The former Soviet Union without Ukraine, Russia, Georgia and Central Asia

This blogger Artur Yanturin of Russia copied my blog team.  His entry was written in 2020, but mine was uploaded in a few weeks before his 2014. I also updated mine periodically.  I looked mistakes. He kept my mistakes.  He seemed to be someone from the formerly Soviet Union.  He should know the topic much more than I do, but he still copied my blog and made my mistakes.   His Spartak Moscow All-Time team entry of was published in October 2020, but mine was uploaded in 2017.  His entry of the Dutch-German rivalry between Real Madrid and Barcelona was written in 2020, but mine was uploaded in 2014.  He also copied many many of my blog entries.

His Facebook and Instagram

Этот блогер Артур Янтурин скопировал команду моего блога. Его запись была написана в 2020 году, но моя была загружена за несколько недель до его 2014 года. Я также периодически обновлял свою. Я посмотрел ошибки. Он сохранил мои ошибки. Он казался кем-то из бывшего Советского Союза. Он должен знать тему намного больше меня, но он все равно скопировал мой блог и сделал мои ошибки. Его запись о московском «Спартаке» за все время была опубликована в октябре 2020 года, но моя была загружена в 2017 году. Его запись о голландско-германском соперничестве между «Реалом» и «Барселоной» была написана в 2020 году, а моя была загружена в 2014 году. Он также скопировал многие из моих записей в блоге.

Latvia Euro 2004

Please also see my All-Time World Cup Team Index.

Soviet Union

This blog team was created in 2016 as the "Soviet Union All-Time team without players from Ukraine and Russia, but I edited it in September, 2020.  I took out all of  the Georgian players.  Instead, I created an individual team for Georgia.  Georgia supplied third most players to the Soviet national team.  They deserved their own All-Time team. It is now the Soviet Union All-Time team without players from Ukraine,  Russia and Georgia.  I also excluded all Central Asian republics.  Those players were also selected for the all-time time for Central Asia.  I also created Armenia/Armenian diaspora, but I had not taken them out of this team yet.  The Soviet-era players were based on ethnicity.  Several Russian or Ukrainian-born players were put here rather than with Ukraine's all-time team because of their ethnicity.  The post-Soviet Union footballers' eligibility was based on the national team.  I finally created a team for Belarus.

What if USSR World Cup 2018 

In future, I have plans to create all-time teams for Baltic states, Belarus and Azerbaijan.

* I am including ethnic minority players from both Russia and Ukraine on this team.  So I included Hungarians, Tatars, Jewish, etc over here. My idea was to expand the players pool and reinforce the team with better players.  I am also confused with the ethnicity of some of the players.

Team 
GK: Mart Poom (Estonia)
Mart Poom was Estonia Player of the Year in 1993, 1994, 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2003.  Poom played as a goalkeeper for Lõvid, Sport Tallinn, KuPS, Flora, Wil, Portsmouth, Derby County, Sunderland, Arsenal, and Watford. He spent nearly 15 seasons playing in England. His stint with Derby was the best known. He made a total of 120 appearances for Estonia and was the team's captain. 

Mart Boom

GK: Aleksandr Prokhorov (Belarus)

Prokhorov played with Dinamo Minsk, Dynamo Kyiv, etc. In 1972, he moved to Spartak Moscow where he played until 1975. He was awarded the Ogonyok magazine prize as the best goalkeeper of the USSR in 1974 and 1975. He made his debut for USSR on March 20, 1976, in a friendly against Argentina. He played in the UEFA Euro 1976 quarterfinal (USSR did not qualify for the final tournament).  He had 6 Olympic caps and 3 senior caps.

GK: Yuriy Romenskyi  (Azerbaijan)

Born in Azerbaijan, Romensky started with Neftchi Baku in 1971.  He moved to FC Chornomorets Odesa in 1978.  Between 1979 and 1981, he played for Dynamo Kyiv. He was capped 5 times for the Soviet Union between 1978 and 1979.  Romensky spent the first two seasons at Dynamo as the main goalkeeper. In 1979,  Romensky played couple of games for Ukraine at the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR.

