Igor Belanov: "None of my classmates are alive any more"

The legendary forward of Kyiv Dynamo Igor Belanov told in an interview with Josimar Football how he started playing football in Odessa.

- I loved the game ever since I was carried in a wheelchair. I used to run after the ball all day long. I only took breaks when I went to bed. I learned to play in front of my house. No one taught me how to play football. My dad died in a car accident when I was very young. I was only left with my mother. I went to boarding school from first to eighth grade. It wasn't a sports school. You can't imagine what I went through there. None of my classmates from that time are alive anymore. Not a single one! They all became convicts or drug addicts.

I was luckier than the others. I was saved by football. I remember my grandmother drawing posts with chalk on the wall. That's how I practised my kicks. Maybe that's why I had to take penalties for the national team later (laughs). When I was seven, I took my watch and ran around our backyard for about 30 metres. I wanted to see how many seconds it took me to do it. I loved running, being as fast as an arrow. I also climbed trees, ran barefoot, was agile and had physical gifts. I never gave up, I wanted to win no matter what I did. I got my education on the street in the Modovanka district of Odessa.

Shevchenko and Blokhin had good teachers and went to good schools. I did not have that. When I was 18 or 19, I was working as a construction worker and I had a salary of 200 rubles. It was good money for those days. But I chose to play for "Chernomorets", where we, the youth, had a salary of 60 rubles. If I had chosen money, I would not have won the Ballon d'Or," Belanov said.