The Forgotten Story Of The Goalkeeper Who WON The Ballon D'Or

So… listen to this… when you think of a Ballon  D’Or winner, who comes to mind? … there are 47 possible answers… and I’m willing to bet none  of you thought of a defender… but really, that isn’t your fault… only 3 defenders ever  won it… and many fans will tell you that’s a disgrace… that the defenders should never be  forgotten… but the ironic thing is that even in those conversations… Everyone forgets  the goalkeepers… Zoff, Khan, Buffon and Neuer… all of them did “the impossible”. .

.  yet they were barely even given a chance… so what does a goalkeeper have to do to win the  Ballon D’Or? Well… I think you should ask Lev Yashin… because he already did it 61 years ago… In a time where half of Europe was still under the impression that the russian communists “ate  babies and worshipped Satan”, Yashin was just such a badass that everyone was forced to become a  fan… the guy took 10 Ballon D’Ors nominations, even though the award didn’t even exist up till  his 27th birthday… look… some players were ahead of their time, but Yashin?

The guy was a time  traveller… he was the first to ever command his team from the back, to start counter attacks on  his own, to play the ball to his center backs, rather than smacking it up the pitch… to punch it  away, rather than to grab it every time… without him, there would be no “modern goalkeeper”,  he invented his own role. . .

back before goalkeepers were even given any protection by  the referees, he was already coming out of goal, launching himself at the striker’s feet… he lost  consciousness on the pitch like 5 different times, and in one of them he got up and asked  the striker if he was okay… to this day, several newspapers claim he has the world record  for the most penalties saved, over 150 in total… and if you asked the guy, he’d tell you the secret  to have a good match was to “smoke a cigarette to calm your nerves and take a sip of vodka to warm  up your muscles”. . .

and in a way he wasn’t wrong… Lev Yashin became addicted to smoking at the  age of 13… that was nothing like him… growing up he had been a model student who excelled at  everything from hockey, to football, fencing, skiing and especially chess… his biggest dream was  to be the next Soviet grandmaster… but while all of that happened, so did the Great Patriotic War,  or as it would become known everywhere outside of the USSR… World War II… with every year of  his life, the Nazis got closer and closer to the border… and once they reached St Petersburg…  that city became a living hell… as I once read in an article: “even the mice starved”. . .

Scared for  their lives, the people of Moscow evacuated their city and alongside them, went a 12 year old Lev  Yashin, who spent the next 4 years of his life, in a factory, assembling ammunition… In his  own words, he “worked himself to the bone, dragging machines through the snow, all for bread  and a spare piece of lump sugar”. . .

so, to kill his appetite, he began smoking… and ironically,  once the Red Army conquered the eastern front, effectively ending the war… It was at his  factory’s own team that he began playing football… though that was far from a happy ending… Don't get me wrong… the years after the war were a golden era for Soviet football… With the  English wanting to show their gratitude for their war efforts, they invited Dynamo Moscow  to come and tour their country, however, believing they were the greatest football nation  on the planet, they tried to set them up against 3rd division sides… but Dynamo didn’t like this,  they insisted they would only come if they were allowed to face their top clubs and… almost  holding their laughter, the English accept… but a few weeks later, having faced Arsenal, Chelsea,  Rangers and Cardiff… Dynamo Moscow flew back home, undefeated… in one swoop, they had put all of  Europe on the tips of their toes… but if that team was impressive, little did they know that  the biggest talent in the country was back home, with a thousand yard stare… broken… in his own  words, after the war, Yashin “felt nothing except emptiness”, he had no desire to play football, no  desire to do anything so, soon, he began missing work, and well… it was the Soviet Union, in the  eyes of the government, he was now a parasite… To avoid persecution, he joined the army… there,  inevitably, he began playing for their football team and though, by 1948… Chernyshev, one of  Dynamo’s youth managers, spotted him… and became “almost like a second father” to him… once at the  club, already putting in practice a playstyle no one at the time was even capable of imagining, no  matter how many times he argued that “the player who holds the number one shirt must be like an  artist, a star on the pitch”. . .

they saw him as a lunatic, an idealist… and by the time he was  finally given his debut, he ended up conceding precisely as he risked it all by coming off his  line, and by the time he made it to the locker room, he heard one of the directors saying  “Who the hell is that kid? A wimp? Hell of a goalkeeper you guys found… I don’t ever wanna  see him back on the pitch”.

