At that time there was a strange football institution called YouthFootballSchool. It existed in a lot of USSR cities. For example the head coach of Moscow YFS was K. Beskov.
In Kyiv such players as Valeriy Lobanovskyi, Valentyn Troyanovskyi, Oleh Bazylevych and Andriy Biba also got “secondary football education”. Biba was far from being the best performer at YFS and coevals even yelled offensive chant when he played. Still due to will power he made them change their mind.
Trending up
As adult player he also made headway gradually. He was invited to Dynamo when Oleh Oshenkov was in charge of the team and stayed when Viacheslav Soloviov took his place. Still in 1960 Biba made only 17 appearances for the main squad while Lobanovskyi and Turianchyk – 30 each.
The following year, when Dynamo won the Soviet Top League, Biba made 17 appearances again, but starting with 1962 he became the first team regular. In 1966 Biba became the USSR best player.
To football peaks
1966 season was the peak of Andriy Biba’s career. He got significant individual awards and achievements of the team in general were really impressive.
Biba had great individual skills, could perform a perfect straight pass and possessed powerful shot from distance. He netted 69 goals for Dynamo, but there’s one that will stay in history of Soviet and Ukrainian football forever. This is a goal scored on September 2 1965 against Irish side Coleraine FC. What’s so special about that? That was the first goal netted by Ukrainian clubs in euro cups.
Quality mark
Biba hasn’t achieved success as a coach though he worked with a lot of different teams. Still he’s become a very effective talent scout. That’s Andriy Biba, who found Viktor Kolotov in Kazan. Buriak, Demianenko and others are also “quality mark” of his work. Biba still works for the benefit of his native club he’s dedicated his whole life to!
Copyright © 2015 FC Dynamo Kyiv
* photos from Olexiy Novik’s media library
