Mikhail Vasilyev

Russian handball player Mikhail Vasilyev joined CSKA Moskva in 1979 and represented the club for almost a decade. In the 1980s Vasilyev won three Soviet titles with the team (1982, 1983, 1987) and the EHF Cup in 1987–88. He also had a lengthy career with the Soviet handball team, playing in almost 190 matches. With the national team he won gold at the 1982 World Championships, 1986 Goodwill Games, and 1988 Seoul Olympics.

In the late 1980s Vasilyev became one of the first Soviet players to play for a foreign club, joining the German team LTV Wuppertal in 1989. He played for them until 1998 and then stayed in Germany to work as a coach. Although he had lived in Wuppertal for the last 10 years of his life, Vasilyev died whilst riding in a taxi in Moskva to formalize an inheritance.