Igor Belanov

Born in Odessa on September 25, 1960, Igor Belanov developed through the youth categories of Chornomorets Odessa before transferring to Dynamo Kyiv, where he became one of the greatest strikers of Soviet football in the 1980s. Fast and decisive in front of goal, he was a key piece in the Soviet dynasty led by Valeriy Lobanovskyi. At Dynamo, Belanov scored 52 goals in 158 matches and was one of the protagonists of the 1986 European Cup Winners' Cup conquest, a final in which the team defeated Atlético Madrid 3-0. In the same year, his performance at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico — with four goals scored, including a hat-trick in the elimination against Belgium in extra time — established him as the second Ukrainian to win the Ballon d'Or, after Oleh Blokhin. He represented the Soviet National Team 33 times between 1985 and 1990, scoring eight goals, and reached the final of Euro 1988 in Germany, when he missed a penalty against Dutch goalkeeper Hans van Breukelen in a 2-0 defeat to the Netherlands. In 1989, he transferred to Borussia Mönchengladbach in Germany, but did not repeat the success of his homeland, scoring only five goals in a year and a half before ending his career in the Bundesliga without great prominence.