Vitali Chevchenko

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Vitali Viktorovich Chevchenko () is a Soviet international footballer and Russian football coach.

Active from 1968 to 1983, his first years with the Neftchi Baku saw him stand out as one of the great hopes of Soviet football in the position of striker, and saw him play thirteen games with the national team between 1970 and 1972, scoring four goals in the wake at the age of 20. Later transferred to Dynamo Kiev at the beginning of 1972, however, an accumulation of serious injuries put a brake on his career and kept him away from the land until 1976, when he returned permanently with the Chernomorets Odessa, for which he moved until 1982. However, he failed to return to his previous level and was no longer recalled with the selection. He then joined Lokomotiv Moscow in the second division where he finished his career in 1983 at the age of 32.

Later re-converted as a coach, Chevchenko held an assistant position in the Lokomotiv technical supervision between 1986 and 1992 before leaving for Club Bolívar where he won the Bolivian championship in 1992. He then left for Israel between 1994 and 1996, in particular as coach of the Hapoël Beer-Sheva. Then returning to Russia in , he made short trips to Uralmach Iekaterinburg, Gazovik-Gazprom Ijevsk and Uralan Elista before joining Torpedo Moscow in 1999, where he spent three and a half seasons, bringing the team to third place in the Russian championship in 2000. The next few years saw him go to Saturn Ramenskoye, FK Rostov and Terek Grozny, with a brief passage in Ukraine to Metalurh Donetsk. He later led the Tchornomorets Odessa between and before getting to know his last position between June and as coach of the Rotor Volgograd.

Biography

Player career
The son of a mother, a volleyball player and a father, a football player in Neftianik Baku during the 1950s, Chevchenko was born in Baku, Azerbaijan's SSR, and trained in that city on the Neftchi (former Neftianik) local team during the 1960s. He made his first team debut in the first division in the 1968 season, at the age of 16, arguing 17 games that season for a goal. Displaying a similar game time in the suvillating season, he finally established himself as a regular holder starting with the 1970 exercise, which saw him play 27 games and score 7 goals. He then continued his career the following year, scoring 10 goals in 23 matches.

His performances with the Neftchi earned him a quick spot from the big championship stables, notably the Dynamo Kiev who recruited him in early 1972, when he was only 20 years old. However, his visit to the club proved disastrous, as Chevchenko saw two serious knee injuries diagnosed