Aleksei Valentinovich Cherednik (, ; born 15 September 1960) is a Soviet, Tajikistani, and Ukrainian former professional footballer who later for quite some time played in Ukraine and later became a Ukrainian football manager and a scout for Shakhtar Donetsk and FC Dnipro.
Cherednyk was born in Dushanbe, at that time "Stalinabad". His parents moved to Tajikistan in the 1930s, his father came from near Volgograd and his mother from near Penza. To football, Cherednyk arrived by coming into a local sports school in Dushanbe as a companion to his friend. Initially, he started as a goalkeeper, but, due to his height, he was reassigned as a defender. His first coach was Vladimir Maksakov. To Pamir, Cherednyk arrived in 1977 when the team was managed by Ishtvan Sekech.
In late 1982, when Pamir was playing a few matches back-to-back in Ukraine (Zaporizhia â Nikopol) during the 1982 Soviet First League season, Cherednyk was snatched from under the nose of Dinamo Moscow by the Dnipro scouts.
Cherednyk made his debut for USSR on 21 February 1989 in a friendly against Bulgaria.
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk
Soviet Union