The footballer condemned the gulag

Although the 1958 World Cup in Sweden It was the first to be seen on television, since not everyone had a device, the records of the matches read praised a young Pelé who led his team to win the World Cup in that edition. What the newspapers did not count were the goals of Eduard Streltsov (Perovo, Moscow, 7/21/1937), the soccer star who Politburo (the Executive Committee of the Communist Party) of the USSR decided to do without. Streltsov he was at the time on his way to Siberia to work in a gulag accused of rape. A false accusation orchestrated by Ekaterina Furtsevathe first woman to enter the party’s sphere of power, who felt resentful at the rejection of Streltsov to marry his daughter.

In addition to the possible even, the idea was formed that there was a possibility that he would turn around and go to the West to play. It had to be put back on track.

no gold medal

Streltsov He started playing soccer at age 13 with the older kids on the factory team, the Frieza. In 1953, at the age of 16, the ZIL (car company and subsidiary of Moscow Torpedo) played a friendly against Frieza. impressed Vasily Provornov, coach of the first team, who encouraged him to sign for Torpedo. At the age of 16, he made his debut in the first team of Torpedo and after a cautious first season, in the second he broke out, scoring 15 goals in 22 games. He has become accustomed to the calls of those USSR and earned a spot on the Olympic team for Melbourne’56. He scored two goals, one in the semifinal against Bulgaria. But he was not included in the team that played in the final match Yugoslavia. They won 1-0 and took the gold medal. Edward He did not receive it because he did not play in the final.

suspicions begin

Tall, handsome and beautiful plant, Streltsov He charmed women. Also, like many of his countrymen, he drank too much. But this did not hinder his performance on the field and his goals would elevate him to the top of the best Soviet players.

In 1957, he took the Torpedo to be runner-up in the league and with the national team he was a key player in qualifying for the World Cup in Sweden. In his last game at USSR played against England he had 18 goals in 20 games. But Kremlin it doesn’t seem right to him Streltsov will play here Torpedo. They want me to do it on CSKAthe equipment of the army, or the Dynamo, that of the Police and the KGB. He remained faithful to Torpedo.

There is an idea that whenever the team comes home from an international match, according to some declassified documents, he complains the most. Aware that their star player would defect, the usual protocol was activated: the official newspaper Pravda He wrote of him that he was “not a hero” after being sent off in a match with the national team. And the story continues: “He has the disease of a star: he smokes, drinks and causes fights.”

the false accusation

back from JJ. YES. from Melbournea party was organized in honor of the players who won the gold medal. Ekaterina Furtseva He orders him to marry his daughter Svetlana to which he replies that he is already engaged to another woman. But it really hurts Furtseva will listen, later and at the same party, to Streltsov taunting his daughter with a sarcastic comment that must have been tainted by alcohol: “I’ll never marry that monkey.” This is his sentence.

A few months later, after training, Streltsov was invited along with two players from Moscow Spartak at a party in a dacha (Rural Russian house) of a military man. He met her there Marina Lebedeva. After consuming alcohol that was above the standard for knowing right from wrong, the three players were arrested for raping the girl. He denied the facts. Although he later admitted it because he promised her that he would go to worldhe spent 12 years in a gulag, a labor camp, in Siberia.

back to football

Khrushchev the gulag was abolished on January 25, 1960. Streltsov He has been an intern for two years, devoting most of his days to carpentry. After five years in three forced labor camps, he was released in February 1963. His ban from playing soccer was still in effect but he did not resign and joined the amateur team at the automobile factory. ZIL until he took power Leonid Brezhnev in 1964. He returned to play in the professional league in 1965 at the age of 28. Twelve goals in 26 games made the Torpedo champions for the second time in its history. In the 1966-67 season he made his debut in the European Cup against him Inter Milan. Banned for the World Cup in England, he succeeded in his country: best soccer player in USSR in 1967 and 1968, became the Cup champion.

He took the coaching title and was with the youth team for two decades until he died on July 22, 1990, at the age of 53, a victim of laryngeal cancer.

A 2020 Russian biopic, featuring Alexander Petrov as hero, perfectly tells how the threads move to USSR with the enemies of men, even if they were stars.