Vladimir Kulik: biography and career of the football player

Soviet striker Vladimir Kulik is a living legend and an example for many young players, especially for the Moscow "CSKA" and St. Petersburg "Zenith", for which the player spent several years. During his career, the striker scored almost 200 goals in competitions of various levels, and now passes his experience to football players of the club "Legend", whose coach he is.

Soviet career

Vladimir Yurievich Kulik was born in Leningrad on February 18, 1972. Following the example of his brother, since childhood he has taken a great interest in football and started attending the sports section in junior school. In football school the player proved to be an excellent striker and at the age of 12 became the champion of Leningrad among the young men. After 6 years, the talented forward saw the team of the second league of the USSR championship - "Kirovets". In the Leningrad club, Vladimir Kulik spent only two seasons and in January 1991 he joined the ranks of another native team - Zenit.

The game for "Zenith"

In the first years of the performance for the club from St. Petersburg, Vladimir Kulik began to be called into the youth national team of the USSR, and afterwards to the Russian team. In total for the national team striker played 8 matches, scoring 8 goals. In "Zenith" the young striker quickly made his way to the main line-up and in the 1992 season he became the top scorer, having issued 13 goals in 31 games. Every year in the game of the talented player there was progress, and Vladimir Kulik, a football player with a very small experience of appearances in major tournaments, began to be involved in the training of the national team, for which, however, did not have a single game.

In 1993, due to an unsuccessful performance by the season earlier, Zenit was in the First League, where Vladimir Kulik demonstrated his bombing abilities to the whole world, becoming the author of 40 goals in 38 meetings. In the next two championships, even despite several injuries, the striker remained the best scorer of the club, and in 1996 19 Russian players helped Zenit to take the First Division bronze, returning to the Russian elite.

At the new level, the striker did not lose his skills, for a season he scored 11 goals, becoming the most productive player in the history of "Zenith". But at the end of 1996, Anatoly Byshovets replaced Pavel Sadyrin , and realizing that he did not need a head coach, in January 1997 Vladimir Kulik moved to CSKA.

Care in "CSKA"

In the army club forward came at a time of a small crisis in the team, but from the first season was the basis, showing the highest level of the game. Following the results of the championship of 1997 Kulik, having scored 9 goals in 29 matches, became the best scorer of the club. In the next season, Vladimir repeated this achievement, stopping at the mark of 14 goals, thanks to which the "army team" took the second place in the championship, breaking through into the qualification of the Champions League for the second time in modern history.

In 2000, the turning point in the career of the striker was a turning point - having played the season at a decent level, having completed it with an asset of 10 goals in 27 games, he was overtaken by a series of minor injuries, which prevented him from continuing his series of ranks of the club's top scorer (this was 9 seasons in a row) . The season of 2001 was for Vladimir almost "dry" - for 24 meetings he managed only to hit the opponent's gate once. "CSKA" such a striker was unnecessarily, and other clubs did not agree to the conditions for the transition of the player, as a result of which Kulik left the Moscow club.

Amateur league and retirement

After the end of his career as part of the Moscow "CSKA" Vladimir Kulik, after waiting a year's pause, returned to football, having spent the season in the Amateur Football League for the Moscow "Titan", where he scored 16 goals in 36 meetings, after which he finally put the boots on the nail. For some time the legendary striker was engaged in business, and in 2013 he headed the Ukrainian women's club "Legend", two years later becoming his head coach. In total for his football career Vladimir Kulik took part in 481 matches of various levels, scoring 184 goals, thanks to which he is in the TOP-20 of the best scorers in the Russian championship.