Lev Yashin    (see in full at www.quark.lu.se).

Lev Yashin (also spelled "Yachine") is the most
famous goalkeeper of all times all around the world,
the true legend of football. He made an unprecedent
contribution to the game, setting the modern standards
and still being unreachable in his unique talent.
 
He was among the first goalkeepers to play outside the
goalkeeper's and even the penalty area, doing it with 
unmatched confidence and reliability. Playing inside the
goal, he was perfectly capable of covering every corner
of it, having a stunning reaction and plasticity. And 
most notably, he confronted the then common attitude of
catching the ball, inventing various ways of simply 
kicking it away of the penalty area. 
 
Lev Ivanovich Yashin played for the Moscow Dinamo 
(1948 - 1970) and USSR National teams (1954 - 1967).
He was born on October 22, 1929, in Moscow, in the 
family of industry workers. In 1942 he started to work 
himself as a turner at the "Krasnyi bogatyr"  tools 
factory in Moscow. His first coach was I.Shubin from the
factory's children football team, where he started playing
in 1944. In 1949 a football and ice-hockey coach A.I.Chernyshov
invited him to the Moscow Dinamo club, were Yashin played
22 seasons. 

Yashin holds Dinamo's record of the games played in USSR 
championships - 326. Together with the team, he won the champions
title in 1954, 1955, 1957, 1959 and 1963, silver medals in 1956,
1958, 1962, 1967 and 1970, bronze - in 1960. He was the USSR Cup 
winner in 1953, 1967 and 1970. In 1960, 1963 and 1966 he was 
awarded the prestigious "Ogonyok" magazine prize for the best 
goalkeeper of the USSR. Yashin was listed among 33 best players
of the season 17 times, of which 14 times he was the Number One
choice. 

With the USSR National team Yashin played 78 games (70 goals conceded).
He was the champion of Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1958, European Cup
winner in 1960 and runner-up in 1964, participated three World 
Championships - 1958 in Sweden, 1962 in Chile and 1966 in England,
where USSR took 4th place. 

In 1963 Lev Yashin was named the best European player by the "France
Football" weekly. He is the only goalkeeper awarded with this "Golden
Ball" award. In total, he kept his goal untouched in 270 games. In 1988,
he was awarded the gold medal of the Olympic Order. 

In 1971 in Moscow the last game of Lev Yashin took place: Moscow 
Dinamo played against European stars team. In 1986 the knee injury 
led to the amputation of the leg. Lev Yashin died on March 20, 1990
after the surgery complications.