In Moscow, at the age of 77, the veteran of Spartak, USSR champion Valery Reingold died. He passed away exactly ten years after the death of his teammate and attack partner in Spartak Yuri Sevidov.
Reinhold was born in 1942 in Moscow and started playing football there. He studied at the Dynamo sports school until at the age of 15 he was noticed at youth competitions and invited to Spartak. In 1960, the young striker made his debut in the main team in the USSR championship and spent the next seven years with her.
On the field Reinhold stood out for its speed. He himself said that he could run 30 meters in 2.9 seconds. Therefore, the nickname "Electric Train" was assigned to him. Reinhold admitted that he did not consider himself an outstanding football player, but he played in one of the best Spartak squads in history. In 1962, he won the USSR championship with red and white, and in 1963 and 1965 he won the country's Cup. In total, he spent 196 official matches in Spartak and scored 34 goals.
After leaving the team, Reingold played for the Voronezh Trud and the Yaroslavl Shinnik in the second and third most important leagues of the USSR championship, until at the age of 32 he ended his sports career. In recent years, he has become widely known as a football expert, who could sharply, not impartially express an opinion on any topic that excites fans.
The Russian national football team brought condolences to the family and relatives of the deceased. Spartak’s general director Thomas Zorn promised that the club will provide financial assistance for the organization of the funeral, as well as asking players to leave for the next match with Dynamo in mourning blindfolds.
“Valery Leonidovich was one of those who entered his name in the history of the golden victories of Spartak. After the end of his career, he remained as bright and partial as he once was on the field. Today, as it happened regularly, Valery Leonidovich came to a meeting with Spartak veterans in the arena in Sokolniki. By a tragic coincidence, it was there that he was struck by a heart attack, which, as it turned out a couple of hours later, turned out to be fatal ... Valery Reingold left us, remaining a devoted and not indifferent Spartak, ”the Spartak press service quotes Zorn.
The head coach of Lokomotiv, Yuri Semin, with whom Reinhold played two years playing for the red and white, told how he was by nature and what his opponents on the field were afraid of.
“He was a very positive person, he never lost heart. Reinhold brought joy to any communication. No matter how difficult the situation, he always smiled, always found only positive aspects. He was honest with football. I recall one of the moments. Spartak and I played in the Bologna tournament. There we were, the Brazilian team, Bologna and someone else. The newspapers then wrote about him: "We saw Pele, we saw everyone, but we never saw anyone like Reinhold." He had amazing speed. He went out one-on-one in every match eight times. Then the teams made a lot of offside traps, and Reingold, with his speed, caught them on this. Yes, he didn’t score a lot, because he didn’t realize the moments in the best way. But he was such a rod on the front line, which was no longer there, ”Semin recalled.
Spartak veteran Yevgeny Lovchev said that Reingold already had problems with his hearts, because of which his life was cut short.
“He was my closest friend, the last time we were constantly calling with him, met, went to Turkey for tournaments. Yes, his heart ached, some time ago he had surgery. Today he came to the tournament in memory of Vladimir Stepanov, a Spartak footballer who would have been 110 years old, and there he became ill. This is all connected with football. I have already expressed condolences to the daughter of Reinhold. What words are spoken in such cases? For me, this is another scar on my heart, ”admitted Lovchev.