Volodymyr Muntyan

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.

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 1972 Belgium
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Early life

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

Youth years

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dynamo Kyiv

• UEFA Cup Winners Cup: 1975
• UEFA Super Cup: 1975
• USSR Championship (7): 1966, 1967, 1968, 1971, 1974, 1975, 1977; runner-up 1965, 1969, 1972, 1973, 1976
• USSR Cup: 1966, 1974; runner-up 1973
• USSR Super Cup runner-up: 1977

Soviet Union

• UEFA Euro: runner-up 1972; fourth place 1968

Individual

• Ballon d'Or 23rd: 1969^[6]
• Ukrainian Footballer of the Year: 1970
• Soviet Footballer of the Year: 1969
• ADN Eastern European Footballer of the Season: 1969^[7]