Oleg Ivanovich Romantsev (Russian: Олег Иванович Романцев; born 4 January 1954) is a Soviet/Russian former international footballer and coach.
Romantsev was acclaimed for his success with Spartak Moscow, whom he led to a record eight domestic league titles, and his work with the Russian national team.
[1] Oleg Romantsev was born on 4 January 1954 in the selo of Gavrilovskoye, Spassky District, Ryazan Oblast, situated about 150 miles southeast of Moscow.
The son of a road construction manager, Romantsev's family led a peripatetic existence, living in various places including the Kola peninsula, Altay, and Kyrgyzstan before settling in Krasnoyarsk in the early 1960s where, at age 12, the young man worked as a loader's assistant at a house-building factory on a salary of 40 roubles.
In Krasnoyarsk, we lived relatively close to the railway and I really liked watching the passing trains… racing into the distance, dreaming of someday standing at the helm.
His performances there earned him an invite to play for Avtomobilist, another Krasnoyarsk team, at the Siberia & Far East Youth Championship where he scored seven goals in four games.
Romantsev eventually converted from a striker to a left-back and came to the attention of clubs such as Dynamo Kiev, who had begun to take note of the young defender's abilities.
Later that year, Romantsev returned to the club where he made his name as a player, and where he would spend the bulk of his managerial career, as he took up the post of Spartak Moscow manager.
I was abroad with the youth international team and when we returned home for training, [former Spartak manager Konstantin] Beskov was gone and Romantsev was there in his place.
[3] "Romantsev would set about his task as manager with an obsessive zeal, often pouring (sic) over his squads' every mistake, usually ignoring any positives from their performances.
"[3] He trained his players hard, implementing notoriously harsh sessions known as "sbori" that were described as being akin to "a Special Forces regime.
"[3] The authority that Romantsev wielded over his players was exemplified by star midfielder Yegor Titov's explanation for why he never left Spartak despite arousing the interest of Bayern Munich, "Honestly?
Romantsev took up the reins of the Russian national football team with the departure of Pavel Sadyrin after Russia's exit from the 1994 World Cup.
He was tasked with ensuring qualification for Euro 96, held in England, in two years and combined the role with his post as Spartak manager (and chairman, a rank to which he was appointed in 1993) in a dual capacity.
He resisted the temptation to rebuild the squad and instead placed his faith in a great deal of the players who had taken part in the World Cup.
Despite his initial reluctance ("I cannot achieve anything in our football environment"[5]), Romantsev was eventually talked around and re-appointed as national team manager.
He oversaw a major turnaround in form with Russia winning their next six games on the bounce, the most impressive result being a 3–2 victory over France in Paris.
[9] As the 21st century approached, some observers commented that the strain of managing both Spartak and Russia was proving too much for Romantsev and his health was now showing signs of decline.
[3] Two quick spells as manager of Saturn Ramenskoe (September 2003 – February 2004) and Dynamo Moscow (October 2004 – May 2005) followed but brought no success.
In 2000, he said that in the event of an uncontrolled wave of migration from Russia, the country, in the worst-case scenario, would fall to "nonentities" who could "rule the show, rob, kill, and deceive.