Following the steps of Ricardo Moniz, Thomas Doll, Sergei Rebrov and Peter Stöger, another star head coach arrives to the bench of the men’s football team of FTC. Ferencváros appointed today the former Russian national team coach, Stanislav Cherchesov as head coach.
 
As goalkeeper
Cherchesov spent his football career as goalkeeper. He was born September 2nd, 1963 in the former Soviet Union, in Alagir, as brother to four sisters. His father worked as a bus driver. Cherchesov studied at a sports school and at this point played both as goalkeeper and striker. Since he reached 183 CM height quickly, he was mostly used as a goalkeeper. At 18 he received his first professional contract at Spartak Ordzhonikidze. Three years later he found himself at Spartak Moscow – here he spent four periods as player and one as sporting director and head coach. He was the substitute to the legendary Rinat Dasayev. At this point, he was already known for his moustache. He waited for the opportunity, spent one year on loan at Lokomotiv Moscow, then became the first goalkeeper of Spartak.
 
In 1990, a documentary was shot of Cherchesov, as he was a proud representative of North Ossetia, who at a young age became champion of the Soviet Union and goalkeeper of the year. The movie includes many personal clips such as his wedding or as he is helping out around the family homes. “At first we did not like him playing football, but now everything is about football for us – said his father. – As a kid, he was carrying the ball everywhere, broke everything and even the windows all the time… Now he is a good boy.” The then 27-year old Cherchesov already made some philosophical comments about football: “In chess you can find all openings in a book, but in football it is impossible to foresee everything” – said Spartak’s goalkeeper.

 
He then played outside of Russia. He was first at Dynamo Dresden and then at the Austrian Tirol Innsbruck. Besides his moustache, he was also known for his black gym pants with white socks over them. He acted as a superb confident goalkeeper who analyzes his mistakes fast and did not make them again. He also had such a fighting spirit that at one point, even if he would have needed cartilage surgery, he trained and played until they won the league and received the special award of the “Return of the Year”. At 38 he got into the squad of Russia on 2002, then retired from professional football. He had 49 appearances in total in the national team, participated in the 1994 World Cup, even on the game against Kamerun where Russia won 6-1. The next success of Russia was celebrated only 24 years later when Cherchesov was on the other side, as head coach… “His best trait is that he can keep the critique away from him” – said Sergei Kirjakov, his former team mate. – He is very confident and believes in himself.”
 
As head coach
Cherchesov played in his last season (2001-2002) under Joachim Löw and started learning all kinds of trainer practices. “Cherchesov is one of the most interesting goalkeeper I have ever worked with. He has high ambitions and a huge impact on the dressing room. He drives his team mates to the better. I know very few such professional players as him” – said Löw in 2017, on the Confederation Cup.

 
He started his coaching career at Kufstein in 2004, then continued it at Tirol. In 2007 he returned to Sparkat as sporting director and finally he received the bench. Although he has not collected many trophies as a coach, he made very positive changes at all of his clubs. In 2007 they became champions with Spartak, then saved Terek Grozny and Amkar Perm from relegation. With Dynamo Moscow they had a memorable performance in the Europa League in 2014, won six group matches against Panathinaikos, PSV and Estoril.
 
He is a strict and confident coach, he keeps order in the dressing room. He has memorable stories with former star players such as Fyodor Smolov and Igor Denisov.
 
He made a transfer to Legia Warsaw in season 2015-16 and won all they could, both the league and the cup series. The Polish team had difficulties on the pitch this year and the supporters of the club sent a message to him saying that he is welcome back. Both in Poland and in Hungary the journalists were somewhat skeptical for his arrival but soon started to like him and enjoyed his rhetoric and sense of humor. He once answered a journalist’s question why he left Russia for Warsaw: “my bear wanted to visit the zoo of Warsaw, so I could not say no.”
 
After Legia he was appointed as head coach of Russia and he received the spotlight. He is usually calm and silent, but he is the most furious when he is whispering. He thinks that social media is a silly creature but does not mind appearing on it. In 2018, after beating Spain in the best 16s round of the World Cup, he said thank you to a journalist from Peru who despite all the others’ opinion, supported Cherchesov: “Lorenso, this is your success! You are number one, but only after Igor Akinfejev (goalkeeper). – he stood up and held a jersey with the name of Lorenso.
 

Cherchesov also has very good relations with Vladimir Putin: “We talk very often on the phone. The support of the president is very important for us, this gives us extra motivation” – he said before a national game. FIFA nominated Cherchesov as Head coach of the year.

 
He directed the Russian team three times against Hungary and won two of those battles. In the EURO 2020, his team did not proceed from Group B, as they had better goal difference than the opponents of Belgium, Denmark and Finland. He had a memorable act here as well. Cristiano Ronaldo placed a Coca Cola bottle away from him to point at the benefits of drinking water instead. In response, Cherchesov then opened one of the cola bottles after a match, and once the journalists told him about Cristiano’s words, he took another deliberate sip. He needed to leave the national team after the tournament and was without a team until he accepted the offer from Ferencváros.