Volodymyr Bezsonov

Volodymyr Bezsonov

Bezsonov in 2010
Personal information
Full name	Volodymyr Vasylyovich Bezsonov
Date of birth	(1958-03-05) 5 March 1958 (age 66)
Place of birth	Kharkiv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s)	Right-back
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1976–1990	Dynamo Kyiv	277	(27)
1990–1991	Maccabi Haifa	5	(0)
Total		282	(27)
International career
1977–1990	Soviet Union	79	(4)
1980	Soviet Union Olympic	6	(1)
Managerial career
1997–2000	CSKA Kyiv
2001	CSKA Kyiv
2002–2003	Turkmenistan
2004–2005	Nyva Vinnytsia
2006	Zorya Luhansk
2006–2008	FC Kharkiv
2008–2010	FC Dnipro
Medal record Representing  Soviet Union Men's Football UEFA European Championship Runner-up 1988 West Germany Olympic Games 1980 Moscow FIFA U-20 World Cup Winner 1977 Tunisia UEFA European U-18 Championships[1] Winner 1976 Hungary
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Volodymyr Vasylyovych Bezsonov (Ukrainian: Володимир Васильович Безсонов, also spelled Vladimir Vasilijević Bessonov from Russian: Владимир Васильевич Бессонов, born 5 March 1958) is a Ukrainian football manager and former player who played for the former Soviet Union national football team. The most recent team he was managing was FC Dnipro in the Ukrainian Premier League.

Bezsonov is a graduate student of the Kharkiv State College of Physical Culture 1 where he began his football career. In 1975 he was joined FC Metalist Kharkiv, but only played for its reserve team.

In 1976 Bezsonov joined Dynamo Kyiv. There, he spent most of his career, except for a short one-season stint in Israeli club Maccabi Haifa F.C. in 1990–91. He was well known as a lightning quick full-back with a powerful shot. Bezsonov was attack-minded and scored a good return for a defender. He ended with 27 goals in the 377 games that he played for Dynamo.

Bezsonov won 79 caps and scored 4 goals for the Soviet Union national team from 1977 to 1990 and was included in three FIFA World Cup squads. He also holds the record for the fifth most appearances for the team.^[2] In the 1990 World Cup, he was sent off against Argentina. His team ended up losing the game 2–0 which eventually became his farewell match for the Soviet national team.^[3]

In 1979, Bezsonov played a couple of matches for the Ukrainian SSR at the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR where Ukraine placed third.^[4]

In 1980, Bezsonov was on the Soviet squad for the 1980 Summer Olympics where the Soviet Union placed third.

Most recently, Bezsonov was the head coach of FC Dnipro in the Ukrainian Premier League, but was sacked in September 2010 following the team's elimination from the UEFA Europa League and a number of poor results domestically.

Bezsonov is married to Viktoria Serykh, a former two-time world champion in rhythmic gymnastics. Together they have a daughter, Anna Bessonova, who also competed internationally in rhythmic gymnastics and became world champion in 2007, as well as winning an Olympic bronze in 2004 and 2008.

In February 2022, a photo of Bezsonov on the frontline during the Russian invasion of Ukraine was posted on social media by his daughter.^[5]

• The statistics in USSR Cups and Europe is made under the scheme "autumn-spring" and enlisted in a year of start of tournaments

^[6]

Score and results list Soviet Union's goal tally first.

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	20 September 1978	Hrazdan Stadium, Yerevan	Greece	2–0	Win	UEFA Euro 1980 qualifying
2.	26 November 1978	Nagai Stadium, Osaka, Japan	Japan	0–3	Win	Friendly
3.	15 October 1980	Teddy Stadium, Jerusalem, Israel	Iceland	5–0	Win	1982 WC qualification
4.	24 February 1990	Stanford Stadium, Stanford, California, United States	United States	1–3	Win	Friendly

Dynamo Kyiv

• Soviet Top League: 1977, 1980, 1981, 1985, 1986, 1990
• Soviet Cup: 1978, 1982, 1984–85, 1986–87, 1989–90
• Soviet Super Cup: 1980, 1985, 1986; runner-up: 1977
• UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1986
• UEFA Super Cup runner-up: 1986

Soviet Union

• Summer Olympics bronze: 1980
• UEFA Euro runner-up: 1988

• FIFA World Youth Championship Golden Ball: 1977^[7]
• Ukrainian Footballer of the Year: 1989; second place: 1988; third place: 1986
• Voted in the Soviet Union's "All-time World Cup team" on planetworldcup.com above other great full-backs, such as Igor Netto and Vasiliy Rats.^[8]

• Vladimir Bessonow at fussballdaten.de (in German)
• Vladimir Bezsonov at WorldFootball.net
• Vladimir Bessonov at Olympedia (archive)
• Vladimir Bessonov at Olympics.com
• Vladimir Bessonov at FootballFacts.ru (in Russian)
• Info on Dnipro official website at the Wayback Machine (archived 2008-09-14)
• Vladimir Vasil'evich Bessonov at KLISF.ru at archive.today (archived 2013-07-29)