Viktor Ponedelnik

Viktor Ponedelnik is a legendary Soviet footballer who brought the USSR national team the winning goal in 1960 in the European Cup final match. The athlete did not part with football, even when he finished his football career - he began to write books about his own experience in the popular game. Viktor Vladimirovich showed at the competitions a beautiful effective game, perfected technique.

The Soviet athlete was born on May 22, 1937 in Rostov-on-Don. Father Vladimir worked as a journalist for a newspaper, and mother Sophia was engaged in nursing. As the footballer himself noted, the family's paternal surname appeared after the abolition of serfdom in Russia in 1861. When the peasant ancestors found themselves on the Don, the clerk indicated the current day of the week in the “Surname” column.

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When the Great Patriotic War began, Victor and his mother moved to Tbilisi. Here the boy first got acquainted with football, and also learned the Georgian language. At the end of the war, the son and mother returned to Rostov-on-Don.

Personal life was successful for a football player. Viktor Vladimirovich married Arina Rastorgueva. In marriage, three children were born - daughters Victoria (1961) and Anastasia (1979) and son Valentin (1962). They gave the football player the grandchildren of Sergei, Irina, Valery and Andrey.

The player's football career began in the "Petrel" club. In 1956 the young man entered the Rostov "Torpedo", then renamed into "Rostselmash", performing in the "B" class. During the first year of the game, the young athlete scores three goals in five matches. Since 1959 he has been playing for the military district club. Here took place the first footballer on the field with a team of "A" class. In the same year, he scores a goal against CSK MO.

Victor Monday and Lev Yashin.

A promising young man is invited to the USSR national team. In 1960, Victor competed at the European Championship held in France. Playing the final match, the Soviet team at the beginning of the meeting was inferior to the rival - the national team of Yugoslavia with a score of 0: 1. When the second half began, the score was leveled thanks to a goal scored by Slava Metreveli.

In the extra half of a tense game in the 113th minute, Viktor sent the ball into the Yugoslav goal. This brought the USSR national team victory, and the young player's golden goal went down in football history. In the same year, the athlete was among the best players of the USSR championship season, Monday then remained on this list for three years. In 1961, Victor is part of CSKA Moscow. But in the new team, he does not participate in the games and returns to his native SKA in Rostov, where he plays until 1965.

In parallel with the games in SKA, the footballer continues to play for the USSR national team. In 1962, the team reached the quarter finals at the World Cup, held in Chile. In 1964, the team won silver at the European Cup in Spain. Monday showed a beautiful game, but health problems disrupted a successful career. In 1966, acute asthma attacks prevented the athlete from participating in the World Cup, held in England. In the same year, the player moved to the Spartak team in Moscow, but never entered the field.

The footballer decides to end his career. From 1956 to 1966, the athlete played in 217 meetings, sending balls to the opposing teams 86 times. As part of the USSR national team, Viktor Vladimirovich participated in 29 games, scoring 20 goals in them. Finishing his career, Monday played a farewell match - his team ended the battle with the GDR national team with a score of 2: 2.

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From 1966 to 1969, the athlete took up the position of a coach at Rostov's Rostselmash. Then he continued his father's work - he tried himself in the role of a sports columnist. At first, the player acted as the chief editor of the football department in the popular newspaper Sovetsky Sport, and then took the place of editor in the Football-Hockey publication. He is known to fans not only as a talented and experienced athlete, but also as a writer. Viktor Vladimirovich became the author of several books, including "Confessions of a Central Striker", "The Ball Into the Gates" and others.

Excellent physical data (strength, height 180 cm) made the football player a favorite of the Soviet public, photos of the young man got on the pages of sports newspapers and magazines. In the games, the athlete played at number 9, under which the center forwards were usually placed. It is known that Victor did not like to shoot a penalty, calling himself "a fisherman, but not a hunter who shoots at a defenseless animal."

