Sergei Alekseevich Kapustin is a Soviet hockey player. USSR national team player, multiple world champion and Olympic gold winner.
Biography
Sergey Alekseevich Kapustin was born in the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of Komi (Ukhta) on February 13, 1953. From early childhood, he began to play hockey on the basis of a local hockey school. The first coach of the talented striker was Guriy Kuznetsov. He saw in the boy the excellent skills of a striker - in addition to a perfectly delivered strike, Sergei had an out-of-the-box thinking, thanks to which he made decisions that directly affect the result of the match.
Career
In 1970, Kapustin first got into the application of the adult team of the local "Oilman" and played a whole season. After a successful start to his professional career, he decided to test his strength at a higher level. While watching at Spartak, Kapustin could not impress the club's management and was not accepted into the team. Nevertheless, he never returned to "Neftyanik".
Another well-known Soviet club, Krylia Sovetov, became interested in a promising striker. At that time, the head coach of the team Boris Kulagin started a big restructuring of the club and often released young players on the ice instead of proven veterans. Among them, Sergei Kapustin got his chance to prove himself. He managed to quickly gain the confidence of the coach and become one of the leaders of the team. Thanks to his successes, in 1972 he got into the youth team at the Universiade.
Already in 1974, as part of the USSR national team, he became the world champion. At the draw, which took place in Finland, the 21-year-old striker scored 9 goals and became the best in the tournament. The following year, at the games that took place in Germany, he again became the top scorer of the tournament. In early 1976, as part of Wings of the Soviets, Sergei played a superb series against the best clubs in the NHL, scoring goals in two games out of four. In February of the same year, the Olympic Games were held in Austria, where the USSR national team became the champion in hockey, among the winners was Sergei Kapustin.
After such brilliant performances, the virtuoso striker was noticed in the main club of the country, CSKA. In 1977, Sergei moved to the army club and ended up there for 3 seasons. In 1980, Boris Kulagin, the man who spotted the talented youth Kapustin, became the head coach of Spartak Moscow.
Sergey leaves CSKA and returns under the guidance of his beloved coach. Kapustin spent 6 years at Spartak, the team actively competed with the hegemons of that time, CSKA, Sergei was the undisputed leader and captain of the team. Due to constant injuries and a general recession, at the age of 33, Sergey decided to end his career.
After leaving Spartak, Kapustin spent two years in Austria, where he acted as a playing coach in local clubs. At the end of the contract, he returned to Moscow where he studied at the school of trainers.
Personal life and death
The famous hockey player met his future wife Tatyana in Moscow in 1974. They are both natives of Ukhta, and were brought together by mutual friends. His wife gave Sergei two sons, but one of them died at the age of 4 from pneumonia, and the second grew up and now he is the reliable support of his mother, the widow of the hockey legend.
In the summer of 1997, the legendary hockey player passed away. While swimming in the reservoir, Sergei was injured, but did not attach any importance to this. An infection got into the wound, and as a result of blood poisoning, Sergei Kapustin died on June 4, 1997.