. . and just like that, he was sent back into the reserves, two years  went by… and, at the advice of Chernyshev, Yashin gave up football to play hockey… This should have been the end, and maybe for any other keeper, it would have been…  but instead, Yashin proceeded to dominate the sport… and a year later, having won  the Soviet Cup, as rumours that he could join the national team went around… Yashin  shocked everyone by coming back to football, knowing that Dynamo’s legendary goalkeeper  Alexander Khomich was about to retire… In a matter of months, he had beaten every other  goalkeeper in the race for the starting eleven… by the end of the year, he was in the team of the  season for the first of 16 times… to this day, the country’s all time record… and most  importantly of all, as the new season started, Mikhail Yakushin took over as their new manager,  putting complete faith on Yashin, declaring him as a “dream goalkeeper”, the future of football… Meanwhile, the Soviets had just been knocked out of the 1952 Olympics, their first ever official  competition, by none other than their rivals Yugoslavia… upsetting Stalin so much that he  banned some players and stripped them of all their medals… giving Yashin, who had just taken  his first national title, an open road straight into the national team… quickly restoring their  honor, sending them on a run of 7 matches without a defeat… not just holding the mighty Hungary, at  the time considered the best team on the planet, to two draws, despite dropping unconscious  midway through one of the matches, after a blow to the head… but beating World Champions,  West Germany… which, given what had happened in the war, instantly made him a national hero…  quoting a 1936 Soviet film: “Hey, goalkeeper, get ready for battle, you’re a watchman by the  gate.

Imagine that behind you, the frontline lies in wait”. . .

Yashin was the personification of the  Iron Curtain… and this was merely the beginning… By 1956, the Soviets had made their back into  the Olympic games, and with Yashin decided to right the wrongs of those who came before him,  not only did he make sure to defeat Yugoslavia, but he beat them in the final, to take the  gold medal… instantly rising to 5th place, as France Football presented the world with the  first edition of the Ballon D’Or… and though the following year would fly by, as Yashin was  repeatedly hospitalized as he struggled with a stomach ulcer that wife blame on the malnutrition  brought to him by the war… he still managed to come back to the pitch for the first World Cup  qualifiers in the history of his country… and by 1958, even if his team had been severely weakened,  with their captain Igor Netto injured and 3 of his teammates, including their star man Eduard  Streltsov, ending up in prison forcing a massive scandal that led many to believe they had been  set up by the government who had accused them of “collusion with western imperialists”. . .

well…  now, they were in the world cup… and with that same government having just launched the famous  Sputnik satellite into space… the tournament would be broadcasted for the whole wide world to  watch… so Yashin had to try his hardest to make sure another humiliation wasn’t under way… From the first two matches against Austria and England, with Yashin saving a penalty and once  again insisting on playing through a game after being knocked out by another blow to the head,  the spotlight was already his… but if that was getting some newspapers to call this one of the  all time greatest goalkeeping performances, then… he went up against Pelé’s Brazil… and… to put it  in the perspective, even after a 2 nil defeat, all that anyone could talk about was Yashin…  because to quote them: “had it not been for him, the score would have become a rout”. . .

Add  another great game to hold off England in the play offs… and even if by the quarters  they’d already be out… now the vision of a man standing between the posts, with his hat  down by his brow, wearing an all black outfit, had become the stuff of legends… he was no  longer just Yashin, for everyone around Europe, he was known as “the black spider”. . .

. and he  was coming back to haunt them… very, very soon… After taking what was already his 4th league  title, if there was any doubt that Yashin was levels above his competition, only a few months  after the World Cup, the Soviets had to face England again… this time without him… and the  result was a 5 nil defeat, to this day, the worst in their history… thankfully for them, however,  by the qualifiers for the first ever edition of the Euros, Yahsin was already back and not only  did he help them defeat Hungary once again to make it into the tournament, but there… they demolished  Czechoslovakia to force their way into the final, and man… fate would have it that waiting for them  there, again, was Yugoslavia… and clearly Yashin wasn’t satisfied with whatever revenge he may  have gotten in the Olympics, because this time, he made one save after the other, forcing the game  into extra time… where he was finally able to make the USSR the first ever European Champions… From this moment onwards, there wasn’t a soul who doubted Yashin’s status as one of  the game’s all time greats… he was already placing 5th on the Ballon D’Or… he even had Real  Madrid, who had just won 5 European Cups in a row, trying to sign him… but he insisted that  “Madrid sounds good, but I feel sorry for those who play far from the homeland… I am all for  Dynamo”. .

