Place of birth Donetsk, USSR Name Serhiy Scherbakov Playing position Role Football player | Years Team Height 1.80 m 1988–1992 FC Shakhtar Donetsk Position Midfielder | |
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Full name Serhiy Hennadiovych Scherbakov Date of birth (1971-08-15) 15 August 1971 (age 44) Spouse Natalya Novozhilova-Kovgar (m. 2003–2011) | ||
Serhiy Gennadievich Scherbakov (Russian: Серге́й Геннадиевич Щербаков born 15 August 1971 in Donetsk) is a former Ukrainian football (soccer) midfielder.
Career
He capped for USSR U-20 team at the 1991 FIFA World Youth Championship. He shared the golden shoe with Pedro Pineda in that tournament as the highest scorer with 4 goals.
Scherbakov had been brought to Sporting CP by Bobby Robson in 1993, but following their Uefa Cup exit against Casino Salzburg Robson was sacked. The players hosted a dinner party for him, but afterwards Serhiy was involved in a serious car accident that left him paralysed from the waist down, and had used a wheelchair ever since. The Resident newspaper reported that he had been "over the legal alcohol limit" at the time and had jumped a red light. The accident fractured Scherbakov's skull and his spinal column in three places. During rehabilitation he vowed he would once again don the Sporting jersey on the pitch someday but he never regained use of his legs. After the crash, Sir Bobby Robson said that had the crash not happened, Scherbakov would have gone on to become one of the best midfielders in Europe. He was only 22.
Currently, he is working with several football-related charities, such as the Federation of Football that unites football lovers that have cerebral paralysis, as well as a youth scout, and lives in Moscow.