Football is wonderful for athletes, each time entering the field to create a unique miracle of an inspirational and inspiring game for millions of people. The special fleeting beauty of a goal that suddenly happened captures someone for a moment, and someone for life. In August of this year, on the 24th, the footballer Alexei Paramonov died. The Olympic champion and four-time champion of the USSR lived a long life, of which he gave football 60 years. The press was filled with sympathy, obituaries ... Some officials with sad faces voiced: "The legend of Soviet football has died." From the outside, it looked quite trite: age - over 90.
The sad thing is that during long speeches it was forgotten during the funeral, the idea of the life of Nikolai Starostin, Alexei Paramonov, Igor Netto, embodied in the 50s, did not sound: “We are capable and will create our own, the best team in the world, we will work out the combinations ending in goals over the years and yet we will turn all this into a game! ” It is noteworthy that the well-known stage in the life of these people, and no one can argue with this, was the real ministry of this lofty goal. In today's pragmatists, it is obvious that critically lacking such spiritual personalities in modern Russian football.
Paramonov and Spartak
This athlete and coach was deservedly considered the bearer of Spartak traditions. For him, the milestone period in the history of his native club was always the beginnings laid down by its founder, honored master of sports, captain of the USSR national team - Nikolai Petrovich Starostin: “Spartak's style - elegant, technical, combinational, attacking, built on thinking players, immediately came to taste football fans, and the unpredictability of the Spartak character intrigued them terribly. ”
Paramonov played 302 matches for Spartak over 13 seasons. In this case, the midline player scored 73 goals. The name of the legendary athlete is an integral part of the Spartak constellation of unique football players: Simonyan, Beskov, Maslov, the Starostin brothers.
The best midfielder of Spartak of all time
In football, the midfield line largely determines the nature and playing style of the team. Alexey Paramonov, a universal football player, always played as best he could, from goal to goal. His range of conscious and constructive actions for Spartak was impressive. Many fans of the team in red and white T-shirts, according to them, didn’t even go to a football match, but to “Paramonov”. Here is what Honored Master of Sports Valentin Bubukin wrote about him:
“And not only in their game, there was no more useful, tenacious, able-bodied midfielder in it then. Aleksey approached that wonderful team and in its human qualities. As a player, Paramonov was also distinguished by high discipline. Many football players allow you to play "on their own", to be arbitrary. Aleksey always tried to clearly fulfill the tasks of the coach, in addition, he often added something of his own, necessary in the game, in addition to the thinking of the coach. ”
Coaches know: what is the line of midfield, such is the pattern of the game of the whole team. This midfielder with quick and accurate movements, various offers of the game for his partners was able to create an advantage and equal power in any part of the field. Aleksey Aleksandrovich was distinguished by a striking “sense of the rhythm of the game”, he possessed in full measure all the necessary qualities of both a defender and a striker. He was claimed by Spartak as the organizer of attacks and counterattacks, the master of timely non-standard ball passes.
Paramonov is an iconic footballer, a favorite of all of Moscow at the end of the 50s. Yevgeny Yevtushenko dedicated a poem to him, a fragment of which very accurately described the manner of playing of this brilliant midfielder:
He played not like Beavers, but as rude and more artistic than Pele.
The quality of the game, the reliability of Spartak insider
His high volitional qualities, developed tactical thinking, and the ability to peripherally evaluate the situation on the field to a large extent formed the team’s characteristic game. These qualities were not so much grown in years of training and training, as innate, unique talent.
The midfielder never hid from the force struggle imposed on the team. You know, in football there are frankly rude athletes who, with their whole game, demonstrate their willingness to injure an opponent. The short but well-built footballer Paramonov Aleksey Aleksandrovich, himself playing correctly, within the rules, answered the rude people with such accented force confrontation that they were forced to change the nature of their actions. His teammates especially appreciated him for securely closing such a player so that he could not injure Alexei’s partners.
Amazing Paramonov - a football player, a football legend, an example of insider ... No matter how he was called by the press. Specialists noted that this midfielder was remarkable for his tenacity, he effectively neutralized even the most dangerous European forwards, such as Puskas and Walter. Many years later, at their meeting, the last, a key player in the German national team, spread his arms and laughed: "Because of Alexei, I could not create anything on the field."
