Igor Ivanovich Belanov () or Ihor Ivanovych Bielanov (; born 25 September 1960) is a Soviet and Ukrainian former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a striker. He made a name for himself at

Dynamo Kyiv The Football Club 'Dynamo Kyiv', also known as Dynamo Kyiv, or simply Dynamo, ( ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Dynamo Sports Society ...

, winning five major titles as well as the

Ballon d'Or The Ballon d'Or (; ) is an annual association football, football award presented by French magazine ''France Football'' since 1956 Ballon d'Or, 1956 to honour the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous season. Conceived ...

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. ** Spain and Portugal en ...

and became the second Ukrainian national to win the award after

Oleh Blokhin Oleg Vladimirovich Blokhin, or Oleh Volodymyrovych Blokhin (, ; born 5 November 1952), is a Ukrainian former association football, football player and manager. Regarded as one of the greatest footballers of his generation, Blokhin was a stando ...

(

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

). He then spent six years in Germany with

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e.V. Mönchengladbach, better known as Borussia Mönchengladbach () and colloquially known as just Gladbach, is a professional Association football, football club based in Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-W ...

in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

and

Eintracht Braunschweig Braunschweiger Turn- und Sportverein Eintracht von 1895 e.V., commonly known as Eintracht Braunschweig () or BTSV (), is a German football and sports club based in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony. They compete in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier o ...

in the 2. Bundesliga, with little success. Belanov represented the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

one 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

and

European Championship A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

. He was included in the list of the top 100 World Cup footballers of all time by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' in 2014. In 2011, he,

and Vitaliy Starukhin were named as the "legends of Ukrainian football" at the Victory of Football awards.

Club career

Beginnings and Dynamo Kyiv

Belanov was born in

Odesa Odesa, also spelled Odessa, is the third most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern ...

, Ukraine,

. He started playing professionally in his hometown, with SKA Odesa and

FC Chornomorets Odesa FC Chornomorets Odesa ( ) is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club based in Odesa, Ukraine. According to the club's website, it was formed in 1936 as ''Dynamo'', but until 2002 it carried a logo with 1958 and 1959

, joining country giants

FC Dynamo Kyiv The Football Club 'Dynamo Kyiv', also known as Dynamo Kyiv, or simply Dynamo, ( ) is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet ...

in 1985, and scoring ten goals in his first season, which ended with league and

cup A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...

conquest. Along with teammates

and

Oleksandr Zavarov Oleksandr Anatoliyovych Zavarov (; born 26 April 1961) is a Ukrainian former footballer and the former head coach of FC Arsenal Kyiv. He became first among Soviets footballers who got transferred to West European world class club when he was pi ...

, Belanov led the scoring charts at the 1985–86

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European association football, football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renam ...

(five apiece) as Dynamo won the competition for the second time. He played the full 90 minutes in the final against

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

(3–0).

Germany

Midway through 1989, 29-year-old Belanov got the long-awaited clearance to join a

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...

an side, making a move to Germany to join

. His debut in the

came on 4 November 1989 in a 4–0 away defeat against

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V. (), commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German professional sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's Association football, football team is currently part of Germany's f ...

, but he failed to impress overall, scoring only five goals in his one-and-a-half-season stint. Belanov's reputation at the club diminished further in January 1990, when he and his wife were among five Soviet citizens arrested for shoplifting clothes worth

Deutsche Mark The Deutsche Mark (; "German mark (currency), mark"), abbreviated "DM" or "D-Mark" (), was the official currency of West Germany from 1948 until 1990 and later of unified Germany from 1990 until the adoption of the euro in 2002. In English, it ...

. Belanov protested that he was innocent, and was found guilty, being fined DM. He had faced financial problems due to his demand to be paid in

U.S. dollar The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

s, which he trusted more than the mark, but which had suddenly declined in value. Belanov moved to 2. Bundesliga's

in January 1991, for a fee of DM. He made his debut for his new club on 23 February, and went on to net 21 times in the competition in three seasons combined, also suffering relegation in 1992–93 without making a single appearance.

Retirement

In 1995 Belanov returned home to Chernomorets for one season, retiring at almost 37 after a spell with FC Illychivets Mariupol, appearing in only five games in two seasons combined.

International career

Belanov played 33 matches for the

, scoring eight goals. His best performance came at the

1986 FIFA World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-tea ...

in Mexico, where he netted four and assisted for six others as the team (which comprised 13 Dynamo Kyiv players) reached the round-of-16; he scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

in the game against

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, in a losing

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

effort (4–3). This performance at the

, along with Dynamo's Cup Winners' Cup success, helped Belanov win the

European Footballer of the Year The Ballon d'Or (; ) is an annual football award presented by French magazine ''France Football'' since 1956 to honour the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous season. Conceived by sports writers Gabriel Hanot and Jac ...

award. He was also part of the squad that reached the final of

UEFA Euro 1988 The 1988 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in West Germany from 10 to 25 June 1988. It was the eighth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA. France national football team, Fr ...

, where the national side faced

the Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. With the score at 2–0 for the Netherlands, USSR were awarded a penalty: he took it, but saw

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

Hans van Breukelen Johannes Franciscus "Hans" van Breukelen (; born 4 October 1956) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He was the technical director of the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) from 2017 until 2018. Van Breuk ...

save his effort as the score remained 2–0 until full time, giving the Netherlands the European title. He won 33 caps between 1985 and 1990.

