After two years with Zenit Leningrad, during which he scored against Spartak Moscow in the semifinal of the 1944 Soviet Cup, which Zenit ultimately won, Salnikov joined Spartak as a 21-year-old in 1946.[2] He won the Cup with Spartak in 1946 and 1947. Salnikov scored two goals and made another in the final match of the 1949 season against Dynamo Moscow, when Spartak narrowly missed out on the Soviet Top League title in a 5–4 defeat that some consider the greatest match of the era.[3]
Salnikov's stepfather was arrested and sent to a labour camp in 1949. Salnikov, fearful for his health, made representations to have him transferred to an ordinary prison, and was allegedly told that it would help his case if he moved from Spartak to Dynamo Moscow.[4] He joined Dynamo Moscow in 1950 and, although unhappy,[4] was part of the first choice lineup between 1950 and 1954, making 113 appearances and scoring 29 goals. He was part of the Dynamo team that won the Cup in 1953 and the Soviet Top League in 1954. In 1955, with his stepfather out of danger, he returned to Spartak,[4] where he remained until his retirement in 1960, winning the League again in 1956, and the League and Cup double in 1958. In the course of his two spells at Spartak, Salnikov made 201 appearances and scored 64 goals. Spartak star Nikita Simonyan considered Salnikov as one of the "golden generation" of Soviet players in the 1950s and 1960s.[5] He scored a total of 138 goals for club and country, and as of 2019[update] is ranked 26th in the Grigory Fedotov club, a list of Soviet and Russian players that have scored 100 or more goals.
International career
Salnikov made his debut for USSR on 8 September 1954 in a friendly against Sweden. He was on the USSR team that won the football event at the 1956 Summer Olympics, where he scored two goals in the quarterfinal match against Indonesia,[6] and also played at the 1958 World Cup,[7] where his team reached the quarter-finals. He made 20 appearances in all for his country, scoring 11 goals.
