Oleg Romantsev

Oleg Romantsev

Personal information
Full name	Oleg Ivanovich Romantsev
Date of birth	4 January 1954 (1954-01-04) (age 57)
Place of birth	Gavrilovskoye, USSR
Playing position	Defender
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1971–1976	Avtomobilist Krasnoyarsk	?	(10)
1976–1983	Spartak Moscow	180	(6)
National team
1980–1982	USSR	9	(0)
Teams managed
1984–1987	Krasnaya Presnya Moscow
1988	Spartak Ordzhonikidze
1989–2003	Spartak Moscow
1994–1996	Russia
1998–2002	Russia
2003–2004	Saturn Ramenskoye
2004–2005	Dynamo Moscow
2009–	Spartak Moscow (consultant)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Olympic medal record
Competitor for  Soviet Union
Men's Football
Bronze	1980 Moscow	Team Competition

Oleg Ivanovich Romantsev (Russian: Олег Иванович Романцев) (born 4 January 1954 in Gavrilovskoye, Ryazan Oblast) is a Soviet/Russian former international footballer and coach famous for his work with FC Spartak Moscow and the Russian national team. He won a record eight Russian league titles with Spartak, while achieving many other successes.

Early years

Oleg Romantsev was born on 4 January 1954 in Gavrilovskoye village, Ryazan Oblast. His father was working as a road construction manager, and the family moved around the country frequently, living in various places including Kola peninsula, Altay, and Kyrgyzstan. In early 1960s they settled in Krasnoyarsk.

Soon after that Romantsev joined Metallurg, a youth team, to play as a striker. He worked much on his technique, and his improvements lead him to become the team's captain in two years. When Romantsev was invited to play for Avtomobilist, another Krasnoyarsk team, at the Siberia and Far East youth championships, he scored 7 goals in 4 matches and became the best player of the tournament. He stayed with Avtomobilist and helped them to the third position in the USSR youth championships.

Avtomobilist Krasnoyarsk

In 1971 Oleg Romantsev was promoted to the senior team of Avtomobilist, which played in the Soviet Second League. He scored a goal at his first appearance, and another two at the second, making him a first team regular. Scouts of other clubs, including Dynamo Kiev, have shown interest in him. While playing for Avtomobilist, Romantsev has changed his position on the field, becoming a left defender.

Spartak Moscow

In 1976, after a friendly match between Avtomobilist and Spartak Moscow, Romantsev was invited to join Spartak. After making two appearances for the new club, he returned to Krasnoyarsk, citing unprofessional atmosphere at Spartak. The Moscow club was relegated from the Top League that year.

Konstantin Beskov, whose task was to return Spartak to the top flight in 1977, wanted to have Romantsev in his team. Romantsev, however, declined the offer to rejoin them. Beskov then called him to the national team, and, while Romantsev was in Moscow, persuaded him to play for Spartak.

Oleg Romantsev played 165 matches and scored 6 goals for Spartak in the Soviet League. He also played 6 matches in the European Champion Clubs' Cup and 10 matches in the UEFA Cup. Romantsev was the captain of Spartak from 1979 until the end of his player's career in 1983. He won the Soviet championship in 1979 and became the runner-up in 1980, 1981, and 1983.

Romantsev made 9 appearances for the USSR national football team. He also played 6 matches and scored 1 goal for the bronze-winning USSR team at the 1980 Summer Olympics.

Coaching career

In 1984, after taking Nikolai Starostin's offer, Romantsev started his work as a coach of a Moscow club Krasnaya Presnya. In 1988 he moved to Vladikavkaz (then Ordzhonikidze) to coach Spartak.

After that Romantsev began his work at Spartak Moscow. He was elected the coach in 1989 and won the Soviet title in the first season with the club. His spell with Spartak was highly successful, resulting in 8 Russian championships (1992-1994, 1997-2001), 4 national cup victories (1992, 1994, 1998, 2003), and the semifinals of all European cups (Champions Cup 1990/91, Cup Winners' Cup 1992/93 and UEFA Cup 1997/98). Romantsev holds a record for the most matches with Spartak as a coach (401; Beskov has 396).

Romantsev became the chairman of Spartak in 1993, while retaining the post of head coach. In 1994-1996 he was also the head coach of Russia national team, successfully qualifying for the final tournaments of Euro 96 and 2002 FIFA World Cup.

In 2003 Romanstev left Spartak, first resigning as president, then as coach. He had two quick spells with Saturn Ramenskoe (September 2003 - February 2004) and Dynamo Moscow (October 2004 - May 2005) and has not worked as a coach since then. It was announced on 23 April 2009 that Romantsev had agreed to help current manager of Spartak Moscow Valery Karpin as a consultant coach.

He is living in Moscow now.

Achievements

All of the below was achieved with FC Spartak Moscow.

As a player

• Soviet Top League
  • Winner: 1 (1979)
  • Runner-up: 3 (1980, 1981, 1983)
  • 3rd position: 1 (1982)
• Soviet First League
  • Winner: 1 (1977)
• Soviet Cup
  • Runner-up: 1 (1981)
• Olympic Games
  • Bronze medal: 1 (1980)

As a coach

• Soviet Top League
  • Winner: 1 (1989)
  • Runner-up: 1 (1991)
• Russian Premier League
  • Winner: 8 (1992, 1993, 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001)
  • 3rd position: 2 (1995, 2002)
• Soviet Cup
  • Winner: 1 (1992)
• Russian Cup
  • Winner: 3 (1994, 1998, 2003)
• European Champion Clubs' Cup
  • Semifinalist: 1 (1990/91)
• Cup Winners' Cup
  • Semifinalist: 1 (1992/93)
• UEFA Cup
  • Semifinalist: 1 (1997/98)

References

• Romantsev, Oleg Ivanovich, International united biographical centre (Russian)
• Oleg Romantsev, forumsport.ru (Russian)

External links

• Fans' website (Russian)

Persondata
Name	Romantsev, Oleg
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	4 January 1954
Place of birth	Gavrilovskoye, USSR
Date of death
Place of death