The history of Ukrainian football knows many examples of entire generations of players who flashed without leaving behind any significant achievements. However, this man not only got into big sport at the right time, but also managed to show the qualities necessary for fast and successful development. Multiple winner of the Cup and Super Cup of the country, the Golden Ball, four-time champion of Ukraine, quarter-finalist of the World Cup - Oleg Gusev - occupies an honorable page in the history of Ukrainian football.
Oleg Gusev: biography
Currently, Gusev is a midfielder of Dynamo Kyiv and the national team of Ukraine. An athlete was born on April 25, 1983 in the village of Stepanovka, Sumy Region, Ukrainian SSR, in a family unrelated to football.
Physical data: height - 179 cm, weight - 71 kg. Gusev plays in Dynamo under his favorite number “20”, and in the national team - under number “9”.
Carier start
The future Dynamo Kiev player began to play football in the local Sumy youth sports school with coach Anatoly Semenets. He has proven himself in the attack, despite the fact that there were health problems. Doctors even wanted to prohibit the young football player from playing sports. The young man had unstable pressure and heart murmurs. But Oleg lived only in football, and, as he himself later admitted, everything somehow went away with age. Then he moved to the Sumy youth team “Change”, where he also showed himself to be an excellent scorer. Playing at the youth level, Gusev scored a lot of goals. So, in the last season of “Change” - 10 goals in 10 matches.
The path to big football began with the game for the newly formed team “Frunzenec League 99”. As a striker, Oleg scored quite a lot of goals, and after two seasons he was invited to play for the Borisfen farm club. Here and saw the future star of Ukrainian football coach of Kiev “Arsenal” Vyacheslav the Terrible. Gusev’s debut in the Premier League took place on July 22, 2002 in the game Arsenal with the Poltava Vorskla. Playing under the leadership of Grozny, Oleg gradually moved from strikers to midfield. And this is not because the attack failed. He just proved himself as a football player, able to play in almost any position. And Vyacheslav the Terrible, after a series of experiments, settled on the flank version. The athlete himself was not very happy with this rearrangement, but for the sake of the team he agreed.
Interestingly, Gusev’s fate was just that. Even during the game for Frunzenec, a promising footballer was invited to such clubs as Alchevsk Steel, Zaporozhye Metallurg and even Yaroslavl Shinnik. However, the leadership of the team did not agree - the proposals for the poor “Frunzentz” were not very tempting. As a result, Kiev Dynamo got the promising Oleg Gusev.
Going to Dynamo
When did Oleg Gusev become famous? Dynamo got a "universal fighter" in 2003. That's when the athlete’s career began in the capital's club. For the first time, Gusev played in a new line-up in a game against the Volyn club in July 2003. And in the third match, fate brought the footballer to the old team, and he scored a goal for Arsenal. The athlete did not lose time in vain and immediately managed to show his talent. In the first season of the game for Dynamo, Gusev scored 10 goals in 41 matches, won the country's Super Cup, became the champion of Ukraine. Thanks to such a bright debut, the 20-year-old athlete immediately received an invitation to the national team.
From this moment began the most successful 5-year period in the career of Dynamo. In 2005, Gusev was awarded the title of Best Player of the National Championship. He won the national championship three times and won the Ukrainian Cup as many times. Next was the 2006 World Cup, where in a duel with Switzerland, it was Gusev who scored the decisive goal and led the yellow-blue team to the quarter-finals. Oleg was awarded the Order of Courage for the third degree for this success. The athlete showed himself so well in the championship that the French “Lyon” showed interest in him. But the decisive word was with the president of Dynamo Kyiv, and Igor Surkis refused to sell Gusev, praising the qualities of a football player.
Injuries
Speaking about the professional career of the player, one cannot fail to mention the injuries that knocked Gusev out of football, sometimes for a rather long time. The black streak began in 2008, when Oleg unsuccessfully landed on the field in a match with Donetsk Metallurg, injuring two meniscus and anterior cruciate ligaments. This injury required an almost six-month recovery period. It was difficult to get in shape, and only after the new head coach Valery Gazzayev came to the club, the athlete was able to regain his place at the core of the team. In 2010 there was another injury, which cost the footballer several months, but the worst damage occurred in 2014 in a match with Dnipro. Gusev’s head hit with his knee, goalkeeper Denis Boyko, after which the midfielder lost consciousness and his tongue sank. The player was carried away from the field with a closed head injury, concussion, contusion of the soft tissues of the jaw and tooth damage. However, the athlete returned to duty within a month.
2010 - 2015
It is a mistake to think that after 2008 and injuries the best time of the football player was left behind. In 2012, Oleg Gusev was elected captain of the Dynamo team and participated in Euro 2012. In 2015, the athlete won the next Cup of Ukraine and the title of champion of Ukraine.
And on September 20, 2015, after a penalty in the game against Lutsk Volyn, Oleg entered the symbolic club named after Timerlan Huseynov as a player who scored 100 goals in official matches of the championship and the Cup of Ukraine, matches of the national team of the country.
Personal life of Oleg Gusev
Having become a player of the capital’s team, Oleg Gusev, contrary to public opinion, did not turn out to be a star of socialite. The athlete gives an interview, but purely on the football theme, without revealing all the details of his personal life. However, important events associated with the name of the famous football player do not go unnoticed.
Oleg Gusev was twice married. From his first wife, Olesya, his son Alex grows. This marriage broke up due to differences between the spouses after 5 years of marriage. And a year later Oleg married his new lover, Maria, who is 11 years younger than him. At the time of meeting, Maria was still a university student, but the couple decided to create a family. In 2015, right on New Year's Eve, they had a daughter, who was named Alexandra.
The young wife of Oleg Gusev, in addition to raising her daughter, teaches Chinese and English. In the future, Maria plans a business unusual for the wife of the famous football player. She dreams of opening a car wash next to a beauty salon.
It is known that the passionate hobby of a football player is billiards. Gusev is rarely in his homeland in the Sumy region - at most twice a year. As for the career, even after its completion, the athlete does not see his life without football. He already has a master’s degree from the Sumy Pedagogical University with a degree in Football Coach.
Oleg Gusev is a football player his country can be proud of. He is a talent, a master of his craft, and such are always held in high esteem!