📍Bogorodskoye, Moscow, Russia
1929 – 1949“I was born in Moscow in October 1929 and grew up in Bogorodskoye, a working-class district on the north-eastern edge of the city, near the forests of Sokolniki and the river Yauza. My parents worked in factories, and my mother died when I was small. I loved every sport: I skied, jumped from homemade ski ramps, played ice hockey, and in the courtyard of our block of flats we played football in all weathers, where I first went in goal. When the war came in 1941, my father's factory was evacuated to Ulyanovsk, on the Volga, and our family went with it. I celebrated my twelfth birthday unloading machinery from a train. At thirteen, in 1943, I began working at the factory, making parts for the war effort, and at sixteen I was awarded a medal for my labour. That, I always said, was when my childhood ended. After the war we returned to Moscow, and I went on working in a factory while playing football and hockey for its teams in my spare time, as a goalkeeper in both. During my army service I played for a Dynamo team, and a coach invited me to join Dynamo Moscow's youth team. I made my debut in 1950, and while I waited for my chance in football I also kept goal for Dynamo's ice hockey team, winning the Soviet cup in 1953. I became the only goalkeeper ever to win the Ballon d'Or, in 1963, and they called me the Black Spider. Dynamo's stadium bears my statue.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today