He was always inspired to easily and always creatively connected to the attacks of his favorite team. He played with a soul and a smile. When this midfielder was in the strike zone for the goal, then no goalkeeper felt comfortable. Assessing from today's perspective, the requirements that the legendary footballer Alexei Paramonov fully met were really hypertrophied. Many experts call him the best Soviet midfielder of all time. Here is what Honored Master of Sports V. Monday writes about him:
The game of Aleksey Aleksandrovich attracted me with its quality factor, it seemed to be colored by technology, healthy excitement. This player was given to football from the first to the last minute of the match. One could rely on him both on the football field and in life. Remembering the football that Netto and Paramonov played, I always think that now in our football there is not even anyone to compare them with.
Arrival in Moscow. Childhood. Work youth
In 1923, the Paramonov family with their two-year-old son Alexei arrived in a cart from the provincial Borovsk to Moscow. While studying at the 430th school, a bright physical talent of a guy was noticed by a physical education teacher. The best football player among the pioneers began his journey into sports with a school team that played with other metropolitan schools. Soon Paramonov Jr. was invited to the Moscow Start team for the first training session, which did not take place, because its date coincided with the start of World War II.
With his future wife, he was familiar from school. Both children lived in a communal apartment in Lefortovo. Then the Paramonov family settled closer to the center. During the war, Julia and Alex did not meet. A 16-year-old guy was working at a military factory collecting, M-50 mortars. Sometimes I had to work two shifts in a row. The future idol of several generations was even awarded the medal "For Valiant Labor."
After the war, Alex began to play his favorite game again. First in the team "Builder", then in the Air Force. The latter was quite authoritarian and peremptory led by Vasily Stalin. He fired coach Tarasov, who disagreed with his methods. Paramonov did not like the atmosphere in the team of the leader’s son, and he left her.
Spartak for life
With the light hand of the future popular football commentator Nikolai Nikolaevich Ozerov, then an actor of the Moscow Art Theater, Alexei was invited to play for the capital's Spartak.
In 1948, Paramonov very confidently played in the double team. The Spartak footballer, already in the next year, in the first roster, acted as an attacker on the right flank of the midfielder (insider). The team just acquired its own style of play, it was replenished with attackers Simonyan and Sagasti. In 1950, the red and white, until then occupying third place in the USSR Cup, finally defeated their main opponents: the 1949 champion of the Central House of Artists and the silver medalist, Moscow Dynamo. By that time, Igor Netto and Oleg Timakov were playing in the net midfield, while insider Paramonov was connecting to the attack, combining with Rystsov, Simonyan, Terentyev and Dementiev. Active (involved with the ball) attackers between themselves dynamically lined up a rotating triangle, while changing places. This know-how of Spartak contributed to his champion game!
Entrance to the international level
The Moscow club confidently began its journey into the international arena. In the same year, the team went to Norway, where they surprised local fans with three convincing victories. The score of the last match was 7: 0 with one goal of Paramonov and one of his assists. In 1951, a tour to Albania followed. In five club matches, Paramonov’s teammates prevailed, and Muscovites drew from the national team. The following year, there was a victory over the Chinese team.
In 1953, Spartak proved its playing advantage over the national teams of the Czech Republic, Sweden, and Albania. However, the most striking decoration of that season was the victory over the famous European team Rapid (4-0) Paramonov personally scored two goals. And this is with 80 thousand fans in the stadium. Alexey Alexandrovich after that became the darling of the whole country.
Wedding, birth of a child
In the same year, he met a girl from childhood, in whom he had long been in love. Soon, Julia and Alexei Paramonov got married. The biography and family of the famous football player have never been the subject of newspaper ducks. The deep feeling, preserved for the whole life together, was affected. Young spouses had a daughter, Elena. Paramonov suddenly felt that his life seemed to be filled with some kind of light, as if he had finally returned home after a long, long journey.
Spartak among the grandees of European football
The year 1954 demonstrated that the Moscow Spartak has become the leading European team. This is clearly indicated by the statistics of his victories over eminent rivals:
- Anderlecht (Brussels) (7-0);
- Gironde (Bordeaux) (3: 2);
- Djurgården (Sweden) (7-0);
- Arsenal (London) (2: 1)
The year 1955 was connected for the USSR national team, where 8 teammates of Alexei Anatolyevich played, with a match with the German national team, the world champion. In the first game, due to an injury, Alexey Alexandrovich did not participate (his team won 3: 2). According to the results of the second press, Paramonov was a unique football player. He so densely patronized the best player of Europe at that time, Walter, that he was practically excluded from the game. The national team of the Soviet Union won 2-1.
