Leonid Tkachenko, a 69-year-old coach from Crimea, helped lead Baltic Kaliningrad back to the top section of the Russian championship after a 25-year absence. The team was sponsored by an amber factory and led to victory by Sergey Ignashevich, a champion in the game for the colonial national team. Tkachenko was invited to join Ignashevich’s coaching staff and helped the team enter the RPL without delay. Tkachenko had previously led the team to the Premier League in 1995 and served as its president for one season. He returned as head coach three times but failed to bring the team back to the RPL until becoming Ignashevich’s assistant.
69-year-old Leonid Tkachenko helped Baltic Kaliningrad to return to the elite section of the Russian championship after a break of a quarter of a century.
Kaliningrad Baltic after a 25-year break returned to the elite section of the Russian championship. The team sponsored by the amber factory was led to victory by Sergey Ignashevich, the champion in the game for the colonial national team, and Leonid Tkachenko, who is from Crimea, helped him in this.
Ignashevich took over Baltika in October 2021, finishing his first season with him in tenth place. After that, he invited Tkachenko to his coaching staff, with the help of which the task of entering the RPL was completed without delay.
Tkachenko is a special person for the Baltics. In 1995, under his leadership, the team made it to the Premier League for the first time and spent their only three seasons there so far (seventh, ninth and 15th place).
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Together with specialists from Ukraine, the Kaliningraders made their debut in the Intertoto Cup, where they reached the third round. Tkachenko’s success was noticed by the club’s founder, who entrusted him with the post of president. Only for one season, but still.
Later, Tkachenko returned to the post of head coach three times, but he failed to return the team to the RPL. And only after becoming an assistant to Ignashevich, the 69-year-old specialist finally achieved his goal.
Metalist captain and acting head coach of the Ukrainian national team
Leonid Tkachenko was born on October 1, 1953 in a military family in Crimea, from where he moved first to the GDR, and then to Kaliningrad, where he began to take his first steps in football. He was a leading figure in Zhytomyr Avtomobilist and Kharkov Metalist.
In 1981, as team captain, he helped Metalist win the First League and win a ticket to the elite division. Two years later, with the Kharkiv team, he reached the final of the USSR Cup and in the same year ended his career at the age of 30 due to conflicts in the team.
Having hung up his boots, he immediately entered the Metallist coaching staff, having received a matching offer from Yevgeny Lemeshko. Three years later he became the team leader, and two years later he replaced the same Lemeshko on the coaching bridge.
Under Tkachenko Metallist moved from Soviet to Ukrainian football. In the inaugural season, the Kharkiv team reached the final of the Ukrainian Cup, where they only lost to Chernomorets in extra time.
Viktor Prokopenko offered Tkachenko the position of his assistant in the Ukrainian national team. After the resignation of Viktor Evgenievich, the Metalist helmsman, along with Nikolai Pavlov, had a struggle in the acting status. head coach of the national team (1:1 with Belarusians).
I went to Iraq, but ended up in Shepetovka
In 1993, the Malyshev factory, which took care of Metalist’s fate, had to sell the club to businessman Dmitry Drozdnik due to financial problems, with whom the head coach did not work out. Tkachenko was fired.
Leonid Ivanovich was about to go to work in Iraq, but just before the flight, he was intercepted by the president of Shepetovsky Tempo, who later played in the Premier League. Temp finished his first season under Tkachenko in ninth place, drawing with Dynamo, and also beating Shakhtar and Dnipro.
The next season was unsuccessful from the start. As a result of the championship, the Shepetovites were relegated to the First League, and Tkachenko, who was fired after the first round, returned to Kaliningrad, where he began to make Baltic history, which we have already mentioned.
The period in the Baltic Tkachenko alternated with work in some modest Russian clubs such as Sokol, Sever and Petrotrest, and in 2000 he was again brought to Metallist. However, the Ukrainian mature championship turned out to be too difficult for the coach. After only a dozen matches, the specialist left the club.
In the fall of 2018, Tkachenko was diagnosed with cancer. The operation was successfully completed. By the way, his son died of oncology and was first buried in Kharkov, until his father started a reburial in Kaliningrad, in the cemetery where Tkachenko’s parents were buried.
