A FORMER Chelsea keeper who played 146 times for the Blues now plys his trade in non-league football.
The Russian stopper was in West London from 1992-1999 and was between the sticks for the 1994 FA Cup final, which his side lost 4-0 to Man Utd.
This former goalkeeper played for Chelsea
GettyHe went to Celtic from the Premier League[/caption]
Sadly the latter part of his career at Chelsea was blighted by injury, and he eventually lost his place to Dutch star Ed de Goey.
The Moscow-born goalie, now 54, then moved north of the border, where he became Celtic’s first signing under John Barnes.
Sadly his injury woes continued at Celtic Park, and he made just eight appearances before leaving in 2002.
At the end of his time in Scotland he moved to little Hornchurch in East London, playing in the seventh tier – where he got suspended for HEADBUTTING an opponent on his debut.
And despite hanging up his gloves, he still finds himself working in non-league football – as a coach at Hemel Hempstead Town in Hertfordshire.
His hair is now much shorter than his trademark curls and looking wispier and greyer than that which was watched by fans in the top flights of England and Scotland throughout the 1990s and early 00s.
It might be the sixth tier of English league football, but his coaching career is still going strong.
He even still wears the long trousers which made him stand out from his fellow goalies in the 1990s.
If you haven’t worked out who it is yet, the mystery star is none other than Dmitri Kharine.
The goalie coach works in the National League South – two rungs below League Two in the English football ladder and a full 119 places below his former club Chelsea.
Kharine has 40 international caps, but is something of an anomaly having picked them up for THREE different countries.
The national number one at the time of political upheaval, he was capped for USSR, CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) and Russia – a unique quirk that places him alongside Real Madrid legend Alfredo Di Stefano who played for Spain, Colombia and Argentina in being capped internationally for three different nations.
News Group Newspapers LtdKharine made his name at Chelsea[/caption]
Alan MacGregor Ewing – The Sun GlasgowHe did meet some high calibre opposition in his time with Celtic, despite his injury woes[/caption]
twitter.com/hemelfcHe arrived from the English Premier League with an international pedigree[/caption]
He’s worked as a goalkeeping coach at various English clubsGetty Read More