1956 year. The best player of the USSR
However, the most striking in the career of a midfielder was 1956. It can rightfully be called the year of the peak of the sports potential of Spartak. The real miracle was created as a result of many years of creative work by a harmonious team of like-minded people.
Paramonov, a footballer of the USSR, as part of the national team and in the club championship, achieved much of what any footballer could dream of. His native team more than convincingly won the USSR Cup for the third time. The basis of the team of the Soviet Union, which went to the Olympics in Melbourne, was ten Spartacists played in training. Alexey Alexandrovich was called the best football player in the country, and everyone recognized this.
Perhaps it would be fair if FIFA officials also recognized that Paramonov Alexey Alexandrovich was also the best European champion in 1956. The Russian team, it must be said, today is in dire need of performers of this class. Until now, there are memories of a great fan of ball games, the writer Lev Kassil, about the famous “Spartak Triangle” (Paramonov, Tatushin, Isaev), who scored 23 of the team’s 43 Olympic goals.
Favorable team atmosphere as a factor of mutual understanding on the field
The founder of Spartak Nikolai Starostin also said that for the national team, and for Spartak in the midfield the most useful is the football player Paramonov. The legend of Soviet football recalled that period:
In those years, we had a very friendly, relatively young, well-played team. There were no antipodes in the team, we respected each other very much. They were friends of families, went on a visit, spent holidays, went on vacation. Often celebrated New Year together.
The team included many theatergoers, and we had many friends in the artistic world. Artists of the Moscow Art Theater, Vakhtangov, actors of the Maly Theater collectively cheered for Spartak. Our popularity was enormous ...
Unfortunately, it should be noted that subsequently the leadership of Soviet football, its coaching staff were not able to interest, put on a regular basis the development of the Spartak combination art created in recent years. Naturally, without this, the team began to decline in three years. The officials of the sports society "Spartak" in 1959 did not come up with anything better than "rejuvenate the composition."
Coaching
Soon after leaving the team, a Spartak veteran Paramonov wrote a still-needed textbook, The Midfielder Game, in which he highlighted many of the nuances of preparing and playing the midfielder, and introduced a methodology for training world-class athletes. It was his personal rethought experience - the practice of never putting himself above the team.
From 06/01/1960, Aleksey Aleksandrovich worked in the Football Federation, led the committee of veterans.
Leaving life
08/24/2018, Alexei Paramonov, a football player, died at home. The cause of death is a general decline in health. On August 18, he was taken to the intensive care unit in critical condition. The 93-year-old veteran's legs failed, his eyesight problems worsened, and he suffered from a number of diseases of his internal organs, which he had treated in recent years with the sponsorship of the Moscow football club Spartak. Resuscitators helped him and a week later he was discharged home.
Paramonov was buried in the Vagankovsky cemetery near the grave of his wife Julia, who died two years earlier.
conclusions
The history of outstanding sports clubs is written by individuals who create a unique pattern of high-speed combinations, capable of not only resisting “bone in bone” with any opponent, but who are making every effort to outplay it. Recently departed from us, a veteran of the Moscow Spartak, Aleksey Aleksandrovich Paramonov, is a footballer of precisely this category. Four times this athlete, together with his team, became the champion of the USSR. He, along with his teammates, won the championship at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne.
With the departure of the midfielder, thinking fans, obviously, had a number of difficult and relevant football issues. Is it worth it today to blindly idealize the football past? Has Russian football inherited the flaws of Soviet football? Why after the stellar 1956 in “Spartak” was not done the proper thing to keep the team at the highest level? The fact that this is achievable is proved today by the grandees of world football.
Which modern coach, like the Spartak coaches of 1950-1956, really grows a super team, or do sports experts just leave the room, reducing football to a daily routine?
The experience of the red-white team in the 50s clearly shows: for the team to reach the top level, it takes 5-6 years of serious creative uncompromising training and selection work. What is our team capable of in our time?
Today, among the domestic football players who have earned world fame, there are more deceased than living. I should be ashamed of the current football functionaries. After all, the modern address of the registration of advanced football experience of the 21st century, unfortunately, is located abroad.