Buriak Leonid I.

Born July 10, 1953 in Odessa. Father - Joseph Buriak Ignatievich. Mother - Maria Buriak. Wife - Buriak (Vasyura) Jeannette P. (1954 g. born.), known in the last gymnast. Son - Buryak Andrey (1977. born.), a student at the Faculty of International Relations, Kiev State University. Daughter - Buryak Oksana (1979. born.) ballerina.

. Legendary athlete, one of the best midfielders of the Soviet and Ukrainian football Leonid Buriak is the most famous football comes from Odessa (along with Igor Belanovym).

. He began playing in 1963 in the youth team of factory Prodmash ", and since 1966 - a football school? 6
. Silenok at first he was not enough. When the city went a rumor that a junior team in Odessa is capable of a little boy named Buriak, a young soccer player invited to the double "Chernomorets". After the first training game head coach Sergei I. Shaposhnikov asked Leonid weigh - not dial and 50 kilograms. Then Buriak close to the ball does not come near - the days he worked on simulators, gaining weight. This Shaposhnikov said: "Are you going to work, grow up in a good soccer player". This was in 1968. And already in 1972, Leonid received a proposal from the leadership of Dynamo. Shaposhnikov every way to dissuade him from going, saying: "You have shown great promise, keep you by force is absurd, but look who is playing in midfield Kiev - Muntean, Kolotov, Veremeev, Troshkin. All aces, and all the young. Wait sensitive ". But a year later it was he who directed the beet in Kiev.

Proposals were then rife. For a talented footballer "struggled" almost all the major league! Just four teams from Moscow - Spartak, CSKA, Dynamo and "Torpedo" - dreamed of seeing him in their ranks. Leonid preferred that the closer to home. (Even being in Kiev Leonid three times (!) Secretly ran off to his native Odessa and guilt which, obviously, had a special affection for their native city, peculiar, however, each of Odessa.)

Fitting a new team Buriak was not too difficult. In the Dynamo played his best friend - Oleg Blokhin. With many other Kyivers Leonid was a sign on the youth team. Therefore, all have long regarded him as a potential partner. He soon began to fall into the main team.

Leonid Buriak debut in the championship of the Soviet Union took place in the match with the future champion of the country - "Ararat" (Yerevan). After the first half Kievites lost - 0:1. In the second half coach Dinamo released on the field of beet. At one point, seeing that the goalkeeper Yerevan inadvertently left out of the gate, Leonid issued by a steep trajectory launched the ball into the goal. I first heard the podium chanting: "Boo-ryak! Bu ryak!" Nothing like this in Odessa, he did not experience. After being beaten to the ball game that trend was reversed, and the Dynamo won 3:1.

Paradoxically, but his best game Leonid Buriak showed precisely matches with countrymen. Against "Chernomorets" he played with a special zeal, even with a sort of frenzy. Otherwise do and could not. Odessa friends have seen him only on television, knew about it already said the entire Union. Playing in such an atmosphere slipshod was impermissibly. Odessans would immediately said: "And this is for sho football - Buryak Yes, he is not able to play!"

. This tension, but on another level, Buryak felt only in matches that brought Dynamo's world-famous - with the great clubs: PSV Eindhoven, Ferencvaros, Bayern Munich
. Especially dear to his goal that he scored in the second leg with Eindhoven in the semi-final Cup Winners' Cup in 1975. Goal to get beautiful - in the fall of the head. Later - in the final meeting with the Hungarian "Ferencvaros - one of three goals (in the first half) was scored by Vladimir Onishchenko after the combination, which started Buriak. Presenting Kievites Cup, UEFA President Artemio Franchi then said: "It has long been in the finals was no such superiority of one team".

Total, speaking for the "Dynamo" (Kiev), Leonid Buriak has 386 games (50 of them - in European competition), entered into a symbolic Club G. Fedotova, scored in official games 106 goals. For an athlete of his Position - midfielder - an exceptional achievement. He - Cup Winners Cup and Super Cup in 1975, five-time champion of the USSR (1974, 1975, 1977, 1980, 1981), three-times USSR Cup winner (1974, 1978, 1982). L. Buriak four times became a silver (1973, 1976, 1978, 1982) and one bronze (1979) winner of the primacy of the Union. Repeatedly included in the list of 33 best players of the country: five times over? 1 (1977, 1979-1982), twice - for? 2 (1975, 1976) and one time - under? 3 (1978).

