Stepan Betsa

Stepan Betsa
Personal information
Full name Stepan Stepanovych Betsa
Date of birth (1970-04-29)April 29, 1970
Place of birth Mukacheve,
Zakarpattia Oblast, Ukrainian SSR
Date of death December 21, 1992(1992-12-21) (aged 22)
Place of death Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine
Height 1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)
Playing position Midfielder
Youth career
?-1987 Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1988 Shakhtar Horlivka 19 (5)
1988 Tavriya Simferopol 12 (1)
1989 Metalurh Zaporizhya 36 (2)
1990–1992 Dynamo Kyiv 51 (3)

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.


Stepan Betsa (Ukrainian: Степан Степанович Беца) was a Soviet and Ukrainian midfielder. He is a Master of Sports (1991) and tragically perished in a car accident.

Biography

Stepan Betsa was born in Mukachevo, but he started his first steps in his football career in Dnipropetrovsk. Until his 18 Betsa played for a junior squad of Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk winning a tournament for junior squads in 1987.[1] After he was not able to make to the main squad, Betsa left for the second league team FC Shakhtar Horlivka and after a half of season moved to the first league Tavriya Simferopol. During that season Betsa played over 30 games scoring for both clubs. In 1989 he moved again back to the continental Ukraine signing with the first league participant Metalurh Zaporizhia. In Zaporizhia he was noticed by the Dynamo Kyiv scouts and upon completion of a successful season signed with the best club of the Ukrainian football.

His first season in Dynamo in 1990 Betsa spent in a junior squad winning a champion title with it as well.[2] Since 1991 Betsa became a key player of the club earning the most caps in the last Soviet championship. After the start of the independent Ukrainian championship Betsa status in the club has not changed and he participated in the final game of 1992 in Lviv. His career, however, was suddenly cut short after a car accident.

Car crash

On December 21, 1992 the car accident took lives of two young Ukrainian footballers at once: Stepan Betsa (Dynamo Kyiv) and Oleksiy Sasko (Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk).[3] As the first half of the Ukrainian championship ended the players took vacations and Stepan decided to visit Dnipropetrovsk. As later Volodymyr Sharan pointed out in his interview,[4] they (him, Betsa and Sasko) left Kiev in two cars, but Sharan turned to Kryvyi Rih, while Betsa and Sasko continued on to Dnipropetrovsk. After some time Sharan received a call from Betsa's wife that Stepan is in the emergency room (Sasko died at the crash site). After three days in a hospital Stepan Betsa died. According to a police report, the crash happened as a car that was moving 120 km/h (75 mph) crossed an icy portion of a road and a driver lost control of the vehicle. The auto ran right into a tree.

Awards

Dynamo Kyiv

References

  1. ↑ 1987 Soviet Championship. Reserve tournament. Standings
  2. ↑ 1990 Soviet Championship. Reserve tournament. Standings
  3. ↑ Their game was left on a road...
  4. ↑ В.Шаран: Sabo swore at us in Hungarian
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