The Bobrov Number

In chess, there’s an unofficial stat called “Morphy number”: the number of connections between a given chess player and Paul Morphy. The current world champion Magnus Carlsen, for instance, has Morphy number 5: he played Viktor Korchnoi (number 4), who played Mikhail Botvinnik (number 3), who played Emanuel Lasker (number 2), who played Henry Bird, who played Paul Morphy himself (number 1).

I decided to introduce a similar stat for the Russian/Soviet national team: the Bobrov number. Vsevolod Bobrov, a legendary CSKA forward, only got to play three games for the Soviet national team, so everyone who played in an official Sbornaya match with him gets the Bobrov number 1, everyone who played with a player with the Bobrov number 1 gets number 2, etc.

READ MORE: Vsevolod Bobrov, Stalin’s Red Army School & the Soviet Union’s Fusion of Football and Ice Hockey

And so, without further ado, the tables.

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Bobrov Number 1

This number is shared by everyone who played together with Bobrov at the 1952 Olympic football tournament.

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Bobrov Number 2

Igor Netto had a long and distinguished career as a captain of the Soviet national team, so players could get a Bobrov number 2 until 16th May 1965, Netto’s last match for the Sbornaya.

The first to receive Bobrov number 2 were Aleksei Paramonov, Sergei Salnikov, Yuri Sedov, Nikita Simonyan, Boris Tatushin, Nikolai Tischenko and Lev Yashin (on 8th September 1954). The last ones were Viktor Bannikov, Vasily Danilov, Valery Dikarev, Boris Kazakov, Gennady Logofet, Vladimir Ponomarev and Georgy Sichinava.

Bobrov number 2 holders with 10 or more international caps:

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Bobrov Number 3

In the 1960s, Igor Netto was the sole holder of Bobrov number 1 still playing for the national team, and even he occasionally missed games. So, the first number 3s appeared during his active career (some of them have received number 2 retroactively by virtue of playing with Netto later).

The first to receive Bobrov number 3 (and stay with it) were Eduard Malofeev and Viktor Shustikov (on 22nd September 1963). The last ones were Arkady Andreasyan, Yuri Eliseev, Anatoly Kuksov, Sergei Olshansky, Volodymyr Onyschenko and Vyacheslav Semenov (on 6th August 1972).

Bobrov number 3 holders with 10 or more international caps:

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Bobrov Number 4

Despite Albert Shesternev, Netto’s successor as national team captain, playing into the early 1970s, the first owners of Bobrov number 4 already started to appear in 1968, when Shesternev (and other remaining Bobrov number 2 owners) missed games. The last Bobrov numbers 3 were given not by Shesternev, however, but by the goalkeeper Viktor Bannikov, in 1972.

The first to receive Bobrov number 4 were Vladimir Kozlov, Aleksandr Semin and Georgy Vyun (on 16th June 1968). The last ones were Serhiy Shmatovalenko and Vyacheslav Sukristov (on 21st September 1988).

Bobrov number 4 holders with 10 or more international caps:

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Bobrov Number 5

Oleg Blokhin, Soviet Union’s most prolific forward, enjoyed the most longevity as the Bobrov number 3 holder, but as he missed some matches, players with number 5 appeared already in 1979.

Igor Dobrovolsky was the sole future Russian national team player to once share the field with Blokhin for the Soviet team, so all the players who got the Bobrov number 5 after 1992, got it from him.

The first to receive Bobrov number 5 was Aleksandr Khapsalis (on 4th July 1979). The last ones were Dmitry Alenichev, Aleksandr Filimonov, Dmitry Khokhlov, Sergei Semak and Aleksandr Shmarko (on 19th August 1998).

Bobrov number 5 holders with 10 or more international caps:

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Bobrov Number 6

Unlike previous “last of Mohicans” such as Netto, Shesternev and Blokhin, Dobrovolski wasn’t featured in the Sbornaya consistently, so many players missed out on playing together with him while he was still a Russian international, thus the first one to receive the Bobrov number 6 was Sergei Mandreko on 25th January 1992, when the national team represented the Commonwealth of Independent States. The last one was Vladimir Gabulov on 3rd March 2010; Gabulov had some international caps before, but that game was the only one in which he shared the pitch with a Bobrov number 5 holder, Sergei Semak.

Bobrov number 6 holders with 10 or more international caps:

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Bobrov Number 7

Most of the current generation of Sbornaya players have the Bobrov number 7. The very first receiver, however, was Lyubomir Kantonistov, who played his only game way back in 2004. The last to receive this number, as of now, are Ilzat Akhmetov and Fedor Chalov, who debuted on 21st March 2019.

Bobrov number 7 holders with 10 or more international caps:

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Bobrov Number 8

Finally, there are currently three players with a Bobrov number 8. They debuted in recent times and have yet missed out on playing with Yuri Zhirkov, the last active holder of the Bobrov number 6 (unless Alan Dzagoev or, you know, Igor Akinfeev are planning to make a comeback at some point). These three are Egor Sorokin, Dmitry Stotsky (both debuted on 10th September 2018) and Ari (debuted on 15th November 2018).

Author: Alexey ‘Spektrowski’ Zakharov

I’m a Spartak Moscow fan who dabbles in Soviet/Russian football history (mostly numerical and statistical). Contributed some data to the Spartak Moscow museum at Otkrytie Arena.

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