Interesting in Monday's career was the myth that a man killed a monkey during a match. The story that took place in the player's sports biography has been turned into a folk legend, a story that passes from mouth to mouth and is overgrown with nonexistent details. The canonical version of the myth tells that in one of the African football clubs, coaches taught a monkey to catch balls. To test the skills of the animal, Viktor Vladimirovich was invited.

According to legend, the animal managed to catch the attacker's ball, but the blow was so strong that the primate died. From that moment on, the footballer was forbidden to hit with full force, and to control the player's leg, a warning bandage had to be put on, so that the referees watched the athlete's actions.

In reality, the story with the "death blow" looked different. In 1963, SKA played a series of matches with teams from Africa. Monday was the captain of the team. In his memoirs, the footballer noted that when the Mali national team entered the field, he saw a monkey with a chain at the goalkeeper. Having put the animal on the crossbar of the goal, the goalkeeper began the game. During the match, the Soviet striker sent a long-range strike at the opponent's goal. The ball hit the bar on which the primate was.

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From surprise, the animal fell to the ground and remained motionless. The African team immediately interrupted the game, rushing to the victim. Chaos began in the stands, various objects flew at the Soviet athletes - the players were forced to hide in the locker room. It turned out that the monkey is the mascot of the Mali team, which is present at every home game of the national team. If the primate died, it is not known what fate would await SKA. But the story did not end there.

The match was attended by a journalist for the French newspaper L'Équipe, who wrote articles about the games in progress. The information he provided about the incident in the USSR was incorrectly translated, making Monday the "killer of the goalkeeper monkey." An erroneous hyphen in the text also served as the basis for the story of an animal trained to catch balls. The situation eventually cleared up, but the story of the "murder of the primate" quickly went public.

In 2020, the man lives in Moscow. Despite the fact that the athlete has not entered the field for a long time, Monday is still an idol for many football fans.

1960 - World Championship (USSR national team, gold) 1964 - European Cup (USSR national team, silver)

Viktor Ponedelnik 's estimated Net Worth, Salary, Income, Cars, Lifestyles & many more details have been updated below.

Let's check, How Rich is Viktor Ponedelnik in 2020?

Viktor Ponedelnik Net Worth 2021

Viktor Ponedelnik 's revenue is $1.6M in 2021. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Viktor Ponedelnik and could vary in the range between $555.8K - $1.6M.

Viktor Ponedelnik Net Worth 2020

Viktor Ponedelnik 's revenue is $1.5M in 2020. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Viktor Ponedelnik and could vary in the range between $705.9K - $1.6M.

Viktor Ponedelnik Net Worth 2019

Viktor Ponedelnik 's revenue is $1.3M in 2019. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Viktor Ponedelnik and could vary in the range between $751.5K - $1.4M.

Viktor Ponedelnik Net Worth 2018

Viktor Ponedelnik 's revenue is $1.3M in 2018. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Viktor Ponedelnik and could vary in the range between $946.9K - $1.1M.

Viktor Ponedelnik Net Worth 2017

Viktor Ponedelnik 's revenue is $1.7M in 2017. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Viktor Ponedelnik and could vary in the range between $797.3K - $1.9M.

Viktor Ponedelnik Net Worth 2016

Viktor Ponedelnik 's revenue is $1.2M in 2016. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Viktor Ponedelnik and could vary in the range between $601.5K - $1.5M.

Viktor Ponedelnik Net Worth 2015

Viktor Ponedelnik 's revenue is $1.4M in 2015. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Viktor Ponedelnik and could vary in the range between $556.3K - $2M.

It is an overall forecast for the net worth of Viktor Ponedelnik. The evaluation covers the latest 5 years and an approximation for next year. See above to learn how much money does Viktor Ponedelnik makes a year.

The range above shows an estimation based on evaluation generated by public information about sponsorships or other sources found on the internet. It's summarized data from Viktor Ponedelnik's projects existing in AidWiki's repository. It's an approximation of the revenue compiled by AidWiki and may not correspond with the real amount.