Belanov, Ballon d’Or 1986, fights in war against Russia for Ukraine

“Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!”. This is the official motto of the Gialloblù national team, contested by the Russians when the war was still “a private affair” between the two nations, a conflict limited to the borders of the Crimea that the world ignored.

These days we have seen more than one sportsman or former professional athlete take up their shotgun and fight the invader. Among these, also a winner of the Golden Ball, Igor Belanov. He conquered it in 1986, succeeding Michel Platini and preceding Ruud Gullit.

He arrived in front of Gary Lineker and Emilio Butragueno, representing the nation that today seeks to exterminate its people, that Soviet Union that still clung to a wall that also gave ample signs of crumbling. At the time, the France Football award was reserved for European players, so Diego Maradona, fresh World Champion with Argentina, could not win it. But the competition was still fierce: from Marco Van Basten, then still at Ajax, to Platini and Gullit themselves.

And then that Helmuth Duckadam who saved 4 penalties in the final of the Champions Cup, giving the triumph to Steaua Bucharest over Bernd Schuster’s Barcelona. But to raise the most prestigious individual recognition was the striker born in Odessa in 1960, who took his first steps in Chornomorets before moving, in 1985, to the Dynamo Kiev of Colonel Lobanovski, the “discoverer” of Andriy Shevchenko.

Soviet title

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With Dinamo Belanov he won the Soviet championship placing himself in second place in the top scorers with 10 goals, instead leading with 5 that of the Cup Winners’ Cup, won in the final 3-0 against Atletico Madrid (the then Juventus player Zavarov and one other football legend of the USSR, Oleg Blokhin, also Ukrainian).

At the 1986 World Cup Belanov only played occasionally and his national team, which could also count on Aleinikov (who also landed in Serie A with Juve and Lecce), Protasov and Blokhin, after winning the group, went out in the second round with Pfaff’s Belgium, Scifo and Ceulemans, beaten 4-3 in extra time. However, Belanov’s hat-trick left its mark on the voters for the Golden Ball. When he won it, the Ukrainian striker honestly admitted: “I know this award is due to Dynamo Kiev’s achievements more than what I did individually. I think Zavarov deserved it more.” Instead he won it, the third Soviet to succeed after Lev Yashin (1963) and Blokhin (1975).

the gradient series

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His career after the Parisian victory took a downward trend. He played in the 1988 European Championship, he was on the pitch in that Holland-USSR that went down in history for one of the most beautiful goals in football history, the volley shot by Van Basten. Few remember, however, that Belanov, 1-0 for the Netherlands (goal by Gullit) had the penalty of a possible equalizer saved by Van Breukelen. Igor would then have to arrive in Italy: he had already reached an agreement with Genoa, which would have given him on loan to Mondonico’s Atalanta.

But the Kremlin got involved, with a rule that prevented players under 29 from playing overseas. The appointment was postponed until his 29th birthday, when he signed with Borussia Monchengladbach. Adventure that ended badly, however: he was denounced because he was found in possession of stolen clothes and fired by the Germans. He then closed his career with Eintracht Braunschweig and at home, now the independent Ukraine, with his first club, Chornomorets and finally with Azovetz Mariupol.

in battle

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Belanov was recently living in Odessa, where he had opened a football school. Now, like so many of his compatriots, he fights not to beat opponents’ defenders and goalkeepers, but to stop the Russian massacre against his people. At the age of 61, he had himself photographed with a rifle on his shoulder, more proud of that weapon that he must carry in spite of him than he has ever been for the Golden Ball. “I proudly played for the Soviet Union and am shocked by this war,” said Belanov.

“Peace to Ukraine and glory to all those who oppose the invaders, who have come to destroy our land and our free and heroic people. All this and much more characterizes our soldiers of the armed forces of Ukraine – continued Igor -. We are with you! Peace to Ukraine, and Glory to all who confront the occupiers who bravely came to destroy our land and our free, heroic people! Believing in our swift victory! Glory to Ukraine. “