Luzhny Oleg Romanovich - Defender and Captain

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:47

When this name sounds, one immediately remembers Kiev "Dynamo" of the nineties of the twentieth century. One of the best teams in the post-Soviet space of that time. And Oleg Luzhny, the defender and captain, will certainly appear before my eyes.

Career start

If we talk about the formation of such a football player as Oleg Romanovich Luzhny, his biography begins in a standard way. Born in Lvov on August 5, 1968. His parents, especially his mother, loved football, so he began to study from childhood at the Karpaty Youth Sports School. Among his peers, he did not stand out as a special talent, but he impressed even experienced coaches with his ability to work. It was the hard work on himself that allowed him to progress quickly.

After graduating from the local school of physical culture, in 1985 he began to play for the team of the neighboring regional center - Lutsk "Torpedo". These speeches continued for three years, until the time of conscription into the army. After that, Luzhny Oleg Romanovich in 1988 moved to Lviv SKA. Having repaid the debt to the motherland, one could think about continuing a football career. Therefore, the next step was the transition to the best club in Ukraineof that time - Dynamo Kiev.

Star Period

Since 1989, he appeared in Dynamo and immediately won a place at the base of the club in place of the right back. In the very first season in the top league of Soviet football, he becomes the best newcomer to the USSR championship. And in 1991 he received the honorary title of "Master of Sports of International Class". But Oleg Romanovich Luzhny never received the Honored Master of Sports due to the collapse of the Soviet Union. The team "Dynamo" (Kyiv) begins to play in the championship of Ukraine, and since the 1992/93 season. always remains the best. And Oleg Luzhny deserves the captain's armband of the club.

It was during his time as captain that Dynamo Kiev achieved the greatest success on the European arena, reaching the semi-finals of the Champions League in the 1998/99 season. Many Western clubs showed interest in an extraordinary player before, but it was after the specified season that a new football began for him - Oleg Luzhny moved to London's Arsenal.

After Dynamo

They took Luzhny as a replacement for the English national team player Lee Dixon. But either the age had an effect (after all, the player was already over thirty), or the bet was made on another player, but our football player came out in the first team irregularly. Although for four years in the London club Luzhny Oleg Romanovich played on the field in one hundred and ten games and rightfully won the championship, the national cup and three second places.

For one of his last matches with Arsenalhe took the team to the field as captain.

Luzhny ended his English career as a Wolverhampton player in the 2003/04 season, having played ten matches for the club. And despite the rather controversial results, Luzhny Oleg Romanovich is considered the best player in the post-Soviet space in the English championship.

After the UK, he went to Latvia, where he became the playing coach of the Venta team.

Playing in the national team

The debut of Oleg Luzhny for the national team of the then Soviet Union took place at the age of twenty. He played eight matches for the USSR national team, but could not go to the 1990 World Cup due to injury. But the day before, he won the European Youth Championship. After the collapse of the USSR, Luzhny Oleg Romanovich began to play for the Ukrainian national team, making his debut in its first match in 1992.

He stopped playing in 2003, almost simultaneously with the end of playing for Arsenal. But during this time, the team was not able to break into any major tournament, almost always stopping a step away from it. Therefore, the number of games is not very large. In total, Luzhny played 52 matches for the Ukrainian national team, in which he was the team captain 39 times. This indicator is a record for the team and is unlikely to be broken in the near future.

Coaching career

Having received practice as a playing coach in the Latvian team, Oleg Romanovich Luzhny returned to Dynamo Kiev, where he began working as an assistant coach. During the period from 2006 to 2012 he was twice actinghead coach, but he could not get a permanent place at the head of the club. He began his independent club career in 2012 in Tavria Simferopol. But at the end of the season, the team took the lowest position in all the years of performances in the Ukrainian championship, so Luzhny was forced to leave the club. Since January 2016, Luzhny Oleg Romanovich has been leading the team of his hometown Karpaty.

No matter how his coaching career develops, for most fans he will remain in memory as one of the best defenders of Dynamo Kyiv in its entire history. No wonder he is part of the symbolic team of the club of all time, only slightly losing on points to the more famous Oleg Blokhin, Andriy Shevchenko and Anatoly Demyanenko.