Rinat Dasayev

Soviet goalkeeper who won the inaugural IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper award in 1988 and captained his country to the Euro 1988 final, establishing himself as the dominant shot-stopper of that decade.

Rinat Dasayev won the inaugural IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper award in 1988 after captaining the Soviet Union to the Euro 1988 final, and later became the first Soviet footballer to transfer abroad when he joined Sevilla — his name the only Russian on Pelé's FIFA 100 list of the greatest living players for decades. He moved to Spartak Moscow in 1977, and over 11 seasons became the club's defining goalkeeper, winning two Soviet Top League titles and being named the Soviet Union's Goalkeeper of the Year six times. Dasayev made his Soviet Union debut in 1979 and quickly established himself as the country's first-choice goalkeeper, becoming renowned for a distinctive style built around intercepting crosses and throwing the ball out to launch quick counterattacks, an approach developed under Spartak coach Konstantin Beskov. He kept a clean sheet for 900 consecutive minutes during 1982 World Cup qualifying and was named to that year's World Best XI. Dasayev played at three World Cups for the Soviet Union (1982, 1986, 1990) and won a bronze medal at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, but his finest tournament came at UEFA Euro 1988, where he captained the Soviet Union to the final, ultimately losing to a Marco van Basten-inspired Netherlands. That performance earned him the inaugural IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper award in 1988, and he became the first and, for decades, only Russian named to Pelé's FIFA 100 list of the greatest living footballers. He moved to Sevilla in Spain in 1988, becoming the first Soviet player to move abroad, before retiring in 1991 and later working as a goalkeeping coach for Spartak Moscow.

Commanding, tactically innovative goalkeeper renowned for intercepting crosses and initiating counterattacks by throwing rather than kicking

Considered the second-greatest Russian goalkeeper in history behind Lev Yashin, and the only Russian named to Pelé's FIFA 100 list

• World's Best Goalkeeper (1988, first winner)
• UEFA European Championship runner-up (1988, Soviet Union)
• Olympic bronze medal (1980, Soviet Union)
• 2x Soviet Top League champion (Spartak Moscow)
• FIFA 100 (only Russian on the list)