RB: Sergei Borovsky (Belarus) 

During his entire club career,  Sergei Borovsky played for FC Dinamo Minsk.  He was the captain of Dynamo in 1978-1979 and 1984-1985.  He won the Soviet Union premier league in 1982, the club's only title.  That same year, he went to the World Cup Finals with the Soviet national team.  In total, he earned 21 caps between 1981 and 1985. 

CB: Vagiz Khidiyatullin (Tartar born in Tatarstan, Russia)
Vagiz Khidiyatullin earned 58 caps and scored 6 goals for the USSR , and played for them in the 1980 Summer Olympics, 1988 UEFA European Championship and the 1990 FIFA World Cup. He was also on the squad of the 1982 World Cup team.  His career was spent with Spartak Moscow and CSKA Moscow.  He played from 1988 to 1990 for Toulouse FC in France.  He is a Tartar born in Tatarstan, Russia.

Vagiz Khidiyatullin 

SW: Leonīds Ostrovskis (Latvia) 

In total, Ostrovskis had 9 caps for the USSR.  He was selected for the 1958 World Cup squad, but did not play in any games at the tournament. He made his debut for the Soviet national team in 1961. He played in two World Cups: 1962 and 1966. He was the only Latvian footballer for the Soviet Union in the World Cups.  For club career, he played for FK Daugava, Torpedo Moscow and Dynamo Kyiv.

CB: Volodymyr Kaplychnyi (Jewish born in Ukraine)

Born in what is now Ukraine of Jewish ethnicity, Volodymyr Kaplychnyi earned 62 caps for the USSR, and participated in UEFA Euro 1968, the 1970 FIFA World Cup, and UEFA Euro 1972. He also earned a bronze medal in football at the 1972 Summer Olympics. He spent most of his career with CSKA Moscow.

CB: Konstantin Krizhevsky (Jewish from Russia)

Krizhevsky started with PFC Krylia Sovetov Samara before moving to VVS Moscow in 1948. Between 1953 andn1961, he played for Dynamo Moscow.  For the Soviet national team, he played 14 times.  He competed for the Soviet Union at the 1952 Olympics and 1958 FIFA World Cup.  He is Jewish.

LB/CB: Ragnar Klavan (Estonia) 

Klavan played for Elva, Tulevik and Flora in Estonia,before moving to the Netherlands where he represented Heracles Almelo and AZ.  He spent 4 seasons with  FC Augsburg before his move to Liverpool in 2016.  In 2015, he became the ninth player to make 100 appearances for Estonia. He has won the Estonian Footballer of the Year award a record seven times. 

LB: Sergei Gurenko (Belarus)

Sergei Gurenko began his career in Khimik Grodno in 1989.  

In 1995, he was transferred to Lokomotiv Moscow.  He played for AS Roma, Real Zaragoza, Parma, Piacenza before returning to Lokomotiv in 2003.  Between 1994 and 2006, he played 80 times for Belarus, where he served as their captain.  He is the second most capped Belarusian player.

DM: Sergei Aleinikov (Belarus) 

From 1981 to 1989, Aleinikov played for  Dinamo Minsk, winning the Tip Soviet League in 1982.  In 1989, he became one of the first Soviet players to play in the rest when he joined Juventus.  He later played for Lecce and Gamba Osaka.  He played in two World Cup Finals and an European Championship for the USSR.  He also played at Euro 1992 for CIS.  He was capped 4 times for Belarus.  He was Belarus's selection for UEFA Julibee Player

Sergei Aleinikov

LM/DM:  Vasyl Rats (born in Ukraine of Hungarian ethnicity)

Vasyl Rats scored the winning goal in the 1-0 victory against Holland in the first round of Euro 1988, but Holland went on to beat the Soviet Union in the rematch in the Final.  He was capped 47 times for the Soviet Union.  He participated at the WC Finals in 1986 and 1990.  Rats played several seasons with FC Dynamo Kyiv, where he won the Soviet Top League three times.