. 11 years of Leonid Buriak team defended the honor of the Soviet Union (1974-1983), held 53 matches and scored 8 goals
. Took part in the qualifying rounds of the world championships of 1978 and 1982, European championships 1976, 1980 and 1984. In 1972 and 1975 appeared in the Olympic team, which spent 4 games and scored 2 goals. In 1976 he won the bronze medal of the Olympic Games in Montreal.

In the early 1980's, when the team left many experienced players, but they were replaced by younger replacements, brilliant victories were interleaved with frank failures. Two seasons in a row Dynamo was in deep crisis - took the first 7-e, and then even the 10-th. Each draw or lose the more considered as a tragedy, and why they started to look at the remaining "old men" - Blokhin and Buriak. They are criticized for flaws, were present excessively high demands, and before the 1985 season, one of the detractors whispered Lobanovsky, that Blokhin with Buryakov going to throw. He flew into a rage. Conflict arose, which culminated in the departure of beet favorite team. The decision to withdraw cost him considerable suffering, but the other way while he has, alas, was.

Buriak persistently called in "Spartacus". And at first, in spite of "Dinamo", he wanted to decide on this unprecedented transition. Came even to Moscow, played a few matches of control. But then I said to myself "stop", realizing that Dynamo Kiev and Moscow "Spartak" - fundamentally different pole. And he was in the capital's "Torpedo", as no regrets. The team consists of capital Avtozavodtsev he became a four-time holder of the Cup of the Soviet Union.

In Moscow, Leonid Buriak played from 1985 to July 1986. After an injury, was treated for a long time. Thought that his football career came to an end. One day he received a call from Kharkov and offered to speak for the local Metalist. He agreed and, as it turned out, not in vain. In 1988 the team won the Cup of the USSR and the silver medalist of the USSR. It was the last Soviet football awards Buriak.

In the history of football Leonid Buriak remained as technically well prepared, light, maneuverable, finely versed in all the intricacies of playing football. He has outstanding ability to dispatch, the ability to make accurate long pass, aiming to inflict heavy blow from a long distance. He clearly used the attacks from the standard provisions (penalty, corner, penalty). Especially well-acted on the field in conjunction with Oleg Blokhin. These are its main qualities are listed in the directory "Russia's football for 100 years."

. The first steps on the coaching career Buryak made in Finland, where from June 1988 to 1989 worked as playing coach of KTP-85 (Kem), and in 1990 - the team VanPa (Vantaa)
. In 1991, under the Ukrainian diaspora, he was invited to the United States, where he coached Evansvillskogo University (Indiana). After returning to his homeland in 1993, Leonid Buriak led FC "Niva" (Ternopol) and in only a half season of work has saved the team from the departure of Major League. And in the next season "Field" has already won the 7-th place in the championship of Ukraine.

In late 1994, LI. Buriak returned to his native Odessa. At this time as head coach of the team, which once started. He headed the "Chernomorets" in bad times, when the formal owner of the club - the Black Sea Shipping Company - had serious financial problems. Fortunately, helped sponsor. In just a few months Buriak managed to bring order to the team, put the game that in other circumstances would require a year or two. Turning point. Already in the second round Ukrainian championship "Chernomorets" scored in 14 matches 12 wins, but in subsequent seasons, achieved outstanding results - twice won the silver medalist of Ukraine (1995, 1996) and two-time Cup winner of the country.

. Since 1995, worked as a coach Leonid Buriak Ukrainian national team, and in late 2001 to take over the great VV
. Lobanovskiy, becoming the head coach of the national team.

LI. Buriak - Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1975), Honored coach of Ukraine (1996), Cup Winners' Cup and Super Cup, five-time champion of the USSR, five-time winner of the USSR Cup. Twice he was awarded the title of the best coach of Ukraine (1995, 1996). He penned the book "Hot spots of the field" (Kiev, 1985).

"Everything in life is based on the fact that someone of something very much wants to. In other words - on the afflicted people "- in his own style speaks Buriak. These words are fully applicable and himself. His whole life player and coach talks about this.

Lives and works in Kiev.