Yurii
Dehterov

Yurii Dehterov was born in Donetsk and had spent his entire career in a single club - Shakhtar. He represented the Orange-and-Blacks’ colours on the highest level for 17 seasons, appearing in about 400 official matches during this time. The biggest Shakhtar successes of the 70’s are associated with the name of Dehterov.

His opener for Shakhtar took place on November 20, 1967 in the match against CSKA Moscow (2-1). At that time he was 19 years old. The following season, he was voted the best rookie of the USSR championship. Dehterov quickly became a favourite among Donetsk fans, who praised his technique, excellent reflexes and reliability in the goal. His style was compared to Lev Yashin, who, incidentally, saw Yurii as his successor. But Dehterov refused to move not only to Moscow but to Kyiv as well, where he was called by Valerii Lobanovskyi, and remained true to the Donetsk club.

Largely due to his skills, the Pitmen won the silver (1975, 1979) and bronze (1978) medals of the USSR Championship, and won the USSR Cup in 1980. Dehterov himself was named the best goalkeeper of the 1977 season. During his career, Yurii had 148 shutout games. He was capped for national teams of different ages, and won two U19 European Cups (1966, 1967). He appeared in 17 matches for the national team, without conceding in ten.