LM/CM: Sergey Gotsmanov (Belarus) 

From 1979 to 1990, Sergey Gotsmanov played for  FC Dinamo Minsk first team, winning the Soviet championship in 1982 under manager Eduard Malofeyev.  He later played in England for Brighton and Southampton.   For the USSR, he played 31 times.  He appeared in the Euro 1988.  He  was Belarusian Footballer of the Year four times (in 1983, 1985, 1987 and 1989).

LW/LM: Khoren Oganesian (Armenia)

Khoren Oganesian was chosen as the best player of Armenia in the 20th century by the Armenian FA.  He earned 34 caps by USSR between 1979 and 1984.  He won a bronze medal at the 1980 Olympics. In 1982, he became the first Armenian to play in the World Cup finals. His career was spent mainly with FC Ararat Yerevan, where the club played in the Soviet Top League and later, participated in the Armenian Premier League.  His domestic career lasted from 1974 and 1996.

Khoren Oganesian

CM: Volodymyr Muntyan (born in Ukraine of Romanian ethnicity)
Volodymyr Muntyan was born in Ukraine of Romanian ethnicity. He played his entire career with Dynamo Kyiv.  He won the 1975 Cup Winners' Cup with Dynamo Kyiv.  He played 49 times for the Soviet Union. He played 49 times for the Soviet Union. He was a part of the USSR team at the WC Finals in 1970.  He also went to Euro 1968 and 1972.

LW: Galimzyan Khusainov (Tatar born in Tartarstan, Russia)

Galimzyan Khusainov played for the Soviet Union national team (33 matches/4 goals), and was a participant at the 1962 FIFA World Cup, 1966 FIFA World Cup and at the 1964 European Nations' Cup, where the Soviet Union squad won the silver medal.  He scored a goal in the Final against Spain. His career was spent manly with Spartak Moscow.

AM/CM: Leonid Buryak (born in Ukraine of Jewish ethnicity)

Leonid Buryak was one of Dynamo Kyiv's greatest players.  He also played for Chornomorets Odesa and Torpedo Moscow. He was capped 49 times for the USSR. He won a bronze medal at the 1976 Olympics and went to the World Cup Finals in 1982.  In 1979, Buryak played couple of games for Ukraine at the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR. He was born in Ukraine of Jewish ethnicity.

AM: Alexander Hleb (Belarus)

Alexander Hleb is best remembered for his stints with Stuttgart and Arsenal.  In the Bundesliga, he was among the top assisters, which led to a big transfer to Arsenal in 2005.  He became the first ever Belarusian footballer to play in the Champions League Final while playing for Arsenal. He also played in Turkey. He had 80 caps for Belarus.

AM/CM: Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Armenia)

Henrikh Mkhitaryan started with Pyunik in 2006 in Armenia before moving to play in Ukraine. Between 2013 and 2016, he starred with Borussia Dortmund.  With Manchester United, he became the first Armenian to win a major European trophy.   Then, he played briefly for Arsenal before moving to AS Roma.  At the time of writing, he had 86 caps for Armenia.  He was also voted the CIS Footballer of the Year in 2012 and 2013.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan

ST: Anatoliy Banishevskiy (Azerbaijan)
Banishevskiy started playing football at the age of 16 and played all of his career for PFC Neftchi Baku, transforming into one of the best Azerbaijani players. He was selected as the Golden Player for Azerbaijan by the Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan as the country's most outstanding player over the past 50 years.  He was capped 50 times by USSR and went to the WC Finals in 1966.

