Oleg Blokhin holds the all-time top goalscorer record for both Dynamo Kyiv and the Soviet Union national team, as well as being the overall top goalscorer in the history of the Soviet Top League.
26 Facts About Oleg Blokhin
2.
Oleg Blokhin is the only player to have been capped over 100 times for the Soviet Union and holds Dynamo's appearance record with 582 appearances during his 18-year spell at the club.
3.
Oleg Blokhin competed for the Soviet Union at the 1972 and 1976 Olympic Games and 1982 and 1986 FIFA World Cups.
4.
Oleg Blokhin was born in Kyiv, the capital of the Ukrainian SSR, in 1952.
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Oleg Blokhin was born to a Russian father and Ukrainian mother.
6.
Oleg Blokhin's father Vladimir Blokhin was a police officer, a World War II veteran, and a competitive sprinter.
7.
Oleg Blokhin was one of the greatest players in the world throughout the 1970s, hitting the target regularly through a period of great success at his hometown club Dynamo Kyiv and becoming the greatest goalscorer in the history of the Soviet League, which was one of Europe's strongest.
8.
Normally a forward or winger, Oleg Blokhin was most renowned for possessing exceptional pace.
9.
Oleg Blokhin played during most of his career for Dynamo Kyiv, becoming the USSR national championship's all-time leader and goalscorer with 211 goals, as well as making more appearances than any other player with 432 appearances.
10.
Oleg Blokhin led Dynamo to the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1975 and 1986, scoring a goal in each final.
11.
Oleg Blokhin is the USSR national football team's most capped player with 112 caps, as well as their all-time leading goalscorer with 42 goals; he played in the 1982 and 1986 FIFA World Cups where he scored one goal in each.
12.
Oleg Blokhin was one of the first Soviet players to play abroad, signing for Austria's Vorwarts Steyr in 1988, he played in Cyprus with Aris.
13.
In 1979 Oleg Blokhin played a couple of games for Ukraine at the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR.
14.
Oleg Blokhin began serving as the head coach of the Ukraine national team in September 2003.
15.
The club finished 9th and after the season ended Oleg Blokhin was fired from the club.
16.
On 21 April 2011, Oleg Blokhin was again appointed head coach of the Ukraine national team.
17.
Oleg Blokhin led the team in UEFA Euro 2012 on home soil, beating Sweden but exiting at the group stage after defeats to France and England.
18.
Oleg Blokhin was dismissed as Dynamo's manager by the club's President Ihor Surkis on 17 April 2014 because of the "unsatisfactory results of the team".
19.
The day before, in a press conference after Dynamo had lost a match against Shakhtar Donetsk, Oleg Blokhin had already stated that he had decided to resign.
20.
In 1998 Oleg Blokhin was elected to Verkhovna Rada for Hromada.
21.
Oleg Blokhin joined Hromada while still being a member of the Communist Party of Ukraine.
22.
In 2002, Oleg Blokhin was elected to Verkhovna Rada for a second term.
23.
Oleg Blokhin's father, Vladimir Ivanovich Oleg Blokhin, is a native of Moscow, a veteran of the World War II, survivor of the Leningrad blockade, and a former Soviet law enforcement agent.
24.
Vladimir Oleg Blokhin later worked as a sports functionary for the Soviet Dynamo Society.
25.
Oleg Blokhin originally worked at a Kyiv sewing factory, but eventually discovered hidden athletic talents and became the Soviet champion in track and field as well as pentathlon.
26.
Oleg Blokhin was married to Irina Deriugina, a top coach and former world champion in rhythmic gymnastics, but the couple divorced in the early 1990s.