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LIST OF THE 33 BEST FOOTBALL PLAYERS OF THE SEASON IN THE USSR

Alexander Mirzoyan twice got into the lists of 33 best players of the season in the USSR: 

  • No. 3 - 1976

  • No. 3 - 1980

The list of the best football players of the season in the USSR was compiled according to the results of the football season (championship) in the USSR since 1926 irregularly, and since 1948 - annually (except 1954). Since 1930, the list has been (with the exception of 1938, 1953 and 1967) three symbolic compositions of football players (No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3), distributed by playing positions, taking into account the arrangement of players adopted in those years.

In 1988, the reference book-calendar "Stars of Soviet Football, 1918-1987" was published under the authorship of the Leningrad football historian Yu. S. Lukashin. As it says, “back in the early 60s, the author had the idea to compile similar lists of the 33 best for all the years of Soviet football, that is, for the missing period (1918–1932, 1934–1937, 1939–1947, 1949, 1951– 1955, 1958). The assessments in the sports press of that time were analyzed, many of the participants and eyewitnesses of the events on the football fields were interviewed - football players, coaches, journalists. These retrospective lists are given in the publication.

HISTORY OF CREATION

In 1926, the list was published by the editors of the Krasny Sport newspaper on October 31 [1]  according to the results of a survey of 545 readers on the eve of the supposed matches of the USSR national team with the teams of Sweden and Turkey. The list was compiled according to the 1 + 2 + 3 + 5 scheme adopted at that time: goalkeepers - N. Sokolov (L) - 524 votes, as well as Savintsev (L) - 7, Leonov (M) - 4; defenders - Yezhov (L) - 351, Pchelikov (M) - 319, and also V. Lapshin (M) - 189; midfielders - Batyrev (L) - 388, Selin (M) - 402, Privalov (X) - 473, as well as P. Filippov (L) - 219, Nikishin (M) - 124; forwards - P. Grigoriev (L) - 334, M. Butusov (L) - 511, Isakov (M) - 467, Kanunnikov (M) - 326, Prokofiev (M) - 220, and Straub (O) - 173, Shpakovsky (X) - 202, Kholin (M) - 121; see abbreviations1).

 

Then the editors of the journal "Physical Culture and Sport" at the end of the seasons of 1928 and 1930 determined respectively 44 and 33 best football players of the USSR. For the first time, the official list was approved (VSFK under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR) following the results of the 1933 season. Subsequently, the list was compiled by the executive bodies of the Section and the Football Federation of the USSR.

 

In 1938, following the results of the national championship among the teams of sports societies and departments, the list of “55 best football players in the country” was compiled and approved by the Football Section of the USSR, it included five representatives for each position. The next list of the best football players of the USSR was approved in 1948 and consisted of 33 players, after which the lists of the "33 best football players of the USSR" were published in a timely manner in the press following the results of the seasons 1948, 1950, 1956, 1957, 1959-1991. The lists of 1949, 1951, 1952, 1955, 1958 were compiled by the coaching council, but were not approved by the presidium of the USSR Football Section. In 1953, a list of the strongest and most promising players in the USSR based on the results of the 1953 season was approved, but not published. The list, which was discovered by Axel Vartanyan in the State Archive of the Russian Federation, included only 25 players, and 4 players were listed in the position of the right midfielder. In 1954, the list was not compiled. In 1967, the list was compiled by links and in alphabetical order (without numbering).

 

The pre-war lists included 122 players. Since 1948, 494 players (for 1386 positions) representing 29 clubs have been included in the 42 "Top 33" lists. The players of Dynamo Kyiv (253 times) and Spartak Moscow (226) were most often included. The record holders among football players are Lev Yashin and Oleg Blokhin - they were included in the list of the best 16 and 15 times.

 

15 football players (S. Gorlukovich, I. Dobrovolsky, A. Kobelev, S. Kolotovkin, Yu. Nikiforov, Dm. Popov, A. Pyatnitsky, D. Radchenko, R. Rakhimov, O. Tetradze, S. Fokin, D. Kharin , A. Chernyshov, S. Cherchesov, V. Shmarov) were subsequently included in the lists of 33 best players in the Russian championships.

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