Leonid Yosipovich Buryak (born 10 July 1953) is a Ukrainian football coach, and a former Olympic bronze-medal-winning player.

Career

Buryak was born in Odesa, in the Soviet Union. He was a midfielder for the USSR national football team. He competed for the Soviet Union at the 1976 Summer Olympics, at which he won a bronze medal. Buryak played for a number of teams in the Soviet Union, most notably for Dynamo Kyiv, of which he was also the sporting manager. As a player, he had a tremendous impact on his team, similar to what Pavel Nedvěd or Zinedine Zidane had on theirs. Buryak has coached the Ukraine national football team. In 1979 Buryak played couple of games for Ukraine at the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR.

Coach of Ukraine national team

In 2002, Leonid Buryak was appointed coach of the Ukraine national team. Making this choice, the Football Federation set the target for the new coach to get into the final part of the 2002 European Championship. The preparation for the main matches began with the defeat of the Japanese team in the first match for Buryak-coach. As part of the qualifying tournament, the Ukrainian team managed to play with a score of 2-2 in Yerevan in the first match, then there was a significant victory over the Greek team. However, Buryak's team, which took the final third place in the qualifying round, failed to enter into the final part of the championship. Leonid Buryak left the national team.

Awards

Ballon d'Or

Soviet Footballer of the Year

Grigory Fedotov Club

Statistics for Dynamo

Personal life

His father died early. Mother raised three children on her own. He is married to Zhanna Vasiura, an rhythmic gymnast. They have two children - daughter Oksana and son Andrei.