. not to mention that, being already 31, he’d start hinting at retirement, claiming that  the next World Cup would be his last… but well… that was before he saw what happened there… Even though in the year up to the tournament, Yashin would be sidelined repeatedly as  his stomach problems got worse and worse… watching from a hospital bed as Dynamo fell  down to the bottom half of the table without him… he once again managed to drag himself  onto the pitch to help the USSR through the decisive qualifying matches… miraculously, only  narrowly missed out on the Ballon D’Or podium, at the end of the year, and so… from the public’s  perspective, it was almost like nothing happened… By the time the World Cup started, with the  tensions of the Cold War reaching all time highs, as the public sat helplessly watching what, at the  time, seemed like an incoming nuclear apocalypse… it cannot be overstated how much more was on  the line at this tournament… but even though, after a mandatory opening match win against  Yugoslavia, the newspapers would be writing that “whoever wants to break through the Soviet defense  must attack not in pairs, but in threes, or even better, in sixes… since the “Octopus” Yashin with  his huge stretching arms… seems invincible”. .

. then, having already conceded an embarrassing goal  against Colombia, the only one to this day to come directly from a corner kick… he went up against  Chile in the quarter finals and 9 minutes in, once again, he was hit in the head… dropping  unconscious for over a minute and a half… Coming back into a match after getting knocked out  for a couple seconds is already out of this world, but no one, not even Yashin should’ve stayed  on the pitch after that… even his teammates were quoted saying that “it was a miracle  he survived that game at all”. .

. and so, the consequences were simple… he let in one soft  goal after the other… his performance that day was so uncharacteristically poor, that Eladio  Rojas who scored the winner… went up to Yashin and hugged him in disbelief, clearly realizing  that something was wrong… however, back home, with the global broadcast, this time, coming from  american satellites… all information regarding the tournament came through the newspaper… and the  journalists… they made Yashin into a scapegoat… By the time he got to the airport, expecting  a hero’s welcome, he was instead greeted with signs demanding his retirement… at home, his  windows had been shattered, insulting notes were left on his car… threatening letters arrived  by post… in his own words: “those were the most bitter days of my life”. .

. Yashin had been set  up… his legacy had been tarnished just as he intended to play out his final years… as his wife  would explain: “the journalist who wrote about it knew nothing about sports, his job was in American  politics… he never even mentioned the concussions, nothing about the rest of the team, only that Lev  was sleeping and that he let the goals fly in”. .

. and so, by the end of the year, for the first time  in almost 7… Yashin missed out on a Ballon D’Or nomination… Suddenly, the man who once said  that “the joy of seeing Gagarin fly through space was only outdone by the joy of saving a  penalty”. .

. was now admitting that “What kind of goalkeeper is not tormented by the goals he  has allowed? I must be tormented!

If I’m calm, that means the end. It means no matter what  I did in the past, I’ll have no future”. .

. and ironically, this was what pushed him to a  level no other goalkeeper has ever reached… Back at Dynamo, Yashin requested a few weeks  of absence to decide on his future and after coming back from this… spiritual retreat… he  announced he’d be taking a year long break from the national team… while for club, he’d settle  for playing just the away matches, likely hoping that there the crowds would go easier on him… and  somehow, this stunt worked… by the next season, still in a way sharing the goal with his backup  goalkeeper, the divide between him and the other player’s of his time became more obvious than  ever, since, as he took his 6th league title, he played in 27 out of the league’s 38 matches…  and conceded only 6 goals… meanwhile, his backup, conceded 8 in the 11 matches that remained… and  if there was still a good chance that the rest of Europe could move on without realizing  what a mesmerizing peak Yashin had just hit now that he was supposedly “past his prime”. .

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