Ilya Tsymbalar

Ilya Tsymbalar

Ilya Vladimirovich Tsymbalar (born 17 June 1969 in Odessa, Ukrainian SSR) is a former Ukrainian and Russian association footballer who played midfielder and coach.

At club level, Tsymbalar has played for Dinamo Odessa (1987), SKA Odessa (1987–89), FC Chornomorets Odessa (1986, 1989–93), Spartak Moscow (1993–99), Lokomotiv Moscow (2000), Anzhi Makhachkala (2001–2002). Tsymbalar was named Russian Footballer of the Year in 1995. He retired after the 2002 season with Anzhi Makhachkala.

For Russia, Tsymbalar has been capped 28 times, scoring 4 goals. He played for the country at the 1994 World Cup and Euro 96, where he scored a goal against Italy at Anfield. Beforehand, in 1992, he had played in three international matches for the newly formed Ukraine national team.

After retiring, Tsymbalar became vice-president of Anzhi Makhachkala, before turning to coaching by taking over Spartak’s reserve team, moving on to the coaching team of FC Khimki. In 2006 he became head-coach of FC Spartak-MZhK Ryazan, whom he led to promotion to the Russian First Division. In February 2008, he was named as head coach of FC Nizhny Novgorod. In January 2009 he resigned from the club. On 22 December 2009 he was appointed an assistant of new Shinnik Yaroslavl coach and Tsymbalar's former teammate Igor Lediakhov.

His son, Sergey Tsymbalar, is also a footballer, having played in FC Chornomorets Odessa reserve team lately.