38 Facts About Lev Yashin

Lev Ivanovich Yashin was a Soviet professional footballer considered by many to be the greatest goalkeeper in the history of the sport.

Lev Yashin was known for his athleticism, positioning, imposing presence in goal, and acrobatic reflex saves.

Lev Yashin was deputy chairman of the Football Federation of the Soviet Union.

Lev Yashin's performances made an indelible impression on a global audience at the 1958 World Cup, the first to be broadcast internationally.

Lev Yashin dressed head to toe in apparent black, thus earning his nicknames "the Black Spider" or "the Black Panther", which enhanced his popularity.

Lev Yashin appeared in three World Cups from 1958 to 1966 and was an unused squad member in 1970.

Lev Yashin kept over 270 clean sheets in his career, winning a gold medal at the 1956 Olympic football tournament, and the 1960 European Championships.

In 1963, Lev Yashin received the Ballon d'Or, the only goalkeeper ever to receive the award.

Lev Yashin was additionally named posthumously to the Ballon d'Or Dream Team in 2020, a greatest all-time XI, and was voted the best goalkeeper of the 20th century by the IFFHS.

Lev Yashin was named to the IFFHS All-time Men's Dream Team in 2021.

Lev Yashin was named by France Football as the greatest goalkeeper of all time in 2020.

Lev Yashin was born in Moscow, in a Russian family of industrial workers.

Lev Yashin played goalie for the Dynamo ice hockey team during those early years of trying to break into the senior squad.

Lev Yashin managed to win a USSR ice hockey cup in 1953 and was third in the USSR ice hockey championship as goalkeeper.

Lev Yashin spent his entire professional football career with Dynamo Moscow, from 1950 to 1970, winning the USSR football championship five times and the Soviet Cup three times.

Lev Yashin internally rivalled goalkeeper Valter Sanaya, who left the club in 1953.

In 1954, Lev Yashin was called up to the Soviet national team, and would go on to gather 78 caps.

Lev Yashin played in three World Cups, in 1958,1962 and 1966.

Lev Yashin is credited with four clean sheets out of the 12 games he played in the World Cup finals.

Lev Yashin was nominated for Ballon d'Or in 1960 and 1961 and placed fifth and fourth, respectively.

That tournament showed that Lev Yashin was all too human, having made some uncharacteristic mistakes.

Lev Yashin did make an outstanding save against Chile in the quarter-final.

Lev Yashin often played wearing a cloth cap of burnt-brick colour.

Lev Yashin led the Soviet team to its best showing at the FIFA World Cup, a fourth-place finish in the 1966 World Cup held in England.

Always ready to give advice to his comrades, Lev Yashin even made a fourth trip to the World Cup finals in 1970, held in Mexico, as the third-choice back-up and an assistant coach.

In 1986, following a thrombophlebitis contracted while he was in Budapest, Lev Yashin underwent the amputation of one of his legs.

Lev Yashin died in 1990 of stomach cancer, despite a surgical intervention in an attempt to save his life.

Lev Yashin was given a state funeral as a Soviet Honoured Master of Sport.

Lev Yashin was survived by wife Valentina Timofeyevna and daughters Irina and Elena; when Russia hosted the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Valentina was still living in the Moscow apartment that the Soviet state had given her husband in 1964.

Lev Yashin has a granddaughter and one surviving grandson; another grandson died in 2002 at age 14 from injuries suffered in a bicycle accident.

Lev Yashin was the model for goalkeeping for the next 10 to 15 years, without a doubt.

Lev Yashin remains the only goalkeeper to have won the Ballon d'Or, in 1963.

Lev Yashin stopped 151 penalty kicks during his career, more than any other goalkeeper in history, and kept over 270 clean sheets.

Lev Yashin rarely captained his teams, as the later accepted custom of appointing a goalkeeper captain was virtually unheard-of in that era, but his leadership on the field was always evident.

Lev Yashin was one of the goalkeepers who began the practice of punching balls out in difficult situations instead of trying to catch them.

In 2020 Lev Yashin was named in the Ballon d'Or Dream Team, a greatest all-time XI.

Lev Yashin played ice hockey and he won the Soviet Cup in March 1953.

Lev Yashin stopped playing ice hockey in 1954 to concentrate on his football career.