Yushka, Romualdas Zigmovich

Career start and карьalgiris

Romualdas Yushka, who was born in the Shilal region of the Lithuanian SSR , began his football career in neighboring Klaipeda - on the Baltia team. The young football player spent three years in the team (once becoming the silver medalist of the Lithuanian SSR championship ^[2] ), until he was noticed and received an invitation to the main football club of the republic - Жalgiris ( Vilnius ), who played in the major league of the USSR championship - class A.

In the 1962 championship in class A, альalgiris took the last, 22nd place. In the new team, Yushka made his debut in the 7th round, on June 6, 1962 in a home match with Lokomotiv ( Moscow ), which ended in a goalless draw. In the second half, Yushka entered the field instead of the experienced Beinoravicius ^[3] . In total, Yushka went on the field that season 4 more times, and only once did he play the match in full, mainly playing as part of the understudy team ^[4] .

In 1963, Zalgiris continued his performances in the second group of class “A”. The first season after the departure was not very successful: 14th place out of 18 participants. Romualdas took part in 22 matches, in which he scored 6 goals, becoming the team's third scorer ^[5] . The next season was more successful for both the team and the striker. Zalgiris took 5th place, and Yushka, who scored 20 goals in 38 matches, became not only the team’s top scorer, but also the league (along with Chornomorets striker Vasily Moskalenko ^[6] ).

In the 1965 championship, альalgiris rolled back again - 10th place. Yushka scored only 8 goals in 42 games (three of his teammates scored more than him) ^[7] and was forced to leave the team to serve in the army. He was sent to Lviv , to the local SKA , in 1965 he won class “B” and received the right to play in the second group of class “A”.

Lviv, Moscow, Kharkov

Yushka’s new team successfully debuted in the second class “A” group right away, taking third place in the second subgroup. Romualdas was the main player of this team and took part in 29 matches, in which he scored 5 goals ^[8] . The following year, he managed to hold 17 matches for SKA and received an invitation to CSKA .

In CSKA, the striker made his debut on August 15, 1967 in a home game with Wings of the Soviets , ending in a goalless draw ^[9] . For the team in class “A”, Yushka spent another 7 matches (he all started in the first team), in which he never managed to distinguish himself ^[9] . It was in Moscow that Romualdas could win his first serious trophy. In the final match for the USSR Cup, he entered the field instead of Anatoly Maslyaev at 66 minutes with a score of 2: 0 in favor of Dynamo (Moscow), but he could not turn the tide of the game and the match ended with Dynamo 3-0 ^{[10] ]} . At the end of the season, he moved to Metalist ( Kharkov ).

Yushka came to Kharkov together with other army men: Vitaly Polyakov and Arkady Panov , according to the latter, not without his participation ^[11] . In the same season, Metalist also joined the defender, Moscow Dynamo Alexander Malyavkin . The team aimed to enter the first group of class “A”. However, “Metalist” took only the second place in its subgroup, 6 points behind the “ Shipbuilder ” from Nikolaev . Romualdas spent 33 matches that season in which he scored 11 goals ^[12] , becoming the team's top scorer.

Yushka became one of the key players in the team. His partner, Arkady Panov, characterized Romualdas as a footballer with good technique, high starting speed, and a perfectly set strike. He became one of the favorites of the local public ^[11] . In 1969, Metalist took third place in his group, and Yushka again became the team’s top scorer, scoring 10 goals in 33 matches ^[13] . At the end of the season, the striker returns to Lithuania, to альalgiris.

Return to альalgiris and End of Career

In "Zalgiris" Yushka spent two more seasons. The team did not shine: in 1970 - 10th place, in 1971 - 20th in the second most important league of the USSR. However, everything was more successful for Romualdas: in 1970 he became the team's top scorer with 10 goals ^[4] and received the prize of the best football player in Lithuania. In the 1971 season, Yushka played for the team only in the first half of the season, after which he moved to the Pazhanga team in Vilnius. With the new team, in 1971 he won the championship and cup of the Lithuanian SSR ^{[2] [14]} , and in 1972 he won second place ^[2] . In 1973, Yushka ended his career as a player.

At the end of his football career, Yushka began to pay attention to refereeing. In 1975, he received the All-Union category and began to be attracted to major league games. On April 16, 1975, he made his debut as a judge in the top division of Soviet football. Yushka, along with Kestutis Anduzyulis and Jonas Mulelis, served the match CSKA - Shakhtar (Donetsk), ending 1-0 in favor of the home team ^[15] . In just 15 years of refereeing (Yushka continued to serve the major league matches until 1989), he spent 147 matches of the USSR major league ^[16] . Four times Yushka was among the best judges of the season ^[16] (in 1980, 1987, 1988, 1989). Not without scandals: the judge was periodically accused of sympathy for a particular team .

Yushka became the first Soviet judge ^[17] to take part in the finals of the European Championships . He served the match Euro-84 Germany - Portugal , ending in a draw 0: 0. The judge showed only one yellow card - Jaime Pashek ^[18] . 10 days later, Yushka judged the 1984 USSR Cup final between Dynamo (Moscow) and Zenit , ending with Dynamo 2-0 victory (the judge showed 4 yellow cards) ^[19] . In total, Yushka judged about 40 international meetings ^[16] , including also two qualifying matches for Euro-84, a final match of the 1983 World Youth Championship and others ^[20] .

Romualdas was also involved in judicial work after Lithuania gained independence. He served 5 matches of the Lithuanian Women's Championship in the 1994/95 season ^[21] and the Lithuanian Women's Cup finals in the fall of 1995 ^[22] . As of 2010, Romualdas Jushka was an inspector of the Lithuanian Football Federation ^[23] .

• Finalist of the USSR Cup (1) - 1967
• The best footballer of Lithuania (1) - 1970
• The winner of the championship of the Lithuanian SSR (1) - 1971
• Winner of the Lithuanian SSR Cup (1) - 1971
• Silver medalist of the championship of the Lithuanian SSR (2) - 1961, 1972

• Statistics of judicial career at CLISF
• Player profile on the site of the history and statistics of FC Metalist Kharkiv