Yury Morozov, the Dragonslayer

Nobody knows the ins and outs of a sports club as well as a local boy. Nobody. The local boy is born into a cult of worship of the local club. The local boy has his walls plastered with posters of the local team’s heroes. The local boy dreams to one day set foot onto the holy grass located not only a few miles from his little room. He lives, eats and breathes the local colors.

LeBron James is an Ohio local boy. Xavi is a Catalan local boy. And in Saint Petersburg, one of such local boys was the late Yury Andreevich Morozov. As the form dictates, we must begin with the basic information; Yury Morozov was first a football player, then and a football coach. He was born in Leningrad and laid to rest in Saint Petersburg. The same city, same monuments, same imperial bliss, different name. He was born Soviet and died Russian. And everything in between was dedicated to his one true love — football.

Giving your whole self to football may not seem too shocking at first, considering the game’s worldwide prominence, but anyone who’s ever been to Russia knows that hockey, for instance, seems a lot more popular. The reasons for it are pragmatic — the winters are extremely long and exhausting, making it hard to train properly. Face it, you can’t have the same conditions playing football in Russia or in Spain. Unless you’re willing to move every couple of months or so to a place with a warmer climate.

But Yury did it. He manned up, and decided to dive head in to the sport that was only starting to gain its value in the Soviet Union, and the World for that matter. He, alongside his colleagues, helped shape the game in Russia, rising to become one of the best football coaches the Soviet Union has ever seen. And, incidentally, helped shape his local team to what it is today — a giant.

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