“Football doesn’t like being combined with anything else”, - told Bal in one of his interviews.
He was born on February 16 1958 in a small village called Rozdol located in Lviv region.
The guy started playing football at the local sports school. At that time he could hardly imagine that eventually he would write his name into the history of FC Dynamo Kyiv with golden letters.
“Golden” player with fake surname
In 1970 12-year-old kid tried to enter Kyiv sports school. He took all tests successfully, but for some unknown reason was sent back home. Several years later Republican sports school coach Volodymyr Kyianchenko spotted Andriy Bal as he netted the goal against FC Lokomotyv Smila from the midfield. He invited the player to Kyiv again, but Bal rejected the offer.
Professional career started for Andriy in FC Karpaty Lviv. When he joined the reserve squad Bal had to use fake surname as he was underage.
In 1976 Andriy won the U-19 UEFA Championship and in 1977 – U-20 FIFA World Cup with USSR.
In 1980 and 1990 Soviet team with Bal in the squad triumphed at U-21 UEFA Championship.
After bright start in Karpaty Bal got a third chance to move to the capital of Ukraine. This time Valeriy Lobanovskyi initiated his transfer to FC Dynamo Kyiv. Andriy refused as he wanted to gain experience at first. Eventually he made 134 appearances for Lviv side, scored 12 goals and after that he joined the White-Blues.
As a player Andriy Bal devoted 13 years of his life to FC Dynamo Kyiv. Within this period of time he won both the Soviet Top League and the USSR Cup four times. In 1986 Kyivans won the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup. In general Andriy made 240 appearances for our club and netted 11 goals.
From 1981 till 1989 Bal also featured for USSR national team (20 caps, 1 goal). He finished his career of player in Israel.
Return home
In Israel Andriy Bal started coaching. For five years he worked for Maccabi Haifa FC.
He even managed to master Hebrew and commented football matches.
In early 2000s Bal returned to Ukraine. At first he was FC Dynamo Kyiv scout and from 2001 till 2003 he was in charge of FC Vorskla Poltava.
After that Bal became Ukraine national team assistant coach. Working alongside Oleh Blokhin he helped the Yellow-Blues to reach the 2006 World Cup quarterfinal. Later two great coaches continued their cooperation in FC Moscow and FC Chornomorets Odesa.
In 2010 this duo took charge of Ukraine national team again.
In 2012 two friends and specialists returned to FC Dynamo Kyiv.
On August 9 2014 Andriy Bal passed away playing for the White-Blues pro veterans team. He just passed the ball and fell down. Ambulance came 12 minutes later, but it was too late…
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