Igor Belanov

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.

Belanov played for SKA Odessa (1979-80), FC Chornomorets Odessa (1981-84), and Dynamo Kyiv (1985-89), for whom he won the Cup Winners Cup in 1986. He scored a hat trick for the Soviet Union in the 1986 World Cup against Belgium in a losing effort. Overall, Belanov played 33 times for the USSR, and scored eight goals.

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. He debuted in Bundesliga on November 4, 1989, in a 0-4 away defeat of Mönchengladbach at 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 got involved in a shoplifting affair. Moving to lower league side Eintracht Braunschweig to make his first appearance for them on April 27, 1991, he scored 13 goals in those 38 2nd Bundesliga matches of Braunschweig he was taking part in. Later on he returned home to Ukraine to Chernomorets (1995-96) and Metalurh Mariupol (1996-97).

Being a businessman after the end of his career, Belanov returned to prominence when becoming the majority shareholder at Switzerland's FC Wil in August 2003. His predecessor as chairman of FC Wil, banker Andreas Hafen, had been given a five year jail sentence for an abstraction of almost 10 million EUR. Belanov's first move in his role at Wil was replacing Wil's first-team manager Martin Andermatt with his former Dynamo Kyiv team-mate Aleksandr Zavarov, not taking notice of the fact Zavarov was lacking the necessary UEFA licence to manage a European top-division outfit. That circumstance made Belanov move to sign former FC Karl-Marx-Stadt manager Joachim Müller. From the appointment of Müller Zavarov's job was officially described director of football. Müller did not last long on top of coaching, Belanov sacked him just three months later to replace him with Tomas Matejcek, not being aware Matejcek's strict training caused a quick revolt among the FC Wil players. They soon made Belanov amend these decisions and so he re-appointed Joachim Müller as Wil's manager to hand the assistant-manager role to former Switzerland goalkeeper Stephan Lehmann. That remained Belanov last breath of action as Wil's major shareholder, in quick sequence he pulled out of his chairman and shareholder role of the Swiss side.

External links

• Igor Belanov at UkrSoccerHistory.com