Sergei Salnikov

Sergei Sergeyevich Salnikov (Russian: Серге́й Серге́евич Сальников, 13 September 1925 – 9 May 1984) was a Soviet footballer who played for Zenit Saint Petersburg, Spartak Moscow and Dynamo Moscow. He was part of the Soviet Union national team that won the gold medal at the 1956 Olympics.

For other uses, see Salnikov.

Sergei Salnikov
Salnikov at the 1958 World Cup
Personal information
Full name Sergei Sergeyevich Salnikov
Date of birth (1925-09-13)13 September 1925
Place of birth Krasnodar, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Date of death 9 May 1984(1984-05-09) (aged 58)
Place of death Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position(s) Striker
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1942–1943 FC Spartak Moscow
1944–1945 Zenit Leningrad
1946–1949 FC Spartak Moscow 88 (29)
1950–1954 FC Dynamo Moscow 112 (29)
1955–1960 FC Spartak Moscow 112 (35)
National team
1954–1958 USSR 20 (11)
Teams managed
1965 FC Spartak Moscow (assistant)
1967 FC Spartak Moscow
1969 FC Spartak Moscow (assistant)
1976–1977 Afghanistan
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Club career

After two years with Zenit Saint Petersburg, during which he scored against Spartak Moscow in the semifinal of the 1944 Soviet Cup, which Zenit ultimately won, Salnikov joined Spartak as a 21-year-old in 1946.[1] He won the Cup with Spartak in 1946 and 1947. Salnikov scored two goals and made another in the final match of the 1949 season against Dynamo Moscow, when Spartak narrowly missed out on the Soviet Top League title in a 5–4 defeat that some consider the greatest match of the era.[2]

Salnikov's stepfather was arrested and sent to a labour camp in 1949. Salnikov, fearful for his health, made representations to have him transferred to an ordinary prison, and was allegedly told that it would help his case if he moved from Spartak to Dynamo Moscow.[3] He joined Dynamo Moscow in 1950 and, although unhappy,[3] was part of the first choice lineup between 1950 and 1954, making 113 appearances and scoring 29 goals. He was part of the Dynamo team that won the Cup in 1953 and the Soviet Top League in 1954. In 1955, with his stepfather out of danger, he returned to Spartak,[3] where he remained until his retirement in 1960, winning the League again in 1956, and the League and Cup double in 1958. In the course of his two spells at Spartak, Salnikov made 201 appearances and scored 64 goals. Spartak star Nikita Simonyan considered Salnikov as one of the "golden generation" of Soviet players in the 1950s and 1960s.[4] He scored a total of 138 goals for club and country, and as of 2019 is ranked 26th in the Grigory Fedotov club, a list of Soviet and Russian players that have scored 100 or more goals.

International career

Salnikov made his debut for USSR on 8 September 1954 in a friendly against Sweden. He was on the USSR team that won the football event at the 1956 Summer Olympics, where he scored two goals in the quarterfinal match against Indonesia,[5] and also played at the 1958 World Cup,[6] where his team reached the quarter-finals. He made 20 appearances in all for his country, scoring 11 goals.

Personal life

Salnikov is the father of Soviet Fed Cup player Julia Salnikova and the grandfather of the Greek tennis player Stefanos Tsitsipas.[7][8]

Honours
Salnikov on a 2016 Russian stamp from the series "Football Legends"

References
  1. Edelman, Robert (2012). Spartak Moscow: A History of the People's Team in the Workers' State. Cornell University Press. p. 149. ISBN 978-0801466137. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
  2. Edelman (2012), p. 179.
  3. Edelman (2012), p. 187.
  4. Gutman, Daniel (1 September 2015). "An interview with Spartak Moscow legend Nikita Simonyan". These Football Times.
  5. Sergey Salnikov. sports-reference.com
  6. Arnhold, Matthias (1 April 2015). "Sergei Sergeyevich Salnikov – International Appearances". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  7. Klepova, Olga; Bucko, Andrej (23 January 2019). "Stefanos Tsitsipas' surprising family connection to Melbourne". SBS Russian. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
  8. Sampaolo (29 November 2018). "Tsitsipas's mother Julia Salnikova: 'Stefanos has been working on his tennis style for a long time'". Ubitennis. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
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