A famous Ukrainian coach who played for Dynamo and was captain of the USSR national team has died

The legendary Nikopol coach Hryhorii Varzhelenko died at the age of 74, the press service of FC Nikopol reports. The cause of the tragedy is not reported.

The funeral service will be held on February 18 at noon in the Church of Petro Kalnyshevskyi (Nikopol, 4 Karmeliuka Street).

Everyone is welcome to support the family of the Honored Coach of Ukraine: 5168 7574 2511 1236 (Halyna Varzhelenko, wife). 4149 4993 9533 6629 (Halyna Khramova daughter).

Varzhelenko was a graduate of Nikopol's Trubnyk, where he began his professional career in 1967. He then accepted an invitation from Viktor Maslov to join Dynamo Kyiv, but played only for the reserve team.

He was the captain of the USSR youth national team. He also defended the colors of Dynamo Khmelnytskyi, Dynamo Stavropol, and Trubnyk Nikopol. Due to a serious knee injury, he ended his career in 1974 at the age of 24 at Kolos.

After that, he started coaching at the Kolos sports school (Nikopol). In 1995-1999, he was the head coach of Metalurg Nikopol. Then he coached the Russian Start (Yeisk). At the beginning of 2000, he was appointed head coach of Zhytomyr's Polissia, which he led until May 2000. Then he worked in Kirovohrad's Zirka and Alchevsk's Stal.

In July 2004, he again took over the Nikopol club, which changed its name to Electrometallurg-NZF. After the 2004/05 season, the team was disbanded.

Among his students are many well-known football players, including Pavlo Yakovenko, Mykola Kudrytskyi, Serhii Khudozhylov, and Dmytro Topchiev.

In 2010, he coached the amateur team Nikopol-Dnipryany. Since July 20, 2016, he has been the head coach of FC Nikopol.