Football legend Lev Yashin was a Soviet-Russian football goalkeeper, considered by many to be one of the greatest goalkeepers in the history of the game, and the best goalkeeper of the 20th century. Lev Yashin was awarded the special prize of the weekly “France Football” – “Golden Ball”. Tall brunette, 190cm tall, muscular and athletic, Yashin was in his thirties, when he was named the best goalkeeper in the world.

It was 50 years ago – in October 1963. At the same time Moscow Dynamo was awarded the “Golden Ball” – a prize for the best football player in Europe. It was a real triumph. His game was the whole epoch in the development of the art of goalkeeping. “What kind of a goalkeeper is the one who is not tormented by the goal he has allowed? He must be tormented! And if he is calm, that means the end. No matter what he had in the past, he has no future.” Lev Yashin.

Lev Yashin was born in 1929, in the family of a Moscow worker. He worked as a mechanic at one of the Tushino plants. Played in the factory team. After serving in the army Lev Yashin played for the club’s youth team of the Moscow “Dynamo”. He spent his professional football career with Dynamo Moscow, from 1950 to 1970, winning the USSR football championship five times and the USSR Cup three times.

Yashin’s grandson Vasily Frolov also was a football goalkeeper. In 2009, he completed a career, becoming a physical education teacher. Vasily played for the backup of “Dynamo” St. Petersburg “Dynamo” and “Zelenograd”. Yashin was not just a great keeper, but also one of the biggest characters the sport has ever seen. Bursting on to the world football scene at the 1958 FIFA World Cup Sweden™, the first to be broadcast internationally thanks to the Soviet satellite Sputnik II, Yashin’s popularity grew rapidly thanks to his imposing displays and abundant charisma. Dressed head to toe in black and able to smother even the fiercest of efforts, his nickname of the ‘Black Spider’ only enhanced his iconic status.