In the spring of 1964, before the European Cup quarter-final match between the USSR and Sweden, the 100,000-strong audience at the Lenin Central Stadium erupted in applause. The editor-in-chief of France Football handed the Soviet goalkeeper Lev Yashin the Ballon d'Or — the prize for the best European player of the year. His biography is, without exaggeration, legendary: - 11-time best goalkeeper of the USSR - Five-time champion of the Soviet Union - Three-time winner of the USSR Cup But in 1962, Yashin seriously considered ending his sports career. At the World Cup that year, Lev Yashin conceded seven goals in four matches. After the quarter-final loss to Chile, the Soviet team returned home. Disappointed fans blamed Yashin for everything. They sent him angry letters, broke the windows of the apartment where he lived, and said it was time for him to leave football. Every time he took to the field, he was met with whistles and shouts. No one suspected that in that ill-fated match, Lev Yashin had played with a concussion, having been hit in the head by the ball at the very start of the game. But just a year later, Yashin led Moscow's Dynamo to victory in the national championship — in 27 matches he conceded only six goals. And in the autumn, he played as part of the world team in the centenary football match at Wembley Stadium. Alongside him on the field were Eusebio, Denis Law, Alfredo Di Stefano, and Francisco Gento. The Soviet goalkeeper did not concede a single goal.