on central television.
Regardless, Starukhin left an important mark on Shakhtar’s history. With him, the team made its debut in European competitions, won the USSR Cup, twice won the silver medal of the tournament and became the winner of the bronze medal of the tournament.
To date, Vitaliy Vladimirovich is one of the top three scorers in Pitmen history. He has 110 goals in all competitions. Only Luis Adriano (128) and Andrei Sparrow (114) have more.
Seeds in my back pocket, unfiltered cigarettes and KGB surveillance
Rumor has it that Starukhin often violates the sports regime, and on the field he always has seeds in the back pocket of his shorts. True or not, it is impossible to say. It is known for certain that Vitaly likes to smoke Bulgarian cigarettes. And he always tears the filter off of them so they are stronger.
Impressed by his game, the leaders of Porto called them, but in the Soviet Union it was impossible to imagine the departure of a player to a club from European capitalists. As Starukhin’s children remember, the player’s house was immediately taken under the supervision of the KGB.
The Shakhtar striker played for the USSR national team only once – they say that he had a strong conflict with Lobanovsky, who did not like Pitmen’s ambitions. On May 7, 1980, Sergei Korshunov gave him 90 minutes in a friendly match with the GDR team (2: 2), after which Starukhin was no longer called up to the national team.
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Kriventsov’s first coach and the owner of a personalized pile of scraps
At the end of his career, Starukhin worked as a children’s coach at Shakhtar’s school for more than 15 years. One of his most famous students was Valery Kriventsov.
On August 7, 2000, “Grandma”, being at the dacha, where she spent the whole summer, felt bad. Relatives barely persuaded him to go to the hospital, but doctors were powerless against pneumonia and pulmonary edema. Two days later, 51-year-old Starukhin died.
“We took him to the hospital, the temperature was below 40, and he was kept in the emergency room,” his wife Larisa recalled. – He suffers, jokes with the nurse, he is a famous humorist. There were several other men in the ward, they recognized immediately: wow, Starukhin! And he: Mommy, please bring the TV, the miners are playing.
The legendary football player was buried in the Donetsk Sea cemetery. Larisa’s wife, who died two years later, was buried nearby. In 2010, one of the rubbish heaps near the Shakhtar stadium was named after the footballer.
Vitaly Starukhin (right)
Starukhin’s son, named after his father, also tried his hand at football, and at the end of his career he worked as a coach at the Donetsk Olympic Academy. He died on July 26, 2017 of a heart attack.
Larisa’s 44-year-old daughter lives in Donetsk, not far from the Metallurg stadium.
“Dad can buy ice cream for everyone who sits in the row with us during football, – said Larisa Vitalievna. – He is very generous. And he’s friendly too. He loves jokes and sings the songs “Pesnyarov” and “Syabrov” wonderfully.
