110th Anniversary of the Birth of Vsevolod Radikorsky

Vsevolod Konstantinovich was born on October 3, 1915, in Moscow. He developed a passion for football from childhood and, at the age of 13, was recruited for the Spartak club team, which represented the October Railway. After playing there for five years, Radikorsky spent a year with the Moscow machine-building club Snaiper, after which he transferred to Dynamo Moscow.

Vsevolod Konstantinovich later spoke about his transfer to the white-and-blues:

"In the fall (of 1934 – ed.), our team played Dynamo in a friendly match. Meeting such recognized players as Lev Korchebokov, Vasily Pavlov, and Vasily Smirnov on the field for the first time, I was a bit taken aback. We lost heavily, I think 1-6, but I managed to score the only goal against Kvasnikov. After the match, Konstantin Pavlovich Kvashnin invited me to Dynamo, and from 1935 onward, I became a Dynamo player permanently. I played for the third team, and the following year, I joined the first team".

However, I had to wait three years for my debut for the main team. Radikorsky didn't play for the Dynamo first team until 1938, in a match against Spartak Kharkiv in the 8th round of the USSR Championship. On June 23, in front of 30,000 spectators, the white-and-blues crushed their opponents 4-0 at Dynamo Central Stadium.

Radikorsky progressed quickly and became a regular starter the following season. He excelled in tight and brutal duels with opposing forwards on his flank, and was skilled in both zone and man-to-man defense, which set him apart from his contemporaries. In addition to his high speed, he possessed excellent aerial skills, which allowed him to become one of the best Soviet defenders of the 1940s. He was among the first to join attacks down his flank, thanks to his tactical training and excellent physical attributes.

With Dynamo, Radikorsky won two USSR championships (1940 and 1945), the Moscow Cup (1941) and Super Cup (1942), reached the final of the USSR Cup (1945), and won silver in the national championship (1946). He played 135 matches for the white-blues.

Vsevolod Konstantinovich played in a memorable match during the USSR Championship, in which the white-and-blues crushed Moscow's Krylia Sovetov 10-0 on June 28, 1945, which remains the biggest victory in the club's history. That fall, he embarked on a celebrated tour of Great Britain with Dynamo, during which he played all four matches without substitutions – against Chelsea (3-3), Cardiff City (10-1), Arsenal (4-3), and Rangers (2-2). This trip became one of Radikorsky's most vivid memories of his entire Dynamo career.

"That trip is special to me because it marked, as they say now, the peak of my athletic form. I managed to play confidently in Great Britain, without any major mistakes. I can say without false modesty that I personally felt a sense of satisfaction from the games. Perhaps you could call them the best in my football biography,” Radikorsky later recalled.

After spending his entire career with Dynamo, Vsevolod Konstantinovich retired from football in 1948 and focused on coaching. After completing a coaching course, he began working for Dynamo Moscow Region, before moving to Dynamo Kaliningrad. Although his resume didn't include any major teams, he always commanded respect for his footballing intelligence and outstanding performance on the field. In 1951, along with other famous footballers of the time, he even starred in the feature film "Sporting Honor" by director Vladimir Petrov, where he played one of the players.

"At Dynamo Moscow, our teamwork was so precise that, whether receiving the ball or taking it from a forward who had broken through, one glance at your teammates was enough to know who to pass it to and how. Just one look—and you're already sweating, you're already uneasy, you're already trying to correct the mistake as quickly as possible, to gain your teammate's approval", — that's how Radikorsky described Dynamo football in his later years.

Vsevolod Konstantinovich died on January 8, 1978, in Moscow at the age of 62.