Soviet Union national football team
# Name Career Caps Goals
1 Oleg Blokhin 1972-1988 112 42
2 Rinat Dasayev 1979-1990 91 0
3 Albert Shesternev 1961-1971 90 0
4 Anatoliy Demyanenko 1981-1990 80 6
5 Volodymyr Bezsonov 1977-1990 79 4
6 Lev Yashin 1954-1967 78 0
7 Sergei Aleinikov * 1984-1991 77 6
8 Murtaz Khurtsilava 1965-1973 69 6
9 Oleg Protasov * 1984-1991 68 29
10 Valeriy Voronin 1960-1968 66 5
11 Oleg Kuznetsov * 1986-1991 63 1
12 Volodymyr Kaplichny 1968-1974 62 0
13 Valentin Ivanov 1956-1965 59 26
14 Vagiz Khidiatulin 1978-1990 58 6
15 Gennadiy Litovchenko * 1984-1990 58 15
16 Viktor Kolotov 1970-1978 55 22
17 Igor Netto 1952-1965 54 4
18 Igor Chislenko 1959-1968 53 20
19 Evgeniy Lovchev 1969-1977 52 1
20 Anatoliy Banishevskiy 1965-1972 50 19
Most capped Soviet players
The Soviet Union national football team (Russian: сбо́рная Сове́тского Сою́за по футбо́лу, sbornaya Sovyetskogo Soyuza po futbolu) was the national football team of the Soviet Union. After the breakup of the Union the team was transformed into the CIS national football team. FIFA considers the CIS national football team (and ultimately, the Russia national football team) as the Soviet successor team allocating its former records to them (except for the Olympic records which are not combined due to the IOC policy); nevertheless, a large percentage of the team's former players came from outside the Russian SFSR, mainly from the Ukrainian SSR, and following the breakup of the Soviet Union, some such as Andrei Kanchelskis from the former Ukrainian SSR, continued to play in the new Russia national football team. The Soviet Union failed to qualify for the World Cup only twice, in 1974 and 1978, and attended seven finals tournaments in total. Their best finish was fourth in 1966, when they lost to West Germany in the semifinals, 2-1. The Soviet Union qualified for five European Championships, winning the inaugural competition in 1960 when they beat Yugoslavia in the final, 2-1. They finished second three times (1964, 1972, 1988), and fourth once (1968), when, having drawn with Italy in the semi-final, they were sent to the third place playoff match by the loss of a coin toss. The Soviet Union national team also participated in number of Olympic tournaments earning the gold medal in the 1956 and 1988. The Soviet team continued to field its national team players in Olympic tournaments despite the prohibition of FIFA in 1958 to field any national team players in Olympics (players in the Olympics were required to be amateurs at the time, Soviets effectively bent the rules by listing their best players in the military).