ST: Māris Verpakovskis (Latvia)

Māris Verpakovskis was capped 104 times by Latvia. He helped Latvia to qualify for the European Championship, 2004, the first country from the former Soviet Union that is not Russia to qualify for the Finals of a major tournament.  He was voted as the best player at Dynamo Kyiv in 2004.  He was also Latvian Man Of The Year 2003–2004. At the club level, he played at home and elsewhere within the former Soviet Union.  He also played in Greece and Spain.

Māris Verpakovskis 

FW: Vakeriy Porkujan (Armenian born in Ukraine)

Vakeriy Porkuyan mainly played for Chernomorets Odessa in his career, but between 1966 and 1970,  he played with Dynamo Kyiv.  After his first season with the club, he was chosen by the national football team to attend the 1966 World Cup.  He was the World Cup bronze boot. He also went to the 1970 World Cup Finals.  In total, he had 8 caps, scoring 4 goals (all in the 1966 World Cup Finals).

ST Nikita Simonyan (Armenia)

Nikita Simonyan started with  Krylya Sovetov Moscow, but he played mainly for Spartak Moscow, where he is the top scorer in the history at 160 goals where he played between 1949 and 1959, and is also the top scorer in the Soviet Top League at 133 goals.  He was the Soviet captain at the World Cup Finals in 1958 and also won the Olympic Gold Medal in 1956.  He was capped 20 times. He was awarded the Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR title in 1954.

Nikita Simonyan

Honorable Mention

Yozhef Sabo (Hungarian born in Ukraine), , Georgi Kondratiev (Belarus), Vitali Kutuzov (Belarus), Yuri Zhevnov (Belarus), Artem Milevskiy (Belarus), Aleksandr Prokopenko (Belarus), Nazar Petrosyan (Armenian born in Turkmenistan), Eduard Markarov (Armenian born in Azerbaijan), Arkady Andreasyan (Armenia born in Baku, Azerbaijan), Yuri Kuznetsov (Azerbaijan), Kazbek Tuayev (Azerbaijan), Nikolai Smolnikov (Azerbaijan), Vitaly Shevchenko (Azerbaijan), Igor Ponomaryov (Azerbaijan), Alakbar Mammadov (Azerbaijan), Kazbek Tuaev (Azerbaijan), Alakbar Mammadov (Azerbaijan), Nikolai Smolnikov (Azerbaijan), Igor Ponomaryov (Azerbaijan), Leonīds Ostrovskis (Latvia), Aleksandrs Koļinko (Latvia), Aleksandrs Starkovs (Latvia), Igors Stepanov (Latvia), Igors Stepanov (Latvia), Marians Pahars (Latvia), Valdas Ivanauskas (Lithuania)Arminas Narbekovas (Lithuania), Vyacheslav Sukristov (Lithuania),  Evald Tipner (Estonia) , Georgi Ryabov (Estonia), Artur Ioniță (Moldova), Pavel Cebanu (Moldova), Hovhannes Zanazanyan (Armenian born in Greece), Levon Ishtoyan (Armenia), Sargis Hovsepyan (Armenia). Roman Berezovsky (Armenia), Alexandru Epureanu (Moldova) .

Squad Explanation

Squad Explanation
-- This blog team was created in 2016 as the "Soviet Union All-Time team without players from Ukraine and Russia, but I edited it in September, 2020.  I took out all of  the Georgian players.  Instead, I created an individual team for Georgia.  Georgia supplied third most players to the Soviet national team.  They deserved their own All-Time team. It is now the Soviet Union All-Time team without players from Ukraine,  Russia and Georgia.  The team excluded the big three footballing republics. I also excluded all Central Asian republics.  Those players were also selected for the all-time time for Central Asia.  There were no real reason why I excluded the Central Asians.  I could not say that this blog team was about Europeans.  Kazakhstan belongs to the UEFA.  Basically, I started to build more blog teams and I started to take away countries. 

-- I also created Armenia/Armenian diaspora and Belarus in October, 2020 and March, 2022 respectively, but I am keeping their players here.  This team will be getting weaker and weaker without more countries.  

