Oleg Ivanov
Wednesday 2 July 2008
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Russia coach Oleg Ivanov (©sportsfile)
Born on 12 August 1949 in Konotop in Ukraine, Oleg Ivanov – coach of Russia's senior and Under-21 futsal teams – is a product of the FC Dinamo Moskva football school and as a goalkeeper for the club between 1965 and 1969 was a back-up for the legendary Lev Yashin. Indeed, his Supreme Soviet League debut was as a substitute for Yashin against FC SKA Odessa in 1965 and he also won the 1967 Soviet Cup. Later in his career, Ivanov played for FC Dinamo Nizhni Novgorod and FC Dinamo Barnaul, having previously represented the Soviet Union at U21 level as well as winning the 1966 International Youth Tournament.
Ivanov moved into coaching in 1988 in mini-football, a sport played in the Soviet Union similar to futsal. He was general manager of the USSR team from 1988 until 1990 but by 1998 was coaching futsal team MFK Inteko. In 2000 he joined FC Dinamo-2 Moskva, leading them to promotion in the first of two season with the side. From 2001 he coached the Russian student and U21 teams before taking over the senior team in 2003. His first campaign was a disappointment, as a shock defeat by Bosnia-Herzegovina ended their 2004 FIFA Futsal World Cup hopes before the qualifying play-offs. "My debut in Sarajevo was awful, as most of our players didn't have enough international experience," Ivanov said.
Things went much better in the 2005 UEFA European Futsal Championship, as Azerbaijan, Georgia and Serbia and Montenegro were dispatched in qualifying and Russia reached the final, losing to Spain. He also led the senior team to the 2008 FIFA Futsal World Cup before coaching the hosts at the UEFA European Under-21 Futsal Tournament. He had previously led young teams to victory in the World University Futsal Championships of 2002 and 2006.
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