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Volodymyr Muntyan

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Volodymyr Muntyan
Muntyan in 1974
Personal information
Full name Volodymyr Fedorovych Muntyan
Date of birth (1946-09-14)14 September 1946
Place of birth Kotovsk, Ukrainian SSR, USSR
Date of death 1 December 2025(2025-12-01) (aged 79)
Place of death Kyiv, Ukraine
Height 1.69 m (5 ft 7 in)[1]
Position Midfielder
Youth career
Dynamo Kyiv
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1965–1977 Dynamo Kyiv 302 (57)
1980 SKA Kyiv 7 (1)
International career
1968–1976 USSR 49 (7)
Managerial career
1980–1982 SKA Kyiv
1986–1988 COSFAP Antananarivo
1992–1994 Ukraine U21
1995–1997 Guinea
1998 Cherkasy
1999 Orion Kyiv
2000 Tavriya Simferopol
2001 Obolon Kyiv
2002 Alania Vladikavkaz
2003–2004 Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih
2004–2005 Vorskla Poltava
2008 Ukraine U21 (interim)
Medal record
Men's football
Representing Soviet Union
UEFA European Championship
Silver medal – second place 1972 Belgium
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Volodymyr Fedorovych Muntyan (Ukrainian: Володимир Федорович Мунтян, Russian: Владимир Фёдорович Мунтян, Romanian: Vladimir Muntean; 14 September 1946 – 1 December 2025) was a Soviet and Ukrainian football midfielder of the 1960s and 1970s. Muntyan is considered to be one of the best and most talented players to represent Dynamo Kyiv and the Soviet Union. He is also the only player apart from Oleg Blokhin (his teammate in the 1970s) who has won seven Soviet championships. His brother Viktor Muntyan is also a former professional football player.

Early life

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A son of an ethnic Russian plant worker from Moldova and a Russian nurse born in Voronezh,[2] Muntyan became interested in acrobatics and competed successfully in Kyiv's citywide competition, winning accolades in his age category.[citation needed] His family eventually relocated to live near a professional soccer grounds in Kyiv, where young Muntyan and his friends would hang out, acting as ball boys to the elders.[citation needed] While once juggling a ball, he was approached by a soldier, who asked him if he was interested in taking up football as a sport.[citation needed] Muntyan said yes and was taken to Mikhail Korsunsky, who was a famous local children's coach at the time. He quickly recognised Muntyan's potential.[citation needed]

Career

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Youth years

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Due to the boy's natural talent, he was included in Kyiv's youth team with people like Semen Altman and Anatoly Byshovets (both coaches now).[citation needed] After a Spartakiada match between the Kyiv and Moscow teams, which Kyiv won, Dynamo Kyiv youth coach Mykhaylo Koman offered young Muntyan to come to a training session with the senior team the next day at 11:00.[citation needed] The young boy turned up outside the ground, but was so scared to see his idols Valery Lobanovsky, Andriy Biba, that he hid behind a tree and did not make the team bus. However his friend Anatoly Byshovets helped him to get over the fear and eventually he turned up to a training session.[citation needed]

Club career

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Muntyan joined the Dynamo Kyiv team as a 15-year-old, when the main team coach was Victor Maslov. Despite weighing only 60 kg (9.5 stones) and being only 170 cm in height, he was encouraged to play and his skills were further enhanced by the training. Muntyan's debut match in Dynamo Kyiv's main squad took place on 15 October 1965, when his team played against Pakhtakor, winning 2:1.[3] When five of then current squad left to join 1966 Soviet football team for the World Cup, Dynamo Kyiv managed to win a double (championship and the cup) with Muntyan stepping in from the reserves as one of the main players.[citation needed]

In total, Muntyan won 7 championships and two Soviet Cups with Dynamo Kyiv. In 1975 he also achieved the title of UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and UEFA Super Cup champion as part of the victorious team.[3]

