The beginning of the seventies became a new stage in the development of domestic hockey. More attention has been paid to this sport, and a new approach to professional training has appeared. The result was the result: a whole generation of the greatest athletes was brought up.
Alexander Nikolaevich Maltsev became one of the representatives of the new stars. There are many records and victories in the biography of an outstanding hockey player. He was called Russian lightning and Yesenin of national hockey.
Time of choice
The future athlete was born in a large family in the village of Setkovtsy. The boy was born on April 20, 1949. Three years later, the family moved to Kirovo-Chepetsk. Sasha saw from childhood how they earn their bread.
Parents had to work hard. Children often helped adults to the best of their ability. The first skates were not purchased. A six-year-old boy received homemade runners from his father, which he attached to felt boots. The children themselves cleared the snow and filled in the place for the ice rink, carried water in buckets.
Maltsev studied well at school. When he told his parents that he was going to play hockey in the section, my mother was against it. She did not understand how her son could combine sports and studies. The boy insisted on his own. However, it turned out that due to the small growth of the future player, the coach of the Khimik children's team did not take it.
And again it took stubbornness. At first, the boy was equally fond of football and hockey. He started playing for the team of his hometown at the age of ten. Everything was decided at twelve, after watching the first adult tournament game. From the age of fifteen in Maltsev's life there was nothing but hockey.
The first successes also appeared. Alexander was distinguished by his originality and talent. He asked the coach for permission to play with the older guys. This method has proven to be successful. Maltsev was the first to come to training and the last to leave the stadium.
With a similar attitude, the athlete managed to conquer sports peaks. With seventeen, the player attracted the attention of the coach of the national youth team. Epstein noticed Alexander while still in Olimpia, but decided to wait. He invited the young hockey player to play for the youth team in Sweden at the Achern Cup.
Brilliant start
The coach hesitated for a long time to release a newcomer to the field. However, the guy on the ice changed instantly. After a successful game, the shocked Epstein called Maltsev the Ice Shalyapin. At the same time, the coach of the capital "Dynamo" Tikhonov became interested in Maltsev. He did not wait, having secured the transition of a promising player to his team in 1967. Moving to Moscow became a fateful turn in the athlete's biography.
Maltsev's entire career is connected with Dynamo. From the next year, Alexander made his debut in the national team. At the 70 Olympics, he set an astounding performance record. The hockey player made six assists and scored fifteen goals. Many times the hockey player received the title of the best player at the world championships. For his achievements, Maltsev was called the Grandmaster because of his amazing ability to calculate and play a game, like in chess. Hockey did not know anyone like him.
He set a national team record, scoring two hundred and twelve goals in three hundred and nineteen games. With age, the performance of the athlete has decreased. The decline in success coincided with the arrival of the eighties. It was becoming more and more difficult for the great record holder to score a large number of goals. But this did not in any way affect the quality of the team's play.
Considerable experience and skill provided Maltsev with the position of an unsurpassed assistant. In a grandmaster's manner, Alexander Nikolaevich took his teammates to shots, gave passes, attacking opponents who were not expecting a trick. In 1984, the hockey player Maltsev played his farewell match.
Summarizing
A significant event took place during the meeting between the national teams of Europe and the Soviet Union. The fight ended with a score of seven to three in favor of the Grandmaster's team. At the end of his sports career, Maltsev graduated from the high school of coaches and began to train young Dynamo players.
The hockey player's best friend was the famous athlete Valery Kharlamov. Their acquaintance happened in their youth, during the games in the national team. In competitions and at training camps, the players stayed in the same room, talked a lot outside of fights, both had the same hobbies and hobbies. In 1981, the death of Kharlamov came as a heavy blow to Maltsev.
The unsurpassed master managed to establish a personal life perfectly. He created a very strong family. Alexander Nikolayevich met his future wife Susanna Buteyko, then a young ballerina and music hall artist, in 1972 in Odessa. They became husband and wife on September 19, 1973. At the same time, the capital's derby "CSKA" - "Dynamo" took place. Therefore, the groom visited the registry office in the morning, and in the evening he went out on the ice with Kharlamov.
A year later, the family was replenished with a child. The heir was named Sasha. Maltsev Jr. is now engaged in computer development. He is married, his daughter Anastasia is growing up in the family.
Maltsev became an outstanding hockey player. He has achieved unimaginable heights in the most prestigious tournaments, the world championship and the Olympic Games. The player became the world champion nine times. Moreover, several times he received the title continuously, in series. Gold awards and later were separated only by small time intervals.
The magnificent striker also collected silver and bronze in the champion's piggy bank. All this crowned the multiple title of the best striker in Europe and the world. Alexander Nikolaevich deserved for his life and awards in unsportsmanlike activities.
He was awarded the Medal for Labor Valor and the Order of the Badge of Honor. His achievements were appreciated by the Orders of Friendship of Peoples and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. Fifteen years after the end of his career, Maltsev was awarded the Order of Honor. In 2011, he was honored with the Merit to the Fatherland award.
