Olympic medal record
Competitor for  Soviet Union
Men's Football
Bronze	1980 Moscow	Team Competition

Sergei Pavlovich Baltacha (Ukrainian: Балтача Сергій Павлович) (born February 17, 1958 in Mariupol) is a former football player who won 45 full caps for the Soviet Union and made nearly 300 appearances for Dynamo Kiev.

He was on the winning side in the Cup Winners' Cup in 1986, the Soviet Top League and Soviet Cup four times, and the Soviet Super Cup on three occasions. He also appeared in the FIFA World Cup in 1982, was a finalist in the European Championships in 1988 and won Olympic Bronze in 1980. His later career was spent in England and Scotland, playing for Ipswich Town and St. Johnstone. His debut for Ipswich (in which he scored) was the first time a Soviet international had played in the Football League. He also had a brief spell as manager of Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

His former wife, Olga, master of sports in athletics,^[1] could have been on the Soviet olympic pentathlon team in 1980 Summer Olympics .^[2]

Sergei is currently married to Oksana.^[3]

His and Olga's son, Sergei Jr, is also a footballer, who played for St. Mirren and has been capped at U-21 level for Scotland. He currently plays with junior outfit Petershill. Sergei's and Olgas' daughter Elena is a well-known tennis player.

Baltacha is currently a physical education teacher and tutor at Bacon's College in South East London where he has done excellent work with the students at the college. He was also formerly a well respected physical education teacher at Geoffrey Chaucer Technology College (Old Kent Road, London) and a coach at the Charlton Athletic academy.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Profile on the Pride of Anglia Website
• St. Johnstone fansite Blue Heaven's interview with Baltacha

v • d • e Soviet Union squad – 1982 FIFA World Cup 1 Dasayev • 2 Sulakvelidze • 3 Chivadze • 4 Khidiyatullin • 5 Baltacha • 6 Demyanenko • 7 Shengelia • 8 Bessonov • 9 Gavrilov • 10 Oganesian • 11 Blokhin • 12 Bal • 13 Daraselia • 14 Borovsky • 15 Andreyev • 16 Rodionov • 17 Buryak • 18 Susloparov • 19 Yevtushenko • 20 Romantsev • 21 Viktor Chanov • 22 Vyacheslav Chanov • Coach: Beskov

v • d • e USSR squad – UEFA Euro 1988 Runners-up 1 Dasayev • 2 Bezsonov • 3 Khidiyatullin • 4 Kuznetsov • 5 Demyanenko • 6 Rats • 7 Aleinikov • 8 Litovchenko • 9 Zavarov • 10 Protasov • 11 Belanov • 12 Vishnevsky • 13 Sulakvelidze • 14 Sukristov • 15 Mikhailichenko • 16 Chanov • 17 Dmitriev • 18 Gotsmanov • 19 Baltacha • 20 Pasulko • Coach: Lobanovsky