Soviet national team

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During his career Muntyan played 49 games for the Soviet Union national football team, scoring 7 goals. In 1970 he represented the Soviet Union as part of the 1970 FIFA World Cup, and in 1976 his team won bronze in the 1976 Summer Olympics.[3]

Managerial career

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After his retirement as a player of Dynamo Kyiv in 1977, Muntyan started working as a youth team coach. In 1992-1994 he managed the Ukraine Olympic football team.[3][clarification needed]

Personal life and death

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Muntyan during his later years

Muntyan was the son of a Red Army veteran who fought in the Winter War (Soviet-Finnish War), the Eastern Front of World War II, and the Soviet–Japanese War.[4] His father, Fedir Muntyanu, had 11 brothers.[4] When Fedir Muntyanu received his passport, he declared himself Russian.[5] Only when Muntyan was 14 or 15 did he become aware that his father was actually from Moldova.[5] Muntyan's mother was Russian from the Voronezh Oblast.[5] In the Soviet times there existed a popular anecdote about Muntyan's ancestry speculating that he may be of Armenian origin.[4]

Muntyan's father worked as a fitter at a local asphalt concrete plant.[4]

By the time Muntyan started to go to school, his family had already moved to Kyiv.[4] During his time at school, he was interested in several types of sports such as volleyball, basketball, skiing, and ice skating.[4] Moreover, Muntyan became even more involved in acrobatics, becoming the Kyiv city champion among student athletes at the age of 10 and receiving the adult-grade 3rd degree GTO standards in acrobatics.[4] At that time, he never thought that he would drop out of acrobatics and become a football player.[4] Soon, his family received a bigger apartment granted by the factory where his father worked.[4] It so happened that the place was close to the SKA stadium (today CSK ZSU Stadium) and far away from where he practiced acrobatics.[4] The young Muntyan started to spend more time at the stadium, where there was more football practice.[4]

Muntyan died after a long illness on 1 December 2025, at the age of 79.[3]

Career statistics

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Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League Cup Europe Total
Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Dynamo Kyiv 1965 3 0 4 0 0 0 7 0
1966 26 8 2 0 0 0 28 8
1967 19 4 1 0 0 0 20 4
1968 36 5 0 0 0 0 36 5
1969 27 6 3 2 4 2 34 10
1970 25 3 2 0 0 0 27 3
1971 18 6 2 0 0 0 20 6
1972 30 9 3 1 6 1 39 11
1973 28 6 9 2 5 0 42 8
1974 22 2 4 2 8 2 34 6
1975 29 2 0 0 4 0 33 2
1976 (s) 10 3 1 0 0 0 11 3
1976 (a) 13 1 0 0 8 1 21 2
1977 16 2 3 0 0 0 19 2
Total 302 57 34 7 35 6 371 70
  • The statistics in USSR Cups and Europe is made under the scheme "autumn-spring" and enlisted in a year of start of tournaments

Honours

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Dynamo Kyiv

Soviet Union

Individual

References

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  1. ^ "Мунтян Владимир Фёдорович, 14.09.1946, футболист". footballfacts.ru. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  2. ^ Prigornsky, Valery (16 May 2015). "Мунтян: «Звезду не ловит только тот, кому нечего ловить» - ПРЕСИНГ". pressing.net.ua. Футбол. Retrieved 2 December 2025.
  3. ^ a b c d e "IN MEMORIAM: Помер легенда київського "Динамо" Володимир Мунтян". 2 December 2025. Retrieved 2 December 2025.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Конфлікт з Лобановським, смертельна аварія і робота на Мадагаскарі. Історія Володимира Мунтяна. ua.tribuna.com.
  5. ^ a b c "Меня заклял африканский шаман". Правила жизни легендарного "динамовца" Владимира Мунтяна. football24.ua. 14 September 2018
  6. ^ Группа "Блестящие". 15 украинских футболистов, претендовавших на "Золотой мяч". Tribuna.com (in Russian). Retrieved 7 June 2018.
  7. ^ "Eastern European Footballer of the season". WebArchive. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 5 July 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
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