Honored Master of Sports, the best mini-football player of the twentieth century - forward of the national team of Russia and Moscow “Dina” Konstantin Eremenko. He owns a phenomenal indicator. Eremenko hit the gates of rivals 1132 times. One of the most prestigious veteran mini-football tournaments bears his name - "Cup of Legends" by Konstantin Eremenko.
At the beginning of the journey
Konstantin Eremenko was born in Ukraine, in Dnepropetrovsk, in 1970. He graduated from school with a silver medal. He began his sports career in big football. At the age of 18, he played one match for the local Dnipro in the USSR Championship, but was not marked by effective actions. He also tried his hand at "Selenga" from Ulan-Ude, Pavlodar "Tractor" and even the Kyrgyz team "Alga". A total of two seasons in these clubs spent 28 matches, scoring 4 goals. In 1991 he returned to Ukraine and tried himself in futsal, while the USSR was still not very popular. The first team was the Dnepropetrovsk "Mechanizer".
First experience
Together with the "Mechanizer" takes part in the first
USSR championship in futsal. The final part is held in Chisinau, the Ukrainians finish the season in 8th place. In August, Konstantin leaves for the newly formed Moscow "Dina". This club decided to gather the best players in the country. But ironically, the Mechanizer had to cross again in the very near future.
In ¼ the finals of the USSR Cup, Dnipropetrovsk met just with “Dina”. The game ended in a draw, so fate decided the lot. From the Muscovites, a piece of paper was pulled by Konstantin Eremenko. The footballer pulled out a minus and the Machine Operator set off to the next round, ultimately winning the trophy.
Career at Dina
Moscow "Dina" began to quickly move around the standings. In the first season, she won 4 out of 5 matches of the preliminary stage in the CIS Championship. And in the final stage she won 8 games out of 10. Eremenko became the top scorer. The next year was a little more difficult. At the preliminary and final stages, “Dina” suffered one defeat, while Konstantin was again the main sniper with 74 goals.
For 9 seasons from 1992 to 2000, Konstantin Eremenko, along with Dina, has invariably become the champion of Russia. In total, having spent 235 matches in the national championship, he managed to upset rival goalkeepers 519 times. The most shocking season was 1993-94. In 33 matches, Konstantin Eremenko scored 91 goals.
The first team medals
Eremenko went to the first major tournament with the national team in 1992 at the World Cup in Hong Kong. The first match was unsuccessful - a 3-8 defeat from the US team. Then a confident victory over China 10: 1. In the last game with the leader of the group Spain, we were only happy with the victory. However, it was not possible to beat one of the strongest teams at that time, although the Russians were close to this. The match ended in a draw 7: 7.
The team arrived at the next World Cup with an already experienced and close-knit team. True, in the group tournament everything was not easy again. First draws with the Dutch and Argentines - 2: 2. In the last match, China again. This time they managed to get such an important victory - 11: 1.
Russia entered the second group round, starting in it with a defeat from the same Spaniards 0: 2. True, then, having demonstrated a bright and attacking game, she defeated 3: 0 Italians and 6: 2 Belgians. The national team for the first time in history reached the semifinals.
The rivals got the current owners of the cup - the Brazilians. The Russians missed 2 unanswered goals for the break. The second half turned out to be more productive. First, the double was designed by Marcio. Then ours finally recouped. Eremenko and Bely reduced the score to 2: 4 in one minute. The team rushed to recoup, but more experienced Brazilians caught on the counterattack. The result is 2: 6.
In the match for third place, the Russians beat the Ukrainians 3: 2. Eremenko at that World Cup again became the best sniper of the national team with 8 goals.
Gold in Granada
The main success of the Russian national team in the 90s was the European Championship in Granada. The captain was traditionally Eremenko Konstantin. The footballer brought to Spain a strong and close-knit team.
In the group, the Russians initially had a problem. It was not possible to defeat the Italians in the first match - 3: 3. But then Belgium was defeated 5: 1 and Portugal was defeated 3: 1.
The national team reached the semifinals from the first place, hitting the Dutch. Already in the second minute the score was opened by Dmitry Gorin, and soon Eremenko doubled the lead. At the beginning of the second half, Markin, Alekberov and Verizhnikov set on the scoreboard 6: 2. From the crushing defeat of the Dutch, only Langeheisen saved poker. However, in our team there was a player who scored 4 goals. They became Eremenko. The semi-final result is 9: 6.
In the final, the Russians met with the hosts of the tournament, and the Spaniards led 0-1 to the break. In the second half, Arkady Bely scores, then Alekberov and Eremenko are different, and 5 minutes before the final whistle it is already 3: 1 in our favor. But it was not possible to keep the winning score, the hosts recouped. The fate of the trophy was decided in a penalty shootout. The Spaniards missed twice, the Russians made no mistakes, a decisive blow was dealt by Konstantin Eremenko. Following the results of the tournament, he also became the top scorer with 11 goals.
Retirement
Konstantin left sports quite early - in 2001 - due to congenital heart disease. Soon, in honor of the football player, the Konstantin Eremenko Cup was established, and he himself became a sports functionary - the first president of the Super League, and since 2002 - the president of the Dynamo mini-football.
True, work for the benefit of sports did not last long. Health problems still affected. March 18, 2010 Eremenko died of heart failure. In his honor, the "Cup of Legends" named after Konstantin Eremenko was organized.