Russian Ivan Zaborovsky was shown in a dramatic video hit in the chest by a thunderbolt as he kicked the ball while training alone.
There was a fireball and black smoke was seen burning the pitch.
The strike floored him face down and players and coaching staff rushed to his side fearing he was dead.
Today it was revealed he did not breathe for two minutes.
But he was given heart massage and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation by his coaches and miraculously survived.
The player was in a coma for three days but is now back with his teammates and showed off the scar on his chest from the lightning strike as he signed his first professional contract with local club FC Znamya Truda, in Russia’s third tier.
Ivan also told how his hero and role model is Man Utd’s keeper David De Gea, who he dreams of meeting.
‘I’m feeling perfectly well now. Nothing is hurting,’ he said.
He even repeated the kick which he made as the lightning struck him.
‘I don’t remember anything starting from the moment I left home to go training,’ he said.
‘I came to my senses in hospital.’
Coach Anton Basov said: ‘I immediately thought it was lightning.
‘When I ran up to him, I turned him over and his entire shirt on his chest had burned out.’
The player was not breathing for almost two minutes.
‘After we provided therapy, he began to breathe, and I felt his heart beating, his pulse reappeared.’
A day later his worried girlfriend Yelena said: ‘He is in a stable condition.
‘He regained consciousness but due to a strong painful shock he had to be put back into a coma.’
Previously it was thought he had kicked the ball in the goal as he was struck by lightning.
But a new version of the moment shows the ball went wide of the net.
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