KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTS: Victor Ponedelnik, whose goal won the inaugural European Championship for the former Soviet Union, has died at the age of 83.

Ponedelnik was a powerful  centre-forward who scored 20 goals in 29 internationals.

He was born on May 22, 1937, in Rostov-on-Don where he began playing for Rostselmash in 1956. Two years later he moved to SKA Rostov before making his national team debut.

Ponedelnik led the Soviet attack in what was then entitled the Nations Cup in 1960, as a team-mate of the great goalkeeper Lev Yashin. In the finals, in France, he headed the extra-time winning goal against Yugoslavia.

A curiosity was that his name translates as “Monday” and the 1960 Euro final kicked off at 9.30pm in the old Parc des Princes so he actually scored his winning goal on the . . . Monday.

He retired in 1966 and was later a coach, a sports journalist and adviser to the president of the Soviet federation.

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