Belarus shocked by coach's death
Monday, July 12, 2004
Article summary
Yakov Shapiro, the coach of Belarussian club FC Torpedo Zhodino, has died after suffering two heart attacks.
Article body
Heart attack
Life devoted to football
He seemed on his way to recovery later that night, but suffered another fatal attack yesterday morning. Shapiro, who never played professional football, was a keen enthusiast who devoted his life to the game. In 1984, when he was 22, he formed a youth side called FC Ataka which performed successfully in the then Soviet republic.
Dramatic rise
After independence for Belarus in the early 1990s, Ataka took senior status in the third division. The club changed their name to Ataka-Aura and in 1995 were promoted to the top division. They finished fourth in their debut season and competed in the UEFA Intertoto Cup, winning at FC Shakhtar Donetsk, but ceased to exist in 1997 after a financial crisis.
Torpedo success
Shapiro himself went on to coach FC Kommunalnik Slonim and FC Luninets before joining Torpedo in 2001. He guided the club to promotion to the Belarussian Premier League in his first season and subsequently a fifth-placed finish. Torpedo finished sixth in 2003, and are second after 12 games this term, level on points with leaders FC Dinamo Minsk.