Style of play

Belanov was noted for his athleticism, in particular for his running speed and powerful goal strikes. He was one of the fastest sprinters among Soviet footballers of all times, together with

. However, while Blokhin was trained by his parents, who were both competitive sprinters, Belanov never received a formal sprint training; yet he ran the 50 metres in a hand-timed 5.7 seconds, corresponding to a mere 0.3 seconds slower than the world record at the time.

Post-retirement

Belanov turned to business after finishing his playing career. He returned to prominence when he became the majority shareholder at Switzerland's FC Wil, in August 2003. His predecessor, banker Andreas Hafen, had been given a five-year prison sentence after embezzling 51 million

Swiss franc The Swiss franc, or simply the franc, is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It is also legal tender in the Italian exclave of Campione d'Italia which is surrounded by Swiss territory. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) iss ...

s ($40 million) from the ''UBS Bank''. Belanov's first move at Wil was replacing first-team manager Martin Andermatt with his former Dynamo Kyiv teammate

, not taking note of the fact that he lacked the necessary

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

licence to manage a European top-division outfit. That circumstance forced Belanov to sign former FC Karl-Marx-Stadt manager Joachim Müller. Due to the appointment of Müller, Zavarov's job was officially described as

director of football A sporting director, or director of sport, is an senior management, executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many typ ...

; Müller did not last long as coach however, as Belanov sacked him just after three months, replacing him with Tomáš Matějček. Matejcek's strict training regiment caused a quick revolt amongst Wil players. This forced Belanov to make amends for his decisions and to re-appoint Müller as manager, and hand the assistant-manager role to former Swiss international goalkeeper Stephan Lehmann. Those turned out to be Belanov's last series of actions as Wil's major shareholder as, in a quick sequence, he pulled out of his chairman and shareholder role of the club. Additionally, Belanov also owned a football school in

, Ukraine, which carried his name. In 2018 joined the board of strategic development

Ukrainian Association of Football The Ukrainian Football Association (, ; UAF) is the governing body of football (soccer), football in Ukraine. Before 2019, it was known as the Football Federation of Ukraine (FFU; ). As a subject of the International Olympic Movement, UAF is a me ...

. Due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine 2022, Belanov joined the Territorial Defence Battalion of the

Ukrainian Armed Forces The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are the Military, military forces of Ukraine. All military and security forces, including the Armed Forces, are under the command of the president of Ukraine and subject to oversight by a permanent Verkhovna Rad ...

of his hometown Odesa.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Soviet Union's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Belanov goal.''

Honours

Dynamo Kyiv *

: 1985–86 * Soviet League:

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

Soviet Cup The Soviet Cup, or USSR Cup (),, , , (Moldovan Cyrillic: Купа УРСС), , , . was the premier football cup competition in the Soviet Union conducted by the Football Federation of the Soviet Union. The 1991–92 season of the tournam ...

: 1985, 1987, 1990 *

Soviet Super Cup The USSR Super Cup,, , , also known as the Season's Cup, was an unofficial exhibition game (or game series) not sanctioned by the Football Federation of the Soviet Union and that featured the winners of the previous season's Soviet Top League ...

: 1986, 1987 Soviet Union *

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro or Euros, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition ...

runner-up: 1988 Individual *

top scorer: 1985–86 * ''Guerin Sportivo'' All-Star Team: 1986 * '' World Soccer'' magazine's Player of the Year: runner-up 1986 * FIFA World Cup Bronze Boot:

* ADN Eastern European Footballer of the Season: 1986 *

top assist provider: 1988 * The World Cup's top 100 footballers of all time, by ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' *

FourFourTwo ''FourFourTwo'' is an association football magazine published by British company Future. Issued monthly, it published its 300th edition in May 2019. It takes its name from the football formation of the same name, 4–4–2. Future acquired the ...

The best strikers of the 80s 19th: 2023 * Merited Master of Sports: 1986 * The best 33 football players of the Soviet Union (4): 1985 — No. 3, 1986 — No. 1, 1987 — No. 3, 1988 — No. 3 * FIFA XI: 1991, 1998 *

Golden Foot The Golden Foot award is an international Association football, football award, given to players who stand out for their athletic achievements (both as individuals and team players) and for their personality. The award is only given to active playe ...

: 2008, as a

legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess certain qualities that give the ...

References

External links

Profile at UkrSoccerHistory
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Belanov, Igor 1960 births Living people Footballers from Odesa Soviet men's footballers Ukrainian men's footballers Men's association football forwards Soviet Top League players Ukrainian Premier League players SKA Odesa players FC Chornomorets Odesa players FC Dynamo Kyiv players FC Mariupol players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Borussia Mönchengladbach players Eintracht Braunschweig players Soviet Union men's international footballers 1986 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1988 players Soviet expatriate men's footballers Ukrainian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Ballon d'Or winners Soviet expatriate sportspeople in West Germany Ukrainian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Recipients of the Order of Merit (Ukraine), 1st class Recipients of the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, 5th class Ukrainian military personnel of the Russian invasion of Ukraine Territorial Defense Forces of Ukraine personnel Military personnel from Odesa 20th-century Ukrainian sportsmen