It was Oleg Protasov’s father who brought his young son to the Meteor Stadium in Dnepropetrovsk. When Oleg saw thousands of fans watching the match at the edge of their seats, how they cheered in joy or cried out in despair when their team scored a goal or missed one, he had a dream to become a football player. He was determined to play as a forward and his dream came true, developing into one of the best forwards in the history of Soviet sports.

There was a season in Protasov’s career when he scored 35 goals in the USSR championships, setting a national record. He was awarded a silver boot as the second best scorer in Europe. Protasov was second only to Marco van Basten from the Netherlands who scored 37 goals. Protasov’s success enabled him to join Dynamo Kiev and later the USSR national team.
Protasov made 68 appearances on the national team, winning silver at the 1988 UEFA European Football Championship. The last stop in his playing career was Greece, where he was invited by Oleg Blokhin, another outstanding Soviet football player. In Greece, people called him a Tsar.