Leonid Slutsky became famous as the head coach of the CSKA football club and the Russian national football team. He has been passionate about this sport all his life and now also comments on live football matches.
Biography
Leonid Slutsky was born in Volgograd in 1971. Six years later, the boy's father died of an illness, and Lenya's mother began to raise him. This greatly influenced him: his father was actively involved in boxing, and Leonid also wanted to connect his life with sports. After school, he decided to enter the Volgograd Institute of Physical Culture. Football became his article, and the young man dreamed of becoming a goalkeeper, starting to play for the youth football team "Zvezda".
Fate decreed otherwise: once Leonid had to climb a tree to get a neighbor's cat, but he broke loose and suffered a serious knee injury. This put an end to his football career. The young man successfully graduated from the institute and began to conduct coaching activities. In 1993, at the age of 22, he became the head of the Olimpia children's team, bringing up real football players from them. In 1999, Olimpia managed to win the Russian Cup and advance to the second division.
Two years later, Slutsky moved to work in the Uralan team from Elista, but it was soon disbanded, and Leonid was invited to coach the second team of the Moscow club. At first he agreed, but the relationship with the team did not work out. The same thing happened with the Samara club "Wings of the Soviets": Slutsky could not establish the necessary contact and decided to leave again of his own free will.
In 2009, Leonid Slutsky began to train professional FC CSKA. This became the crown of his career: in two years the CSKA reached the playoffs of the Champions League and became the champions of Russia, bringing their coach the long-awaited trophy cup. In 2015, Slutsky volunteered to coach the Russian national team, but reserved the right to work with CSKA Moscow. Under his leadership, the players went to Euro 2016, but suffered several defeats and dropped out of the tournament. Slutsky immediately left this coaching post.
Personal life
Leonid Slutsky is known for his positive and moderately strict disposition. His personal life was quite successful: his longtime love, Irina, became his wife. The couple are raising their son Dmitry, who was born in 2005. Irina is engaged in teaching and tries to support her husband in everything.
An interesting fact is that Leonid Viktorovich values good humor very much. His favorite TV show is "KVN": even at the institute he was a member of a team of humorists, and did not leave his favorite pastime even after becoming a coach. He often appears as a guest and even a member of various KVN Major League teams on Channel One. Since 2017, Leonid Slutsky also works as a commentator for football matches on television.
