Igor Belanov

Igor Belanov

Personal information
Full name	Igor Ivanovich Belanov
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 8+1⁄2 in)
Position(s)	Striker
Team information
Current team	retired

Igor Ivanovich Belanov (Russian: Игорь Иванович Беланов, Ukrainian: Ігор Іванович Беланов, Ihor Ivanovych Belanov), (born September 25, 1960 in Odessa, Ukraine, then of the USSR) is a former football forward, who was named European Footballer of the Year in 1986.

Playing career

Club

Belanov played for SKA Odessa (1979–80), FC Chornomorets Odessa (1981–84), and Dynamo Kyiv (1985–89), with whom he won the Cup Winners Cup in 1986. Mid-way through 1989 Belanov got the long awaited clearance to join a Western European side, making a move to Germany to join Borussia Mönchengladbach. His debut in Bundesliga came on November 4, 1989, in a 0-4 away defeat by VfB Stuttgart. Featuring in 24 Bundesliga matches for the former UEFA Cup winner, Belanov scored four goals in those appearances but failed to make a bigger impact for the then relegation threatened side. His stay there ended abruptly after his wife was involved in a shoplifting affair. He moved to a lower league side Eintracht Braunschweig, and made his first appearance for them on April 27, 1991. He scored 13 goals in 38 2nd Bundesliga matches he played for Braunschweig. In 1995 he returned to Ukraine, to his home-town team, Chernomorets for a season (1995-96), before finishing his playing career at Metalurh Mariupol in the 1996-97 season.

International

Belanov played 33 times for the USSR, and scored eight goals. His best performance came at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, where he scored 4 goals for USSR, and the team reached the “Round of 16”. He scored a hat-trick in the game against Belgium, in a losing, extra-time, effort. This performance at the World Cup that year, along with Dynamo Kyiv’s Cup Winners Cup success helped him win the European Footballer of the Year award.

After retiring

Belanov turned to business after finishing his playing career. He returned to prominence when he became the majority shareholder at Switzerland’s FC Wil football club, in August 2003. His predecessor as chairman of FC Wil, the banker Andreas Hafen, had been given a five years imprisonment sentence after embezzling 51 million Swiss francs ($40 million) from the UBS Bank. Belanov’s first move at Wil was replacing Wil’s first-team manager Martin Andermatt with his former Dynamo Kyiv team-mate Aleksandr Zavarov, not taking note of the fact that Zavarov lacked the necessary UEFA licence to manage a European top-division outfit. That circumstance forced Belanov to sign the former FC Karl-Marx-Stadt manager Joachim Müller. Due to the appointment of Müller, Zavarov’s job was officially described as director of football. Müller did not last long as coach however, Belanov sacked him just after three months to replace him with Tomas Matejcek. Matejcek’s strict training regiment caused a quick revolt among the FC Wil players. This forced Belanov to make amend for his decisions and to re-appoint Joachim Müller as Wil’s manager, and hand the assistant-manager role to the former Switzerland goalkeeper Stephan Lehmann. That turned out to have been Belanov’s last series of actions as Wil’s major shareholder. In a quick sequence he pulled out of his chairman and shareholder role of the Swiss side. Belanov is an owner of football school in Odessa which carries his name.

Honours

• Soviet Top League (with Dynamo Kyiv)

• Champion (2): 1985, 1986
• Runner-up, silver (1): 1988
• Runner-up, bronze (1): 1989

• Soviet Cup (with Dynamo Kyiv)

• Champion (2): 1985, 1987

• European Footballer of the Year: 1986
• UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup (with Dynamo Kyiv)

• Champion (1): 1986

• UEFA Super Cup: runner-up 1987
• Trofeo Santiago Bernabéu: 1986
• Losing Finalist: 1988 UEFA European Football Championship

External links

• Igor Belanov at UkrSoccerHistory.com