Viktor Terentiev spent most of the 1960s on the coaching staff of Dynamo Kyiv, from 1959 to 1971. He briefly served as head coach for half a season in 1963 and later became the team’s manager in 1971. Terentiev was part of a generation of former players who, after retiring from football, found success in coaching, administration, and youth development. Unlike high-profile head coaches like Lobanovskyi or Blokhin, Terentiev excelled as an assistant, combining tactical knowledge with the ability to teach, demonstrate techniques on the field, and mediate between players and the head coach.
His qualities as an assistant were rooted in his own playing career. Born in Moscow in 1924, Terentiev played for several Moscow clubs, including Spartak, and later joined Dynamo Kyiv in 1954. He immediately contributed to team success, helping Dynamo win the USSR Cup that season and scoring the first goal in the final. Terentiev’s intelligence, technical skill, and understanding of team dynamics made him an ideal “field coach” — able to advise, instruct, and support players without overshadowing the head coach.
After stepping down as Dynamo Kyiv’s head coach following a difficult 1963 season, Terentiev continued his career in the 1970s coaching smaller clubs in Ukraine and later returning to Moscow to hold administrative and youth coaching roles with Dynamo Moscow. Though he remained modest and largely out of the spotlight, his contribution to Dynamo Kyiv’s golden era of the 1960s was invaluable. Viktor Terentiev passed away in 2004.
