MOSCOW -- Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the International Olympic Committee, Saturday presented the Olympic Order to retired Soviet soccer player Lev Yashin.
The official news agency Tass said Samaranch 'took note of Lev Yashin's lofty contribution to the Olympic movement and the courage of the famed goalie who returned to work after a series of surgical operations.'
Yashin, 55, played for the Soviet national team from 1954 until 1970, appearing in the final stages of three World Cup tournaments and winning an Olympic gold medal as a member of the Soviet Union's victorious team at the 1956 Games.
He retired to become a member of the U.S.S.R. sports committee, and earlier this year had a leg amputated.