The best player of the 20th century in mini-football, Russian Pele, the legend of the Russian national team Konstantin Eremenko – September 16, 2022
Gregory Kalenov
Konstantin Eremenko set records with congenital heart disease.
Konstantin Eremenko launched his career through big football even before the collapse of the USSR. A native of the Ukrainian Dnepropetrovsk school district “Dnepr” and by the age of 18 he had grown to debut in the main game. True, Eremenko already then could hardly endure football loads and played only 1 match as a basis – in 1988, Konstantin played a few minutes against Dynamo Minsk.
In search of game practice, Eremenko reached Selenga (Ulan-Ude), who played for Tractor from Pavlodar (later the club would take the name Irtysh) and Bishkek Alga. The young football player did not stay long. And this is also why, after returning to his hometown in 1990, Eremenko made a decision that changed not his life, but also a separate sport in Russia.
Eremenko tried himself in futsal, was fond of even before leaving Dnepropetrovsk. On small fields (relative to the usual size), his problems with the physics of mixing do not play so strongly. Having become the owner of the USSR Cup in the rest of the Mekhanizator country, Konstantin will leave for the Moscow club Dina in order to avoid a long disqualification for a fight with the club administrator – and the legend.
It turns out not only his team. In the end, Eremenko is recognized as the best futsal player in 20 suggestions.
- During the 9 years spent by Eremenko in Din, the striker became the champion of Russia 8 times and a semi-time winner of the Cup. Konstantin was recognized as the best player of the championship three times, was the top scorer 4 times and scored only 1132 goals in official matches.
- No one has come close to the indicator of the striker in domestic tournaments. The same story with the Russian national team – Eremenko is the best scorer in the history of the national team. And also the owner of a gold medal (Konstantin, who won a penalty in the final) and a multiple winner of the European Championship.
- In addition to being used, Eremenko also remains the top scorer in the history of the Tournament of Champions and the Intercontinental Cup. So no one should be surprised even by the bombastic nickname of the striker – Russian Pele.
Konstantin Eremenko receives a reward from the hands of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov
Naturally, such talent allows you to lure other countries. Eremenko did not even think about leaving. And why would he do it? “Playing for Dina, I was the highest paid footballer in the world. But most importantly, I care about the latch. I knew that by playing at home, I did something for the prestige of the nation…” he said in an interview.
Eremenko was not prevented even by serious health problems. Doctors discovered Konstantin had a congenital heart defect, due to which nothing formed in big football. The striker still entered the court: at the president of Dina, Sergei Kozlov, he put a letter from Eremenko with the wording according to the formula “I am taking the risk of a reaction …”
But this goes on for a long time. Eremenko met in 2001: the main futsal stars arrived at the farewell match at Luzhniki.
MFC “Dina” – Eremenko third from the left in the second row
Eremenko will also find himself in out-of-game games – after its completion, the legendary striker of the IFC Dynamo, which will become the most titled career club in Russia and the first of our teams to win the UEFA Cup. He will also lead the Super League itself, becoming its first.
Despite heart problems, Eremenko continued to play futsal at an amateur level. As part of the Russian veteran team, he will win two Legend Cups. It will turn out the drawing of the last of them in the last year of his life.
In 2010, during a game with friends at the Small Sports Arena of the Dynamo Stadium, Eremenko became ill during the warm-up. An ambulance took him to Botkinskaya, but they could not find the heart of the legendary football player. The official cause of death was a detached blood clot that clogged an artery. Konstantin Eremenko was only 39 years old.