The commentator of the old Soviet school, which still begins its reporting with a historical greeting: "Attention! Speaks and shows St. Petersburg!" (Or some other city). For several decades, Gennady Orlov has remained faithful to this old slogan, each match starting always the same. He is one of the few Russian commentators who does not hide the fact that his sympathies are always on the side of one club - St. Petersburg “Zenith”.
Early years and education
Born on March 2, 1945 in the city of Kharkov, in the family of the football player Sergei Orlov, who played in various clubs of the Soviet Higher League, and subsequently coach. In school, Gennady Orlov played for the Avangard club from the Ukrainian city of Sumy.
After graduation, he entered the local radio engineering institute with a degree in radio equipment design, and three months later transferred to the university’s history department. When he moved to play football in the northern capital, he transferred to the faculty of journalism at the University of Leningrad. He later recovered at Kharkov University, already in the correspondence department.
Since 2005, he heads the Department of Theory and Methodology of Football at the Faculty of Coaching of the PF Lesgaft University. The following year he became a candidate of pedagogical sciences.
Sports career
After graduation, he was invited to play for the Kharkov “Vanguard”. In 1966, the young football player was noticed at the training camp by the coaches of the Leningrad “Zenith”. He received an invitation and played the whole season for the duplicate composition of the team of masters. In the main squad Orlov spent only five matches. Ironically, his father also spent only five matches in the Premier League, only for Dynamo Kyiv. The next year, after a serious injury, he was going to return to Kharkov, but remained in Leningrad, due to the fact that his wife Natalya got a job in the theater named after Komissarzhevskaya.
The two best seasons in his short sports biography, Gennady Orlov spent in the local Dynamo. He was in the position of the second striker, stood out for his hard work and hard work, and often moved from flank to flank. Playing at the Petrovsky Stadium, the footballer earned his first apartment. At the match with Lviv “Carpathians” he scored two goals, one of them with a direct free-kick. The impressed leadership of the Leningrad KGB allocated the young family a one-room apartment. He was forced to end his sports career at the age of 25 due to a serious injury.
Zenith forever
Having finished playing football, Gennady Orlov got a job as a correspondent for the newspaper "Construction Worker". In 1973, on Leningrad television, he won the contest for the position of television commentator, who was released in connection with the death of the famous Viktor Sergeyevich Nabutov. As he later recalled, the commission especially liked his phrase: "The ball slipped out like a bar of soap."
In many respects, he continues the best Soviet traditions, when commentators were the personification of his native city and team. Naturally, commentator Gennady Orlov sympathizes with his native club. He is familiar with the leadership and has survived several generations of blue-white-blue players. As his colleagues note, recently Gennady Sergeyevich has found a balance between his attachment to “Zenith” and an objective assessment of the opponent, when it is necessary to note a good game of the opponent. He can instantly and very competently comment on a game episode, as he is professionally versed in football. You may not agree with his opinion, but listening is always interesting.