-- My Central Asia All-Time team was not only about the former Soviet Union.  

-- In the future, I will create teams for Belarus and the Baltic states.

-- The Soviet-era players were based on ethnicity.  The post-Soviet Union players were based on the national team.  I do not consider playing for one of the republics at the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR as "cap-tied". I also put ethnic minority here.  Basically, I wanted to expand the player pool by doing this.  I have players of Hungarian, Tartars, Romanians and Jewish origins.  Some of the ethnic minorities were also eligible for their respective former Soviet republic of their birth place.  

-- Tatarstan is a part of Russia.  So I am only selecting players of Tatar origins.  Both Galimzyan Khusainov and Vagiz Khidiyatullin are believed to be Tatars.  Meanwhile, Gennady Yevryuzhikhin and Viktor Kolotov were ethnic Russians.  I considered them Russians born in Russia (Tatarstan). 

-- Russia, Ukraine and Georgia supplied most of Soviet footballers playing in the World Cup. Only a handful of players here had World Cup experience.  

-- Before the 1970's, most of the good footballers came from Russia.  After the 1970's, many Ukrainian and Georgian footballers emerged, but it was still rare to see national team players from outside the three republics.  After the breakup, however, Latvia qualified for a major tournament (Euro 2004) before Ukraine and Georgia did.  

-- In 1958, Leonīds Ostrovskis (Latvia) and Nikita Simonyan (Armenia) were the only non-Russian and non-Ukrainian on the World Cup team.  Simonyan was an Armenian born in Russia.  However, most of Soviet Union's World Cup teams were dominated by players from Russia, Ukraine and Georgia.  Both made the team.

-- All Jewish players are eligible for this team as well the all-time team of their republic respectively.   For example, Leonid Buryak is also on my all-time Ukraine team because the Jewish people can be interpreted as a religion rather than an ethnicity.  His exclusion from my all-time Ukraine team therefore would be a prejudice against a religion. Volodymyr Kaplychnyi (Ukraine), Konstantin Krizhevsky (Russia) and Leonīds Ostrovskis (Latvia) were also Jewish.

Leonid Buryak

-- Six ethnic Armenians participated in a World Cup Finals.  Nikita Simonyan, Eduard Margarov and Khoren Oganesian played for the Soviet Union.  Alain Boghossian was on the French team that won the World Cup in 1998.  His teammate Youri Djorkaeff has a Armenian mother. Andranik Eskandaryan and Andranik Teymourian played for Iran.

-- The Baltic states did not become parts of Soviet Union until the 1940's.  They had their own national teams before the war.  I did not select any Lithuanian player. Andrey Kanchelskis's father was a Lithuanian.  However, he was cap-tied to Russia.  I ruled him ineligible. Leonīds Ostrovskis (Latvia) played in two World Cups: 1962 and 1966. He was the only footballer from Latvia who played for the Soviet Union in the World Cups.

-- I also did not select anyone from Moldova.  Pavel Cebanu and Artur Ioniță are probably their best players.  I only put them on honorable mention.  Nicolae Simatoc was born in Moldova, which was then Romania.  He represented Romania in football.  This was being former Soviet Union team and he was not a former Soviet player. So I did not consider him.  He played for Inter Milan, Barcelona, etc in the 1950's.

Goalkeepers

-- Matt Poom was one of the few goalkeepers from the former Soviet Union to have done well playing in the West.  I found a Russian source that said Aleksandr Prokhorov was the 8th greatest Soviet goalkeeper.

Yuriy Romenskyi was born in Azerbaijan.  So he is eligible.  He was Dynamo Kyiv's starter for roughly two seasons. Goalkeeper Evald Tipner (Estonia) played for Estonia before it became a part of USSR.  Roman Berezovsky (Armenia) played 94 times for Armenia, the record of second most capped player of the national team.

