Spartak Confessions. The Brilliance of the 50s and 90s, the Aesthetics of the 80s, the Collapse of the 2000s, the Miracle of 2017

Football “Spartak” experienced different times. Long-term peaks of the 50s and 90s, when red-and-white were the dominating club of the USSR and Russia. Fairly stable 60s with two championships. The catastrophe of the 70s, when the country’s most popular club dropped to relegation into the first league. A triumphant return, the gold of 1979, and a beautiful game in the 80s—more like a decade of aesthetics than a chase for results. The fall of the 2000s after the dismissal of Oleg Romansev. The golden miracle of 2017 under Massimo Carrera after 16 years without championships.

All these events are told in the second volume of “Spartak Confessions” by the people who lived them. Each decade—from the 50s of the last century up to today—has its own speaker, and sometimes two or three. In different years, Igor Rabiner spoke in detail with each of these people—from Anatoly Isaev to Valery Reyngold, from Anatoly Krutikov to Georgy Yartsev, from Yuri Gavrilov to Dmitry Alenichev, from Stanislav Cherchesov to Valery Karpin, from Roman Pavlyuchenko to Denis Glushakov. And through their words you will hear how “Spartak” rose, fell, and rose again—celebrating its centenary in 2022.