Krutikov Anatoly Fedorovich - a famous Soviet football player who played as a defender. His most important achievement is the European title in the USSR national team. He became famous for his performances at the metropolitan clubs of CDSA and Spartak.
First steps in football
Krutikov Anatoly Fedorovich was born in the autumn of 1933 in the Moscow region, in the small village of Slepushkino in the Naro-Fominsk district, with a population of less than 100 people. Even at school he became interested in football. The first team, which began to speak Krutikov, became the Moscow “Chemist”.
This is a team that did not last long in the history of Soviet football - from 1950 to 1954. Krutikov Anatoly Fedorovich, whose biography was later associated with more eminent clubs, took his first steps in sports in the Chemist. Here he began to act as a defender and entrenched in the main team.
At Chemist, he spent the season in 1953. The club performed in class “B” of the USSR football championship. Moreover, the Chemist football players were included only in the second round instead of the other Navy team in the capital. Therefore, unlike the rest of the teams, they played only 9 games, not 17. In them, “Khimik” won 4 victories, which allowed them to take the penultimate place, beating Petrozavodsk “Red Star”, which held all the meetings.
Youth in boots
In 1954, Krutikov Anatoly Fedorovich received a summons to the army. And, like all promising football players, he went to play for the capital's CDSA.
In the first season, it was not possible to gain a foothold in the main squad, and “CSKA” took only 6th place. He played in the team until 1958, during which time he won bronze medals three times.
The team was closest to the championship in 1955. CDSA has won 12 of 22 games, just 3 points behind Dynamo champion. In total, over the years 34 matches on the field were held by Krutikov Anatoly Fedorovich. The player at the end of the 1958 season decided to try himself in another team.
As part of the "red and white"
In 1959, Krutikov goes to Moscow Spartak. It was in this team that he spent most of his career. Although the first season did not work out. “Red and White” won only 8 games and did not enter the fight for medals, taking 6th place.
Success came to the team in 1962. Krutikov Anatoly Fedorovich by that time was fixed in the basic structure and was one of the pillars of the defense of the “red-white”.
At the preliminary stage, “Spartak” performed in group “B”. Their main competitors were Moscow and Tbilisi Dynamo, Torpedo and Tashkent Pakhtakor. As a result, Georgian football players became the winner of the preliminary stage. “Spartacus” they lost only two points.
In the final stage, the results of previous games were saved. The undisputed favorite was Dynamo Kyiv, which by that time had lost only once when the same Spartak suffered a 6 fiasco. However, the game at the final stage turned everything upside down. “Red and White” were unstoppable, winning 6 games out of 11, they became champions. Silver medals at Moscow Dynamo, bronze at Tbilisi. Kievans won only three times, eventually taking 5th place.
Repetition of success
Krutikov was able to repeat the success as part of Spartak in 1969. This time the “Spartacists” were the first and at the preliminary stage, winning 14 matches out of 18. In the final stage, the struggle could not be intensified by and large. The Dynamo Kyiv won silver medals by 4 points.
At the end of the season, “Spartak” won 19 victories in 26 matches, and the defense, headed by Anatoly Fedorovich Krutikov, whose photo adorned the front pages of newspapers, became the most reliable. For the entire season, only 11 goals have been conceded.
This season was the last for Krutikov not only in Spartak, but also in professional sports in general. For 10 seasons, he spent 269 matches in the “red-white”, in which he scored 9 goals. The player completed his career at 36 years old.
Golden European Championship
In the early 60s, Krutikov was one of the leaders of defense in Soviet football, so it is not surprising that he appears in the team’s application for the first European Championship in 1960, which takes place in France.
True, he does not participate in qualifying matches, so far he has not succeeded in becoming a full-fledged player in the foundation of the national team. With the qualification of the USSR team copes without problems. First, he twice defeats the Hungarian national team 3: 1 at home and 1: 0 away. And in the decisive round, the Spaniards refuse to play for political reasons, they are counted as a technical defeat 0: 6.
In 1960, only 4 teams participated in the final of the European Championship. Therefore, the games begin immediately with the semi-finals. Krutikov goes to the match against Czechoslovakia in the starting lineup, helping to defend Lev Yashin with the shots on target of the Soviet team.
The game ends with a convincing victory for the USSR national team - 3: 0. Double takes Valentin Ivanov, another goal on the account of Victor Monday.
In the final, the Soviet squad confronted the Yugoslavs, who had defeated the hosts of the tournament 5-4 in a dramatic match the day before.
Krutikov Anatoly Fedorovich, whose birth date surprises many, because the main defender of the Soviet team is only 27 years old, again in the cage.
The score in this match is opened by the Yugoslavs - Milan Galich scores a goal in the locker room a few minutes before the whistle for a break. The USSR national team goes into the second half, charged to fight, and immediately wins back. Glory Metreveli scores at 49 minutes. Then there is a stubborn struggle, in the main time the winner cannot be identified.
The pace of the game remained high for an additional half hour of the game, with the Soviet team dominating more, the ball practically did not leave half of the Yugoslav field.
The denouement came at 112 minutes. The author of the first goal scored by Metreveli from the right flank gave a pass to Meskhi, who hung in the penalty area. The first on the ball was Victor Monday, who scored a decisive goal with his head.
Soviet footballers became the first European football champions. True, this success did not allow Krutikov to gain a foothold in the national team; he was called up to the national team only until 1963, having spent a total of only 9 matches.
In the coaching post
Having finished his career as a football player, Krutikov became a coach. At first he worked in the Nalchik “Spartak”, and in 1976 he headed the Moscow “Spartak”. This season turned out to be black for the “red-white." They won only 5 matches out of 15, took the penultimate place and flew out of the Premier League.
Krutikov became the only trainer under whom Spartak left the elite division.