Georgi Yartsev

He learned to play football in the Tekmash Kostroma football school. Played forward for Spartak Kostroma (1965–1967, 1975–1976), Iskra Smolensk (1968–1972), CSKA Moscow (1970), Gomselmash Gomel (1973–1974), Spartak Moscow (1977–1980), Lokomotiv Moscow (1981), Moskvich Moscow (1982). Played 82 games and scored 38 goals in the premier league of the USSR championship. USSR champion in 1979. He was the top scorer at the USSR championship in 1978 (19 goals). He played five (5) games for the USSR national team. His playing career was unusual in that he only got to the highest level of club football in USSR when he was 29 years old. He achieved highest level success quickly once he got to Spartak Moscow. However, that sudden late-career revival did not last for too long and he retired soon thereafter.

After finishing his playing career, he became a coach at the Kapotnya Moscow football school (1982–1984), Krasnaya Presnya Moscow (1984–1985), SC Krasny Bogatyr Moscow (1985–1988), pop singers team that played exhibition games, Zvezdy Sporta (1993–1994). In 1994, he was hired as an assistant coach for the top Russian club at the time, Spartak Moscow. When Oleg Romantsev, who was head coach of Spartak and of the Russian national team, decided to focus on the national team in 1996, Yartsev was appointed the head coach of Spartak. Spartak was rebuilding at the time, but even with many young players in the lineup, they won the league that year. They did so in a "golden game" which had to be played because Spartak and Alania Vladikavkaz were level on points after the championship. How much of that team's success was due to Yartsev is still questioned, because Romantsev never really left the team and some say he continued to make all the important decisions behind the scenes. Romantsev took back his head coach position in 1997, moving Yartsev back into the assistant position. In June 1998 Yartsev was appointed the head coach of Spartak's cross-city arch-rival, Dynamo Moscow. Despite getting to the Russian Cup final in the spring of 1999, generally he did not have much success with that team and was fired in June 1999. Before one of the Dynamo games that was played on Yartsev's birthday, Sergei Stepashin, who was the Prime Minister of Russia at the time, gave Yartsev a sabre as a…

Yartsev was married, and has two daughters. His son Alexander was murdered 18 February 2007 in his own home. Yartsev was a member of the United Russia party. During the 2018 presidential election, he became part of the PutinTeam movement, which supported Vladimir Putin.