USSR’s Renowned Football Star: Exiled Abroad and Abruptly Forgotten
Volodymyr Lyuty is one of the brightest midfielders of the USSR championship of the 1980s, and for his native Dnipro, he is absolutely great! He spent 10 years at this club and during this time helped to collect a full set of awards: the silver of the first league (1980), two golds, two silvers, and two bronzes of the union championship, the USSR Cup, the Season Cup, and twice the USSR Federation Cup. At the same time, Lyuty also set an eternal record for Dnipro, playing 226 matches in the top league of the USSR championship in a club shirt.
At the international level, Vladimir also managed to distinguish himself. He played three matches for the main team, in which he scored one goal, and together with the Olympic team, he took the gold in Seoul.
In 1989, when talented football players were just starting to leave the USSR en masse, Vladimir also decided to try his hand abroad. After his accomplishments in his home country, it seemed that the midfielder’s international career would turn out wonderfully. Moreover, he left at the very peak of his football maturity—at the age of 27!
Unfortunately, however, things turned out differently. Abroad, Lyuty spent only a couple of bright seasons at Schalke and Duisburg and was forced to play in the German football dungeon for most of his overseas career.
In many ways, such an unenviable continuation of a career abroad was determined by the vile set-up that Vladimir faced in 1992.
At that time, the Soviet midfielder still played for Schalke. Lyuty was a player in the starting lineup and showed himself well on the field, but he risked spending the next season (1992–93) on the bench due to a misunderstanding with the club’s management.
“Then I did not yet know the football laws that existed in Germany to the extent that I needed them.” There was a moment when Schalke offered me to extend the contract for one year, but the term of this agreement did not suit me. Then the Schalke management demanded too much money for my transfer—at that time it was 1.5 million marks—and I, in fact, did not know what to do in such a situation. Many Bundesliga clubs, such as Hamburg and Bochum, then offered me three- or four-year contracts that completely suited me, but these teams were completely scared off by the amount of my transfer.
I tried several times to negotiate a reduction in this amount with management. But the president stood his ground: either a contract with Schalke for a year, or my new club pays 1.5 million marks. To some extent, the president could also be understood: the club’s management wanted to “recapture” the money invested once in my acquisition.
As a result, the season in the Bundesliga started; under the contract, I still belong to Schalke, but in reality, I don’t have a team; of course, I’m not paid money, “Lyuty recalled.
In Germany, the midfielder did not have an agent. Therefore, in order to solve this problem, he turned to his acquaintance, who supposedly understood the legal intricacies.
“He advised me to go to the president of Schalke and say something like this: “If you do not lower the amount of my transfer, then I will sign a contract with a third-league club. And even though I won’t have the right to play for three months according to German laws, then you won’t get anything for me.” Apparently, this threat on my part had an effect on them, so I soon ended up in Bursaspor. The team was ready to sign me for a two-year contract with a good salary. As a result, the Turks paid Schalke half a million marks for me, and the same amount was in my individual contract. For two years, it turned out quite normally, “Lyuty recalled.
However, the problem was solved only in words. In fact, thanks to a friend, the football player got into even more trouble. In Turkey, they took advantage of the midfielder’s trust and severely deceived him.
Fierce: in Bursaspor, first from the right in the bottom row
“My friend assured me that it was possible to sign a contract with the Turks, and I signed it. Later, I realized that you can’t be so naive with Turkish clubs; you need to demand that they transfer half of the amount due under the contract even before it is signed; otherwise, they will immediately deceive you. That’s what happened to me. I arrived in Turkey, and they gave me a certificate to sign, in which I must confirm that I am absolutely healthy. I don’t know Turkish, so I sign this paper with a light heart.
In fact, I am signing my own sentence because this paper turns out to be a contract with Bursaspor, which stipulates my monthly salary of, say, $100. It turns out that the contract I signed in Germany has no legal force, but the contract that I already signed in Turkey is taken into account. So from the first day in Turkey, I started having problems, “said the midfielder.
As a result, after the first month spent at the new club, they began to “feed Lyuty with promises”: “Tomorrow we will find you an apartment, and we will give you a car, and the money will be laid,” the footballer recalled the words of the management.
On this basis, conflicts began with lightning speed. And soon, in addition to all the troubles, Fierce was also injured.
“I received a severe injury. They just broke me by jumping on my legs from behind. Under the contract, the Turkish club was obliged to pay for my flights to Germany and my treatment, but, as you understand, I had to do all this at my own expense, “the midfielder complained.
While Liuty was recovering, Bursaspor started off briskly in the championship, starting with four victories in a row. The club’s management decided that it was possible to safely do without the legionnaire, so they soon simply got rid of him.
“They unobtrusively let me know that they no longer need the services of the football player Vladimir Lyuty and are ready to let me go in all four directions,” the football player recalled.
So already in December 1992, Lyuty returned to Germany and signed a contract with Bochum. In Turkey, he spent 3.5 months and played in only two matches.
- From now on, with a break of one year, Vladimir played only for modest German clubs: Bochum, Rot Weiss, Unterhaching, Salmror-1921, Wittlich, Bad Honnef, and Junkersdorf, until he retired in 2001.
