The legendary forward of Kyiv’s Dynamo, Igor Belanov, recalled how he left the club at the end of the 80s.
Igor Belanov— It was in 1989 when I was playing my fifth season with Kyiv Dynamo. At that time, the Dynamo players were pioneers in moving to foreign clubs: in 1988, Blokhin left for the Austrian Vorwärts from Styria, almost six months later Zavarov moved to the Italian Juventus, and at the beginning of 1989, Baltacha debuted in English Ipswich.
Back then, I was supposed to play in Italy, just like Zavarov — for Atalanta from Bergamo. I’ll say more: everything was ready for the move to that club. I even saw my contract with the Bergamese and took pictures in the Atalanta jersey (I still have that photo). I remember it was in Moscow, where all such transfers were processed in the respective offices.
— How did this story develop?
— Almost all the documents from the involved parties were already signed, but at the last moment, certain people associated with Dynamo intervened and messed things up. Instead of Atalanta, I went to the German Borussia (Mönchengladbach).
At that time, our football players were uninformed, as they were not aware of the specifics of such transfers and had no experience with foreign contracts. Everything was decided by the Dynamo management. I don't even know what, how, and for how much they sold me. No idea. I repeat: everything was, as they say, "on the grease," but in the end, it didn’t turn out as initially planned.
With the years, through the prism of lived years, you understand that the move to the Mönchengladbach team, which at that time was in last place in the Bundesliga, turned out not to be the option that neither I nor any Dynamo player could have hoped for. I would like to see if Messi or Ronaldo were sent to a club currently at the bottom of the league table. Unfortunately, in our time, this often happened.
Andrey Pisarenko
