A favorite of the Kiev public, a tenacious and unyielding defender, the game of which the legendary coach Valery Lobanovsky described in a simple and capacious word - reliability. With these words, you can describe Sergei Pavlovich Baltach - Honored Master of Sports of the USSR.
Sergey Baltacha - biography of a football player
He was born in the Ukrainian coastal city of Mariupol (formerly Zhdanov) on February 17, 1958. However, unlike most boys, he did not dream of becoming a sailor. Football attracted Sergei, so his parents wrote him to the local children's team, Azovstal.
Later he moved to Kharkov, to the local sports boarding school. And from there - to the famous Dynamo club from Kiev, to which he gave 12 years of his sports life.
During a speech at Dynamo (Kiev), Sergey Baltacha became the four-time champion of the USSR and the owner of the USSR Cup, the owner of the 1986 Cup Cup. Also, his career as a player in the national team was successful. First there was bronze at the 1980 Olympics, and after that, matches for the main team of the country went. The injury received in the final match of the Cup of the Cup with Atletico (Madrid) did not allow the player to go to the World Cup 86 in Mexico, where the Soviet Union dropped out in the quarterfinals due to refereeing errors. But after two years, nothing prevented him from participating in the European Championship-88 and taking silver medals following the championship.
Then there was a voyage to Misty Albion, which cannot be called completely successful, but at the end of his career Sergey Pavlovich remained to live and work in England.
Career at Dynamo Kyiv
For Kiev Dynamo, Sergei Baltacha made his debut at a young age of 18. However, the head coach threw the young man right into the thick of it - put in the basis of a fundamental confrontation with the Moscow Spartak. And Sergei did not disappoint - the team won with a score of 3-0, and Baltacha with his skillful actions immediately retained his place in the main team.
For 12 years spent in Kiev, Baltacha spent 245 matches for the club at different levels, in which he managed to score 6 times. And the four championship seasons are also the merit of the undoubtedly talented football player. However, the peak of the player’s career is the 1985/1986 season, when Sergey Pavlovich together with Dynamo won the USSR Championship and took the 1986 Cup Cup. Naturally, constantly speaking at a high level, Baltacha was also involved in games for the national team, where he played 45 matches and scored 2 goals.
Sergey Baltacha - the first among the Varangians
In the late eighties, the iron curtain began to rise, and Soviet football players got the opportunity to test their strength in European championships. Naturally, the Dynamo players (Kiev) were in sight, who shone in European tournaments both for the club and in the national team. Mikhaylichenko, Zavarov, Blokhin, Bal, Bessonov, Belanov - many European grandees wanted to see them in their composition. Sergey Baltacha, a well-established footballer with sufficient experience in performing at a high level, also came into the view of foreign clubs. In 1988, the English League club Ipswich Town bought it out. The career there was not entirely successful for the football player. Sergei Pavlovich spent 28 games for this English club in three seasons. In 1990, he moved to Scotland, where he completed his football career in 1994.
After some wanderings around Scotland and Ukraine, as an assistant to the head coach, Baltach found his niche. Since 2001, he began to teach football to young soccer players. He worked for 8 years at the Charlton Academy, then there was a 4-year contract with Chelsea, but in 2012 he returned to Charlton, the academy of which he still works today.
Family tragedy
The topic that Sergey Baltacha is trying not to touch on is daughter Elena. The wound from such a terrible loss has not yet managed to heal, and it probably will never be able to.
The famous tennis player, Elena Baltacha, died of liver cancer on May 4, 2014, at the 31st year of her life. Her daughter's sports career was magnificent: a lot of titles won, being in the TOP-100 of the best tennis players in the world. After retiring, Elena married her former coach. And a few months later the young family was struck by the news with thunder - Elena was ill with cancer. The disease progressed very quickly, and two months later, Elena Baltacha died.
The father was very worried about his daughter's departure, but life goes on, and Sergei Baltacha found reassurance in work. He was a fighter on the football field and remains so in life.