Defenders

-- Most of the defenders played in a World Cup Finals, except Ragnar Klavan (Estonia) and Sergei Gurenko (Belarus). Ragnar Klavan (Estonia) did not feature much with Liverpool.  Nevertheless, it was a big club.  Besides, I was looking for another player who can play as fullback.  Vagiz Khidiyatullin was the first Soviet player to play in Western Europe. He was also listed in my all-time team for Russia.  He was born in Russia of Tartar origin.  I decided to select him on both teams.

-- Defender Sergei Gorlukovich (Belarus) chose to represent Russia after the end of the Soviet Union.  He was ruled eligible.

Midfielders/Wingers

-- In the 1980's, Sergei Aleinikov was a key player with the Soviet Union.  He is probably Belarus' greatest ever player.  He joined Juventus in 1989 as one of the first Soviet players playing in the West. He was one of the more obvious players selected.  I had no room for DM Andrei Zygmantovich (Soviet Union/Belarus).

-- I decided not to select Eduard Malofeyev. He is often listed as an all-timer from Belarus.  Upon studying the situation, I discovered that he was an ethnic Russian born in Russia, which made him a Russian.  Of course, he was one of the greatest players ever from Dinamo Minsk.  Instead I took Sergey Gotsmanov, a midfielder.  Gotsmanov edged out Yozhef Sabo, an Hungarian born in Ukraine. 

-- Yozhef Sabo was often considered one of Ukraine's greatest players, but he was a Magyar.  He was born in modern day Uzhhorod which was known as Ungvár back then, and the city was a part of Hungary until after the Second World War.  He grew up as a Hungarian.  He did not speak Ukrainian until he played for Dynamo Kyiv.  Sabo was the biggest question mark on this team.

-- Volodymyr Muntyan's father was Romanian, but since he had a Ukrainian mother, he was eligible for my Ukraine All-Time team.

-- I considered dropping Vasyl Rats for Yozhef Sabo.  He was remembered for his long range goal against France in the 1986 World Cup Finals. But I already had Khoren Oganesian and Galimzyan Khusainov.  My left side was well-covered.  Alexander Hleb (Belarus) was among the top midfielder when he played in the Bundesliga.   Henrikh Mkhitaryan had established himself at Borussia Dortmund.  He is probably the most accomplished footballer eligible playing in the Western Europe since the breakup of Soviet Union.  Sabo might have been better, but Hleb and Mkhitaryan were better known players outside the former Soviet Union.  In the end, I went for the more famous players.

-- AM Arminas Narbekovas was known as Lithuania's greatest ever player, but I did not have enough spot for him.  I do not have a single player from Lithuania.  

-- Leonid Buryak was one of Dynamo Kyiv's greatest players. He was also on my Ukrainian Greatest All-Time team, but I wanted to reinforce this team.   I have already address the Jewish issue.

Forwards

-- Anatoliy Banishevskiy was chosen as Azerbaijan's UEFA Jubliee Player.  He formed a formidable attacking duo with Eduard Markarov for the Soviet national team in the 1960's.  He was the CCCP's highest all-time scorer for players outside Russia and Ukraine. 

Anatoliy Banishevskiy

-- Māris Verpakovskis was rewarded for Latvia qualifying for the Euro 2004, the first time a nation side other than Russia qualified for a major tournament.  As of 2020, they remained the only team outside of Ukraine and Russia to have qualify for a Finals.

-- Vakeriy Porkujan finished as the World Cup bronze boot in 1966. He did not do much after the World Cup Finals.  Nevertheless, the World Cup Finals in 1966 was Soviet Union's greatest showing at the Finals.  I awarded him with a spot on the team for that.

-- I also considered Marians Pahars (Latvia).  He had a cult status with Southampton in the Premiership, but the old-timers from the Soviet Union had done more.  He only made honorable mention.

Latvia at Euro 2004

Starting Lineup
Formation: 4-3-3