27 January. Today was born ... Belkevich would have turned 51

On this day, 27 January, legendary Dynamo midfielder and coach Valentin Belkevich was born.

Valentin Belkevich

ValentinBelkevich (1973-2014) is a former Belarusian midfielder of Dynamo Kyiv. Seven-time champion of Ukraine. He co-operated magnificently with the Shevchenko-Rebrov pair of forwards, making up Dynamo's "striking" triangle. For the game model, which was implemented by Valeriy Lobanovskyi, Belkevych became a necessary element of the system named "Dynamo" - he was the link between the reliable and rich defence of Kyiv team and mobile attack represented by Shevchenko and Rebrov.

He was the one who organised the lion's share of swift and fierce counterattacks, which became Dynamo's trademark style of the late 90s. Until the end of the 2013-2014 season, he worked as a head coach of Dynamo's youth team. He died on 1 August 2014 from a thromboembolism.