Lev Yashin, the Black Panther of football.

Russian football history has some very interesting stories to tell. Mainly, this is because it has produced some of the best players the world has ever known. With these fun facts, Alexander Sabadash talks about Lev Yashin, the Black Panther of football.

1. Lev Ivanovich Yashin is a Soviet professional football player who is considered by many to be the greatest goalkeeper in the history of the sport.

2. Physically, his greatest gift was his athleticism. Standing at 6 feet and 2 inches, he was naturally built not too tall to have cat-quick reflexes, and not too short to defend the goal properly

3. He was a smart player too. In fact, he was the one who reinvented the role of goalkeeper by being always ready to act as an extra defender. Alexander Sabadash shares that he also had a penchant for starting counter attacks, even when he was situated the farthest from the offense.

4. He spent his entire career with the Dynamo Moscow, from 1950 to 1970. This is recorded as one of the longest tenures of service in any sport. In that span of time, he won 5 USSR championships and 3 Soviet Cups for his team.

5. As a national team player, he won the 1956 Summer Olympics and also the first European championship, the 1960 European Nations' Cup.

6. In 1963, a special match was arranged entitled “England vs. the Rest of the World”. In that game, he made a number of spectacular saves. It so happened that he was wearing an all-black outfit. Because it seemed as though he was defending with 8 limbs, he was nicknamed “Black Spider”. 7. To fans, he was always the fearless “Black Panther” because he typically wore a cloth cap of burnt-brick color. Alexander Sabadash points out that it also helped that he had the fastest reflexes on the field.