Playing position Role Football player Current team FFU staff Height 1.70 m | Years Team Position Midfielder Name Volodymyr Muntyan | |
 | ||
Full name Volodymyr Fedorovych Muntyan Date of birth (1946-09-14) 14 September 1946 (age 69) Place of birth Kotovsk, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union Education Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv Children Andrei Muntyan, Irina Muntyan Similar People Viktor Kolotov, Volodymyr Troshkin, Yevhen Rudakov, Leonid Buryak, Andriy Biba | ||
Volodymyr Muntyan, Japan vrs USSR, Group C
Volodymyr Fedorovych Muntyan (Ukrainian: Володимир Мунтян, Russian: Владимир Мунтян, Romanian: Vladimir Muntean), (born 14 September 1946, Kotovsk, USSR, was a renowned Soviet midfielder of the 1960s and 1970s. Muntyan is considered to be one of the best and most talented players to ever represent Dynamo Kyiv and Soviet Union. He is also the only player apart from Oleg Blokhin (his teammate in the 1970s) who has won 7 Soviet championships. His brother Viktor Muntyan was also a professional football player.
Contents
- Volodymyr Muntyan Japan vrs USSR Group C
- Early years
- Youth years
- Early career
- Statistics for Dynamo
- Honours
- Ballon dOr
- References
Early years
A son of a factory worker and a nurse, Muntyan became interested in acrobatics and competed successfully in Kiev's citywide competition, winning accolades in his age category. His family eventually relocated to live near a professional soccer grounds in Kiev, where young Muntyan and his friends would hang out, acting as ball boys to the elders. While once juggling a ball, he was approached by a soldier, who asked him if he was interested in taking up football as a sport. Muntyan said yes and was taken to Mikhail Korsunskiy, who was a famous local children's coach at the time. He quickly recognised Muntyan's potential.
Youth years
Due to the boy's natural talent, he was included in Kiev’s youth team with people like Semen Altman and Anatoly Byshovets (both coaches now). After a Spartakiada match between the Kiev and Moscow teams, which Kiev won, Dynamo Kyiv youth coach Mykhaylo Koman offered young Muntyan to come to a training session with the senior team the next day at 11:00. The young boy turned up outside the ground, but was so scared to see his idols Valery Lobanovsky, Andriy Biba, that he hid behind a tree and didn't make the team bus. However his friend Anatoly Byshovets helped him to get over the fear and eventually he turned up to a training session.
Early career
Muntyan joined the Dynamo Kiev team as a 15-year-old, when the main team coach was Victor Maslov. Despite weighing only 60 kg (9.5 stones) and being only 170 cm in height, he was encouraged to play and his skills were further enhanced by the training. When five of then current squad left to join 1966 Soviet football team for the World Cup, Dynamo Kyiv managed to win a double (championship and the cup) with Muntyan stepping in from the reserves as one of the main players.