Volodymyr Anufriyenko stood out from childhood for his height, athletic build, and strong defensive skills, earning the nickname “Father Onufriy.” He began playing football in Germany and later in Transbaikal due to his father’s military service, but developed his organized skills in Kyiv with the local team Budivelnyk under coach Volodymyr Greber. Alongside Oleg Bazylevich, he trained at the Kyiv Football School of Youth, which also produced future stars like Valeriy Lobanovskyi and Andriy Biba. Both were selected for Dynamo Kyiv’s reserve squad, marking Anufriyenko’s first steps toward professional football.
Anufriyenko debuted in Dynamo’s main squad in the late 1950s, initially playing only a few matches due to strong competition from established defenders like Volodymyr Yerokhin and Tiberiy Popovych. He gradually gained more playing time and contributed to Dynamo’s Soviet championship successes in 1960–1961, earning silver and gold medals. Later, with the arrival of Leonid Ostrovskyi, his prospects at Dynamo decreased, and Anufriyenko moved to Dnipro, where he became a regular starter before ending his playing career in Kryvyi Rih and Dniprodzerzhynsk.
After retiring as a player, Anufriyenko became a highly respected youth coach, co-founding the famous Dnipro-75 school. He developed many future stars of Ukrainian football, including Anatoliy Demianenko, Oleg Protasov, and Hennadiy Lytovchenko. He later returned to Kyiv, coaching children’s teams and working at a school for orphans. In recognition of his contributions to football development, he was awarded the title of Honored Coach of the USSR. He passed away on April 30, 2009.
