Boris Derkach is one of those football players who was unable to realize his enormous potential. The talent of the native of Kharkov was noted by Valery Lobanovsky himself, but at some point the athlete went downhill and put an end to his career.

Alcohol addiction and gambling addiction led the Ukrainian to a serious crime.

Magnet for Lobanovsky

Derkach’s career began in his homeland – in the Kharkov Metalist. Boris played for the reserve team and showed good results. In 1983, he was transferred to the Mayak team, which played in the Second League.

Then there was military service, during which Derkach played for SKA from Kyiv. When the term came to an end, the talented midfielder went to try out Valery Lobanovsky at Dynamo. The famous coach really wanted to see Boris on his team. However, the army structures considered that Derkach would be more needed in CSKA, which needed to get out of the First League into the elite of Soviet football.

However, I didn’t manage to play for the army team for long. In the same 1986, Derkach returned to his native Metalist, where they promised to give him his own apartment. And a year later he finally managed to accept Lobanovsky’s offer and move to Dynamo. In the dream team, Boris played in flashes rather than showing a consistently high level. The lack of iron discipline had an effect: the midfielder, while still at CSKA, did not always lead an ideal lifestyle, and once even simply disappeared for a week.

Valery Lobanovsky / Photo: © RIA Novosti / Vladimir Fedorenko

Breaking Bad

While playing in Kyiv, Derkach gradually forgot about his sporting responsibilities. At first, his hectic social life did not interfere with his exploits on the field, but soon regular violations of the regime began to make themselves felt. Boris often went on a drinking binge, and when he was sober he liked to play in the casino. Once he lost almost 20 thousand dollars in six months, although at that time he was earning no more than a thousand a month.

Trying to restart his life and career, Derkach decided to try his hand abroad. First he went to the Bulgarian Levski, then to the Hungarian team Nyiregyháza. In Europe, Boris continued to drink and gamble, had a fight and separated from his wife, who could no longer endure such a life and returned home. The football player turned out to be vulnerable to various kinds of temptations. One of his Ukrainian comrades suggested that he pin down a local pimp in Budapest and get money from this. Derkach, without giving an account of his actions, agreed.

Boris was given a pistol, and his accomplices went to work. However, on the spot, everything did not go according to plan. The object resisted, and Derkach had to shoot at it to kill. In addition, there were two girls in the house. To prevent them from making noise, the football player began firing at them too. All three were wounded but survived. And the athlete was arrested on the same day in a bar where he was openly drunk. The court sentence was harsh: 11 years in prison.

Boris Derkach / Photo: © Personal archive of Boris Derkach

Escape and return

In prison, Derkach took up sports again – he regularly worked out. The former football player was imprisoned in very good conditions, but two years later he could not stand it and decided to organize an escape. The Ukrainian and several other accomplices obtained ropes and a ladder and one night decided on an adventure. But the plan did not work: the guards turned out to be vigilant.

“The guards from the towers opened fire. From shotguns of the American brand of shotguns “Remington”. The distance saved us – we were far from the towers. They set up a ladder, and I helped my accomplice jump over the fence. It was light, weighing about 70 kg. And then I weighed about a hundredweight – I really swayed in prison. This is what ruined it. He was severely torn by the barbed wire. The dogs caught up in the forest. The accomplice ran away. He was put on the international wanted list. They caught him only five years later,” Boris said after his release.

For his escape, Derkach was given another four years. After that, I had to spend almost six months in a punishment cell in very difficult conditions. Meanwhile, friends and relatives decided to get Boris out of the Hungarian prison. Football player Oleg Luzhny, who worked with agent Sandor Varga, gave Derkach’s mother ten thousand dollars so that she could hire the best lawyers. They worked on the case for several years and eventually achieved its transfer to the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian authorities.

He had to spend several years in prison at home, but in the end Derkach was released in 2005, after serving 11 years. The player himself spoke philosophically about that time: they say, what will happen will not be avoided. And he hoped to start life from scratch. At first it even worked out: Boris started a family and tried to work as a football agent. However, old habits made themselves felt. At some point, the ex-Dynamo player was carried to Malaysia, where he simply turned into a homeless person. It was possible to pull the football star out of poverty thanks to an accident: he was met on the street by a vacationer from Ukraine. Then the journalists made a fuss, and Derkach, sick and having lost all his documents, was taken home.

Boris continued to drink uncontrollably, although it was obvious that alcohol would soon lead him to his grave. This couldn’t go on for long. In 2019, the death of the football player became known. He was 55 years old.