Leonid Anatolyevich, by general recognition, is one of the most outstanding specialists in our country. After disagreements arose in 1997 with the leadership of the Zaporozhye club, to which so many years of work had been devoted, the coach was invited to Slovakia. These were already times of independent Ukraine, so there were no particular problems with leaving, albeit not to the “far abroad,” but still abroad.
A coach in the Soviet Union, and in post-Soviet countries too, and a coach in the West are different concepts. Here, everything is decided by the mentor, he proposes who to invite to the club, how to develop further, etc. In the West, on the contrary, the club leadership is in a more privileged position in this regard, and only results are required from the coach. Lost one or two games, did not achieve the set goal — goodbye. No investigations or indulgences. At the same time, the club president can afford to intervene in both the training and game process. Leonid Anatolyevich considered it unacceptable to adapt to such requirements. Just as he would not allow interference from the coaching staff and sponsors in the coaching work. It was normal for them to shout at the head coach of the team, to give orders at training sessions, saying, do this and that.
And already two or three weeks after arriving in the town of Topolcany, Ratner had a serious conflict with the club leadership. Leonid Anatolyevich set conditions under which he would continue working with “Agro”: either I leave, or no one can attend training sessions and tell me what to do. Such a statement plunged the leaders into a state of shock. How so? What does this coach allow himself? But after thinking and talking with the handball players, the leaders nevertheless decided to accept the Ukrainian coach’s conditions, which in itself is a truly unprecedented case.
This closed the question of interference in the training and game process. And, it must be said, the leadership of “Agro” did not miscalculate. Ratner found a common language with the players literally from the first days, and there were no communication problems — almost all handball players were fluent in Russian.
Everything was going as well as possible, in the very first season of 1997/98, when Leonid Anatolyevich was at the helm of “Agro,” the club won the national “gold” and rose above all Slovak teams in European competitions — reaching the quarterfinals. The love for the coach became nationwide, there’s no other way to say it. We all know derivatives from club names: “Spartak” — Spartak players, “Dynamo” — Dynamo players, but the handball players of “Agro” were called nothing other than “Ratner’s men.” Both on newspaper pages and in fans’ conversations. Front pages of the sports press were full of headlines like “Ratner’s men won again,” “Ratner’s men cannot be stopped.” Residents of the town of Topolcany idolized the Ukrainian specialist, and probably there was not a single person who did not know who he was. Leonid Anatolyevich was stopped on the streets and invited to visit simply because they endlessly respected the coach.
Ratner enjoyed the same unquestionable authority among his charges. When in January 1998 the club’s wealthy sponsor went bankrupt and the handball players stopped receiving salaries, many of them began to express a desire to leave the team. And only the head coach, having said his weighty word, was able to convince the players to stay. A striking confirmation of boundless respect is the final playoff series to three wins in the Slovak championship.
“Then before the decisive match, in which the fate of the national ‘gold’ was decided,” says Leonid Anatolyevich, “I learned that someone was trying to incite the handball players not to give their all, because they weren’t getting any money anyway. In that case, victory would have gone to our opponents. Some players were already ready to give in to such influence, but then the leaders intervened. ‘We cannot let the coach down,’ they decided. Before this match, the captain told me: ‘We play for the audience and for you.’ And the ‘gold’ became ours.” A telling fact. As is the fact that on the eve of the match, the sponsors, who wanted to talk with the guys, were simply not allowed into the locker room.
But in the West, this simply does not happen. If you don’t get paid, then no one plays. Another unprecedented case. In that same 1998, Ratner was named the best coach in Slovakia.
Before the next season, however, eight leading handball players left the team (again due to a quarrel with the sponsors), and Leonid Anatolyevich was also thinking about changing clubs. He was invited to the Slovak women’s club “Nitra,” and the matter was already heading towards signing a contract. But the president of “Agro” persuaded the coach, who had brought success to the team, to stay for another season. Leonid Anatolyevich agreed and again set about building a team, leaving behind dreams of the Champions League. Young guys, 16-17 years old, came from the local youth sports school, but with them Ratner also achieved success, unexpectedly for all of Slovakia, taking fourth place in the national championship.
The Ukrainian mentor was even offered to coach the Slovak national team, but he refused. During breaks from working with the main team of “Agro,” Ratner coached two girls’ teams — 10-11 and 11-12 years old. With them, he became national champion two years in a row. When asked whether it is easier for a coach to work with women or men, Leonid Anatolyevich always replies that it doesn’t matter to him, because during his career he has had to coach both.
Later the coach was offered to work in Germany, but this time too he refused. Working conditions there are even harsher than in Slovakia, and it is practically impossible to achieve anything more or less serious without knowing the German language.
Two years ago Ratner returned to Ukraine, where he was offered to take charge of the women's national team, which he is doing now. Leonid Anatolyevich is still awaited in Slovakia, where he is offered to take on a men's club, which is currently the national champion. But the coach refuses, and not because he feels uncomfortable in that Eastern European country, because he is remembered and loved there. “If I returned to Slovakia now, they would accept me as one of their own,” says Ratner, “I have many friends there with whom I still maintain relations. Of course, at first it was not easy for me to work there, and quarrels with the club's management constantly occurred. But I am glad that fate gave me a chance to try myself abroad.” And yet the coach wanted to work in his homeland.
The Ukrainian women's handball team, led by Leonid Ratner, has now advanced to the final stage of the World Championship, which will be held in December this year in Croatia. And if our officials keep their promises regarding funding, then Ukraine has good chances of taking one of the leading places and reaching the Olympic Athens-2004. Well, we can expect further achievements from, without exaggeration, an outstanding handball coach of our time.