Zelkevičius, Benjaminas Viktorovich

In 1958 he began to play football. The first team is the Kaunas “Banga”. In 1963, he began to play for the Zalgiris club from Vilnius . In 1968 he moved to Donetsk Shakhtar . In 1969 he returned to альalgiris. In 1973 he completed his career as a football player. In total, for Zalgiris (1963-1967, 1969-1973), Benjaminas Zelkevičius spent 331 matches, scored 50 goals.

In the major league - 19 matches, 3 goals.

The best footballer of Lithuania 1971, 1972.

In 1977, Zelkevicius headed the альalgiris. That season, he led the team to the first league . In the first league, альalgiris debuted successfully - 6th place. In 1982, альalgiris, under the leadership of Zelkevičius, entered the big leagues .

In early 1983, the team players came into conflict with Zelkevičius. The cause of the conflict was the distribution of wealth after the successful season of 1982. As the team captain Vaclovas Jurkus noted , after the season Zelkevicius received an apartment and Volga, and the team received nothing.

In May 1983, Benjaminas Zelkevicius replaced Algimantas Lubinskas as the head coach of Zalgiris.

However, already at the end of the 1984 season, the conflict instigators made efforts to return Zelkevicius to the team (Jurkus and Turskis personally came to the coach to explain themselves and drove him to the apartment of Algis Matskevicius, where the rest of the players gathered. The team needed a strong coach, and that one who created Zalgiris in the early 1980s was able to help the team regain lost ground (in 1984 the team dropped from 5th to 15th place).

Since April 1985, Zelkevicius was again the head coach of альalgiris. However, the mentor did not completely forgive individual rioters. So, after losing a home match against Torpedo (Kutaisi) with a score of 1: 2 (April 27, 1986), Zelkevicius blamed the sale of the match and expelled 3 players from the team: Valdas Kasparavichyus , Stasis Danisevichius and Rimantas Turskis. Gradually brought out of the base and the goalkeeper - Vaclovas Jurkus. ^[one]

He was the head coach of the leading Lithuanian club until October 1991. Under the leadership of Zelkevicius, альalgiris became the bronze medalist of the 1987 USSR Championship and the winner of the 1987 Universiade (альalgiris performed under the flag of the USSR national team).

From November 1991 to September 1992 - coach of " Austria " from Vienna . At that time, his former wards played in this club - Ivanauskas , Narbekovas . He was also the one who helped to bring the third legionnaire from Lithuania, Robertas Fridrikas, to the club.

In 1992-1996 (until June) - the head coach of Zalgiris. President of альalgiris (October 1992 - June 1996).

Head coach Sat Lithuanian Football - 1990–91, 1995–97, 2000–2003.

In the seasons of 1997 and 1999 , he was the head coach of Russian major league clubs, respectively, KAMAZ-Challi and Shinnik . In both cases, the teams left the top division.

Before the 1998 season, he was close to heading the Lipetsk Metallurg ^[2] , which took the second place in the first division the previous year, but ultimately refused, and that year entered the coaching staff of the team of the higher Russian division Rotor Volgograd .

In 2002 and 2003 he worked as the head coach of the Kaliningrad Baltika . Under his leadership, the team entered the first division and finished the 2003 season in seventh place.

In 2004-2007, he headed Metallurg (Liepaja) . He managed to win silver medals twice with the Liepajaites and lead him to gold for the first time in the club’s history (2005) . In 2006, the team won the Latvian Cup .

From the end of January to May 2009, he was the head coach of the Vladivostok club Luch-Energia , who played in the first Russian division ^[3] .

Zalgiris statistics

Statistics of performances of "Zalgiris" under the direction of B.V. Zelkevichus:

In USSR Championships

In other tournaments (before 1991)

Married, two adult children: daughter (owner of a beauty salon in Vilnius ^[4] ), son (businessman), grandson Lucas.