We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use this site. Analytics cookies are only activated with your consent. For details, read our Privacy Policy.
Anatoli Bashashkin was not the kind of defender who existed only to win collisions and clear his lines. Strong, stern and physically imposing, he also had a level of comfort on the ball that made him stand out in early Soviet football. From the centre of defence, he could break pressure with long passes and turn a recovery into the first act of a counterattack, giving his game a more constructive edge than the usual old-school stopper label suggests. At CDKA and CDSA Moscow, he became a key figure in one of the dominant Soviet sides of the late 1940s and 1950s, while his national-team career carried both honour and political cruelty. Captain of the USSR in 1952, Olympic champion in 1956, Bashashkin was a defender of authority, strength and distribution. More defensive libero than blunt marker, and much more interesting than the dusty label of central defender allows.
