Legendary Spartak Moscow midfielder Fyodor Cherenkov passed away on Saturday at the age of 55, the club said in an online statement.
Cherenkov played 494 matches for Spartak between 1977 and 1993, more than any other player in the club's history. He played on the Soviet national team, scoring 12 goals in 32 appearances, and was named the country's best footballer on two occasions.
Cherenkov won three Soviet Top League titles and one Russian Premier League title with Spartak, and also played one season with Paris' Red Star Football Club.
The former star player seriously injured his head in a bad fall last month. He succumbed to cerebral edema, an accumulation of fluid in the brain, in a Moscow hospital.
Cherenkov was one of the most beloved players in the history of Soviet and Russian football. Spartak President Leonid Fedun said that a statue of Cherenkov would be erected at the team's newly opened Otkrytie Stadium, and that one of its stands would bear his name.
Cherenkov's funeral will be held on Tuesday at 10 a.m. at the training grounds of Spartak's youth academy, which was named after him. He will be buried at the Troyekurovskoye Cemetery in western Moscow, TASS reported.
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