Валерий Шмаров
Биография
Valeriy Valentinovich Shmarov (born on February 23, 1965 in Voronezh, USSR) is a Soviet and Russian football player and forward. He is a Master of Sports of the USSR.
Early Life and Career
Shmarov began playing football at the Voronezh Sports School under the guidance of coach Vladimir Yevgenyevich Nikitenko. In 1982, he made his debut for "Fakel" in the First League while still a cadet at the Voronezh Higher Military Aviation Engineering School. In the following game against "Guria," he scored his first professional goal. However, in the same year, Shmarov was conscripted into the army and sent to Khabarovsk. He spent five months playing for SKA Khabarovsk's reserve team under the name Igor Protasov (who was injured at the time) and scored 11-12 goals, helping Protasov become the third highest scorer of the tournament.
Club Career
In 1985, Shmarov played for CSKA Moscow, which had been relegated the previous year. He became the top scorer of the season, scoring 29 goals in 40 matches. However, the team failed to directly promote to the top league and had to play in the promotional tournament. After two failed games, Shmarov was expelled from the team and sent to the barracks. He served in the army until December 31, 1985. After CSKA, Shmarov returned to Voronezh for a year. He was supposed to help the team return to the top league, but in one of the decisive games against Moscow's "Lokomotiv," the team was "killed" by the referees - three goals scored by "Fakel" were not counted, and the Voronezh team lost 0:2.
In 1987, Shmarov made a move to Moscow's "Spartak," where he played successfully for five years, becoming a two-time champion. He also scored the winning goal in the penultimate match of the 1989 championship against Kiev's Dynamo on the 90th minute.
In 1991, he went to Germany for three seasons, where he played for "Karlsruher SC" alongside Sergei Kiryakov, Oliver Kahn, and Slaven Bilic. He played as a forward and then as a left midfielder. He often assisted Sergei Kiryakov in scoring goals. In his last year, Coach Winfried Schäfer positioned Shmarov as a defender, which eventually led to his departure from the team. In 1995, he joined "Arminia," which, at the end of the season, moved from the regional Oberliga to the second Bundesliga. However, the season was not successful, and after that, he decided to return to Russia. "Spartak" bought out his transfer from "Karlsruher SC" and quickly registered him for the championship.
The 1995 season with "Spartak" was successful for Shmarov, scoring 16 goals in 20 matches (3rd place in the top scorers ranking). In 1996, after several games of the season, not finding understanding with the new head coach Georgiy Yartsev, he left to play in South Korea, where he spent only three months (even though he signed a contract for one and a half years). From 1997 to 2001, he played for his home club, which fluctuated between the first and second divisions. He ended his career at FC Arsenal Tula in the Second Division, where his 17-year-old son Denis Shmarov also played.
Later Career and Personal Life
On May 25, 2003, a farewell match between "Fakel" and "Spartak" took place in Voronezh. Shmarov played for both teams and scored four goals.
After retiring as a player in 2002, for a short time (from September to October), he was the head coach of "Spartak" Luhovitsy. In 2003, he led the Novosibirsk club "Chkalovets-1936" for three months and underwent training at the Higher School of Coaches (VSH).
From 2006 to 2008, he coached the Voronezh team "FCSh-73," which played two seasons in the LFL (MOA "Chernozemye") and then one season in the Second Division (Center zone) of the Russian Championship.
From November 2008 to June 2009, he was the head coach of the "Fakel-Voronezh" club.
Shmarov is married to Svetlana and has three children. His daughter Darya (born in 1998) is a singer known as Dominika. His sons Egor and Denis are also football players. Denis Shmarov (born in 1985) was listed in the lineup of FC Arsenal Tula in 2002 but did not make an appearance on the field. He played professionally for FCSh-73 and "Fakel-Voronezh" (both under his father's leadership), playing a total of 22 matches and scoring 1 goal in the second division. His younger son Egor Shmarov (born in 2003) signed a contract with "Khimki" in 2020.