Georgy Aleksandrovich Yartsev is a Soviet footballer who played as a striker, who at the end of his career moved to coaching positions in various Soviet and Russian football clubs. For his love and dedication to sports, he was awarded several state awards and honorary sports titles.
Georgy Yartsev is a native of the small village of Nikolsky, located ten kilometers from Kostroma. The future famous football player and coach was born on April 11, 1948 in a large family. He was brought up in an atmosphere of modesty and moderation in everything befitting the post-war years. From a young age he was filled with love for football. He made his first steps in sports in the children's team of the village of Nikolsky. At the end of the eight grades of school, he entered the Kostroma Medical School, where he was educated as a “paramedic”. During the years of study, he did not leave football, played for the team from Kostroma "Tekmash".
Player club career
The winger laid the beginning of the path to a professional career through Spartak Kostroma, for which he played as a youth from 1965 to 1967. After that he moved to the Smolensk "Iskra", in which by 1970 he played 43 matches, having managed to score 13 goals. In 1970 he was drafted into the ranks of the Soviet army, which made it possible to attract the attention of the head coach of football CSKA. Yartsev was even able to play one match for this club, but was injured, after which he never returned to the squad and was returned to the location of FC Iskra (Smolensk).
Until 1977, Yartsev did not stand out for anything remarkable among other talented football players, played for the teams "Gomselmash", "Spartak" (Kostroma). The striker's talent was fully revealed later - only by the age of thirty, when the outstanding coach of the Moscow Spartak Konstantin Ivanovich Beskov drew attention to him, who invited the already middle-aged footballer to the “people's team”.
It was in "Spartak" that the now famous Georgy Alexandrovich showed all his football creativity. Together with the forward of "Spartak" Yuri Gavrilov made up the main main attacking power of the club.
Yartsev was called the top scorer of the 1978 USSR Championship with 19 goals, in 1979 he became the champion of the country, and a year later he won silver medals of the championship together with Spartak. In total, during his career in the Moscow club, Yarets, as his close comrades called him, spent 116 matches in which he scored 55 goals.
From the Moscow "Spartak" for high performance Yartsev was called up to the national team of the Union, but in it he could not gain a foothold for a long time. He played only five matches in which he did not score goals.
In 1981 he moved to Moscow Lokomotiv, where he played 40 matches and hit the opponent's goal 12 times.
The last club in Yartsev's playing career was FC Moskvich. In 1982, the biography of Yartsev as an active footballer ended, then the path of a coaching career awaited him.
Yartsev's coaching career
Love for football did not leave Georgy Alexandrovich even after the end of his player's career. The first significant club in Yartsev's coaching career was Spartak Moscow. In it, Georgy Aleksandrovich showed himself as an already formed football expert and specialist. Coached Muscovites from 1994 to 1998. In 1996 he brought Spartak to the title of Champion of Russia.
Subsequent years he coached Dynamo Moscow (1998 - 1999) and Rotor Volgograd (2000).
In 2007, Yartsev coached the Moscow Torpedo, and his last club in his coaching career was the Moldovan Milsami, in which Georgy Alexandrovich spent the 2013-2014 season.
Georgy Yartsev coach of the Russian national football team
In 2003, Yartsev became the head of the Russian national team. This happened during the unsuccessfully evolving qualifying tournament for UEFA EURO 2004. Through the efforts of Georgy Alexandrovich, the national team was able to break into the final part of the championship, beating the Wales national team on aggregate (0: 0, 1: 0). However, at the main European tournament for national teams, Yartsev's team did not achieve success. In three matches of the group stage, the Russians lost twice - to Spain and Portugal with a score of 0: 1 and 0: 2, respectively. In the final round, the Russian national team under the leadership of Yartsev beat the future champions of the Greeks 2: 1, but this result no longer had any tournament value, the Russians did not make it to the quarterfinals stage.
After EURO, Yartsev remained in the post of the national team until 2005, and then was replaced in his post for unsatisfactory results.
During his long sports career, Yartsev was able to form character. Perhaps this allowed him to endure the bitterness of bereavement in his personal life. In 2007, he, along with his wife Lyubov, lost their son Alexander. The body of Alexander Yartsev was found in his own apartment with traces of a violent death. The married couple Georgy and Lyubov Yartsevs have a daughter, Ksenia.
For his services to sports, G. A. Yartsev received the title of Honored Coach of Russia, Honored Worker of Physical Culture of the Russian Federation and the Order of Friendship.
