Oleg Romantsev

Russian footballer and manager

Oleg Ivanovich Romantsev (Олег Иванович Романцев; born 4 January 1954) is a Soviet/Russian former international footballer and coach. Romantsev was acclaimed for his success with Spartak Moscow, whom he led to a record eight domestic league titles, and his work with the Russian national team. He is considered by some observers to be the finest coach in the history of Russian football.

In 1971, Romantsev was promoted to the senior team of Avtomobilist, who at the time were competing in the Soviet Second League. He marked his debut for the senior team with a goal and scored twice on his second appearance, later becoming a first team regular. Romantsev eventually converted from a striker to a left back and came to the attention of clubs such as Dynamo Kiev, who had begun to take note of the young defender's abilities. In 1976, Avtomobilist played a friendly against the club which would ultimately define Romantsev's footballing career – Spartak Moscow. After impressing Spartak representatives during the match, Romantsev was offered terms and joined soon after. Initially disillusioned with life at the Soviet powerhouse club – he spent just two matches there before returning to Krasnoyarsk citing an "unprofessional atmosphere" – he was convinced to return to the fold in 1977 after Konstantin Beskov, who was tasked with returning Spartak to the Top League after their relegation in 1976, persuaded him to rejoin. Romantsev had not accepted the offer outright and dismissed Beskov's approach but was eventually persuaded after spending time speaking with Beskov, who was also the manager of the Soviet Union national team, as part of the squad for the qualifiers for the 1978 World Cup. Romantsev would go on to play 180 matches for the club, scoring six goals in the process. He was appointed club captain in 1979, and held the position until injuries brought about the end of his playing career in 1983, at the age of just 29. In his time as a player with Spartak, Romantsev won the 1979 Soviet Top League, the 1977 Soviet First League title and finished runner up in the Soviet Top League in 1980, 1981 and 1983. Romantsev made nine appearances for the Soviet Union national team. He also played six matches and scored one goal for the bronze winning team at the 1980 Summer Olympics.

A year after the end of his playing career, Spartak Moscow's founder Nikolai Starostin offered Romantsev a coaching role at Krasnaya Presnya – a little known Moscow club in the Soviet Second League. It was here that he first crossed paths with future Russia star Aleksandr Mostovoi, then a 16 year old central midfielder. The two quickly forged a close relationship that was to continue long into their professional careers. He, along with two other players, was sent home by Romantsev during the campaign. Romantsev left the post, to be replaced by Boris Ignatyev, and returned to Spartak after the tournament. Drawn in Group 4 for qualification for the 2000 European Championship in a group containing Andorra, Armenia, France, Iceland and Ukraine, Russia lost their first three games a sequence of results that outraged the Russian Football Union and led to the sacking of Anatoliy Byshovets. Despite his initial reluctance ("I cannot achieve anything in our football environment" meant the game finished 1–1 despite Russia having taken the lead. They would not be competing in the European Championship in Belgium and The Netherlands. The nature of the defeat struck Romantsev particularly hard. So much so that when mention of the game came up during a 2014 TV show with Romanstev as a participant, he remarked, "Please don't remind me of the most terrible moments of my life. I am trying to forget them. None of us wanted to live after that game against Ukraine. We felt like it would have been better to shoot ourselves or at least to quit football forever. I don't remember what exactly happened afterwards, it's all in a fog. That was cruel and undeserved after all we had achieved, as if we had run a marathon and then dropped dead." The improvement in the team's form and coming so close to qualification having lost their opening three matches was enough to ensure that Romantsev retained the position for qualification for the 2002 World Cup where Russia were drawn in UEFA qualification Group 1 with Faroe Islands, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Switzerland and Yugoslavia. Russia again finished top of the group under Romantsev, winning seven, drawing two and losing just one of their ten qualifying games. In Japan and South Korea, Russia were drawn into Group H with Belgium, Tunisia and co hosts Japan. In their first game Russia achieved a 2–0 victory over Tunisia, but lost their next match to Japan 1–0, causing riots to erupt in Moscow. For their last game against Belgium, Russia needed a draw to take them to the second round, but lost 3–2 and were eliminated. Romantsev quit as manager after the result.

As the 21st century approached, some observers commented that the strain of managing both Spartak and Russia was proving too much for Romantsev and his health was now showing signs of decline. According to Marc Bennetts, "The once genius trainer descended into an alcoholic haze, detached from reality and the players around him".

Romantsev was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as team captain. In the fall of 1999, on the eve of the elections to the State Duma, Romantsev entered the leadership of one of the participants in the election campaign he was included in the Coordination Council of the Interregional Unity Movement but claimed that this was done without his consent. Romantsev spoke of his fatigue from the "eternal Russian mess" and reluctance to participate in political games. Later, he officially joined United Russia. Romantsev claimed that he was more than once offered to continue his career abroad, where life was calmer and there were no serious political upheavals like those of Russia in the 1990s. However, he sincerely wanted to stay in his homeland to give at least some joy and pleasure to those who were not "free to choose where to live." In 2000, he said that in the event of an uncontrolled wave of migration from Russia, the country, in the worst case scenario, would fall to "nonentities" who could "rule the show, rob, kill, and deceive." project and in a number of programs for the development of children's football in Russia, organized on the eve of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.