Viktors Ņesterenko

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Viktors Ņesterenko (born May 03, 1954) is a Latvian football coach and former footballer.

[edit] Playing biography

Ņesterenko was born in the Ukraine and played there football with the reserves of FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk. At the age Ņesterenko was invited to move for studies to Riga, Latvia. In 1971 Ņesterenko joined Elektrons Rīga and played for the youth squad of Daugava Rīga. The entire 1972 Ņesterenko spent in the Latvian league with Elektrons but in 1973 when Daugava Rīga was in a desperate need for a scoring forward Ņesterenko was offered to join Daugava. In the first season he made 5 appearances and scored 5 goals. His best season with Daugava was in 1975 when the club qualified for the first Soviet league, but in 1976 Ņesterenko was injured for a big part of the season. Ņesterenko tried to secure a position in Kolos Nikopol but that didn't bring him much success. In 1978 and 1979 he played with Zvejnieks Liepāja, for half a season he played with Spartak Kostroma.

Ņesterenko tried to return to Daugava Rīga a couple of times but the club head coach didn't believe that Ņesterenko could still be of any use to the club, so he settled with Celtnieks Rīga where he soon switched from playing to coaching.

[edit] Coaching biography

With Celtnieks Rīga as a playing coach Ņesterenko won the Latvian Cup three times in a row - from 1984 to 1986, he also got two second place finishes in the Latvian league.

In 1988 Ņesterenko was offered to coach the second team of RAF Jelgava (the first team played in the second Soviet division, the second one - in the Latvian league). In the two seasons which Ņesterenko spent with the club he won the Latvian league both times. In 1988 Ņesterenko also brought RAF to a victory in the Latvian Cup. After the 1989 season the two RAF clubs merged and Ņesterenko became the head coach of a club playing in the lowest division of Soviet football. The club had many young talented players including future Latvia national football team players Vladimirs Babičevs, Igors Troickis and Dzintars Sproģis. In his second season with RAF Ņesterenko nearly earned the club a promotion to a higher division (it needed one extra point to finish second instead of third), however with the collapse of the Soviet Union it wouldn't have made much of a difference anyway. Ņesterenko left RAF in the middle of the 1992 Virslīga season (the club went on to losing to Skonto FC the gold medals in an extra game).

Ņesterenko signed a 1+1 year deal with Prykarpattya Ivano-Frankivsk which had been just relegated from the Ukrainian Premier League and was hoping to return there after one season. Under the management of Ņesterenko the club finished 4th in a competition of 22 teams which wasn't enough, so Ņesterenko had to leave the club.

In 1994 Ņesterenko took up his next club - DAG Rīga (former VEF). DAG had a good squad which included Andrejs Piedels, Vits Rimkus, Arturs Zakreševskis and Dzintars Sproģis. In the Latvian league the club finished 3rd in 1994 and reached the Latvian Cup final. However after the season the club experienced financial difficulties, merged with Baltika Liepāja and relocated to Liepāja. Almost all players had left DAG, the club had no financial support the first half of the season, the only money came in from the transfer of Dzintars Sproģis to Spartak Moscow. The season in the league was disappointing (especially the first half), however the club again reached the cup final, it had both young players like Viktors Dobrecovs and veterans of the like of Jānis Intenbergs and Ainārs Linards. But after the season Ņesterenko was asked to leave Liepāja.

In 1996 Ņesterenko returned to RAF which had meanwhile relocated from Jelgava to Riga[1]. The season in Virslīga wasn't especially successful, however Ņesterenko and his club earned his first trophy in independent Latvia - RAF won the Latvian Cup by beating Skonto FC in overtime in a thrilling match. The 1997 for the club which was renamed to Universitāte Rīga was worse - it finished sixth in the Latvian league and after the season the club dissolved leaving Ņesterenko without a club again. In 1997 Ņesterenko was a candidate for head coach position with the newly-founded FK Ventspils but Sergei Borovski from Belarus was chosen instead of him.

After a brief consulting work with Ranto/Miks for the 1998 season Ņesterenko took up Dinaburg FC, the bronze medalists and cup finalists of 1997[2]. The first season with Ņesterenko was less successful - fourth place in the league and a cup exit in quarter-finals. In the middle of the season Ņesterenko left Dinaburg and was replaced by Roman Grigorshuk whom he previously had coached as a player in Ivano-Frankivsk.

The next stage in Ņesterenko's career was FK Rīga for which he was an assistant coach until 2001 under Jānis Gilis and later under Georgijs Gusarenko but then Ņesterenko was appointed the head coach himself. His work with Rīga didn't bring great results - the club was stuck in mid table and lacked direction, after the 2003 Ņesterenko had to leave the club[3].

In 2004 he took up work with Dynamo Brest in Belarus but as the team failed to impress he was fired rather speedily.

His last club so far was FK Venta Ventspils which went bankrupt in 2005 (he was a scouting coach at first but when the club finances worsened Ņesterenko took up the position of head coach).

In his work as club manager Ņesterenko has worked together with Aleksandrs Dorofejevs in many clubs[4].

[edit] References

  1. ^ Anatolijs Kreipāns. Seven teams of Viktors Ņesterenko (in Latvian).
  2. ^ Vladimirs Ivanovs. Viktors Ņesterenko - to Daugavpils (in Latvian), Diena, 1998-01-08
  3. ^ Ņesterenko won't be working with Rīga (in Latvian)
  4. ^ Aleksandrs Dorofejevs: I hope that beautiful football will return (in Latvian), 2003-07-19.