Igor Chislenko Street
A street with this name recently appeared on the grounds of the Dynamo stadium. Seasoned fans don't need an explanation of Igor Leonidovich's caliber as a footballer, but younger fans would like to hear more about this unique footballing figure.
People's Artist of the RSFSR Sergei Nikonenko, a Dynamo Moscow fan for over 60 years, was once asked whom he would add to the Dynamo players of the 1940s, who participated in the legendary tour of Britain. "Only Yashin and Chislenko," came the reply. Writer Alexander Nilin, Dynamo football veterans, and fans who saw Chislenko in action share this opinion.
You'll learn more about the man he was from our colleagues, who, at various times, had the opportunity to speak with Dynamo Moscow players of the 1960s. I'll quote the opinion of one of the blue-and-whites' opponents, goalkeeper Anzor Kavazashvili, of two popular Moscow clubs at the time—first Torpedo, and then Spartak Moscow—who conceded many goals after Chislenko's strikes:
"He was an extraordinary footballer," Kavazashvili recalled. "I'd put him on par with the great Brazilian master Garrincha. They played on the same flank. And it was as impossible to contain Garrincha as it was Chislenko. But while the Brazilian always had a single move—he'd move one way and then go the other—Chislenko was a player whose movements were impossible to predict: technically diverse, fast... He could beat any defender with his frame, his legs, and his colossal speed; it was impossible to stop him."
Remember the saying: tell me who your friend is, and I'll tell you who you are? So, among Chislenko's inner circle were such extraordinary figures as football intellectual Valery Voronin and mime Leonid Yengibarov, dubbed by his fans "a clown with autumn in his soul."
Each of them was far ahead of their time. And as a result, misunderstandings and emotional wounds... "It so happens that the first dies so that the second can win." Perhaps these lines are about them, who managed to say far more in their short lives than some long-lived people.
Evgeny Bogatyrev