Valery Georgiyevich Gazzaev (Russian: Вале́рий Гео́ргиевич Газза́ев; Ossetian: Гæззаты Георгийы фырт Валери, romanized: Gæzzaty Georgijy fyrt Valeri; born 7 August 1954) is a Russian politician, football manager and former footballer of Ossetian descent. As a Soviet footballer he played the position of a striker enjoying successes with his team FC Dynamo Moscow as well as the USSR national football team in the Olympics.

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Valery Gazzaev

Gazzaev in 2019
Personal information
Full name	Valery Georgiyevich Gazzaev
Date of birth	(1954-08-07) 7 August 1954 (age 69)
Place of birth	Ordzhonikidze, Soviet Union
Height	1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Position(s)	Striker
Youth career
1966–1969	Spartak Ordzhonikidze
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1970–1973	Spartak Ordzhonikidze	53	(9)
1974	SKA Rostov-on-Don	12	(1)
1975	Spartak Ordzhonikidze	33	(14)
1976–1978	Lokomotiv Moscow	72	(14)
1979–1985	Dynamo Moscow	197	(70)
1986	Dinamo Tbilisi	14	(5)
Total		381	(113)
International career
1978–1980	USSR	8	(4)
1980–1983	USSR (Olympic)	11	(2)
Managerial career
1989–1991	Spartak Ordzhonikidze
1991–1993	Dynamo Moscow
1994–1999	Alania Vladikavkaz
1999–2001	Dynamo Moscow
2001–2003	CSKA Moscow
2001–2002	Russia U21
2002–2003	Russia
2004–2008	CSKA Moscow
2009–2010	Dynamo Kyiv
2011–2014	Alania Vladikavkaz (president)
2012–2013	Alania Vladikavkaz (president and manager)
Medal record Representing  Soviet Union Men's Football 1980 Moscow Team Competition
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

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Gazzaev became a coach in 1989. He was most successful when he was in charge in CSKA Moscow from 2004 to 2008. There Gazzaev won every possible Russian title three times each, as well as the 2005 UEFA Cup. He is considered one of the best football coaches to have emerged from the former Soviet Union because of these achievements.

He became the under-23 European champion with USSR in 1976 and under-21 European champion in 1980. He also won the bronze medal with USSR at the Summer Olympics in Moscow.

After finishing his playing career in 1986 Gazzaev coached the youth team of Dynamo Moscow before moving to work with professional clubs. His first major success as a manager was winning the Russian championship with Spartak-Alania Vladikavkaz in 1995.

More titles followed after Gazzaev moved to coach CSKA Moscow. With them he won the 2004–05 UEFA Cup, as well as the Russian Premier League in 2003, 2005 and 2006 and the Russian Cup in 2002, 2005, and 2006, on 5 December 2008 left PFC CSKA Moscow.^[2] Gazzaev's CSKA Moscow team was the first side from the Russian Federation to win a European competition since the fall of the Soviet Union.

On 26 May 2009, the former CSKA Moscow coach was named as the new head coach of Dynamo Kyiv, who signed a three years contract also until 2012.

After a spell as Dynamo Kyiv head coach he returned to Vladikavkaz and became president (2011) and then also manager (November 2012) of Alania Vladikavkaz. In February 2014, the football club "Alania", led by Gazzaev, ceased to exist and pulled out of the 2013–14 Russia First Division, due to financial liquidation and sponsorship problems, and the club was dissolved.^[3][4]

In 2016, he was elected to the State Duma as a member of A Just Russia party.

He is a cousin of Yuri Gazzaev and father of Vladimir Gazzayev, both of them football coaches as well.

• List of UEFA Cup winning managers