A Ballon d'Or winner has joined the Ukrainian forces battling Russian forces, and has become the latest sporting face to join the battlefronts in the weeks-old war.
And the British newspaper "Daily Mail" reported that Igor Belanov joined the Ukrainian forces recently, and joined a number of sports stars who joined the battle fronts, most notably the two brothers, Klitschko, the former boxing champion.
Belanov had won 8 titles in Dynamo Kyiv and played in Germany with Borussia Monchengladbach and Eintracht Braunschweig in the eighties and nineties of the last century, and won the Golden Ball award in 1986.
The newspaper pointed out that Belanov, 61, recently met with the president of the Ukrainian Football Federation Andrei Pavlko, who visited Belanov's hometown in Odessa.
And they held talks with a number of military groups, and supervised the distribution of aid and gifts.
The former player brought the Golden Ball award to a hospital in the war-torn city, in order to show it to some of the injured soldiers who are receiving treatment there.
Bilanov posted a series of photos of him carrying a rifle and pictures with other soldiers on Facebook, with the caption: “Amazing courage and inexhaustible fighting spirit, all this and much more distinguish our soldiers in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. We are with you. Peace to Ukraine, glory to all who face The occupiers who came boldly to destroy our land and our heroic free people. Believe in our quick victory, glory to Ukraine."
Igor Belanov, dal Pallone d'Oro alla guerra in Ucraina#SkySport #Belanov #PallonedOro #Ucrainahttps://t.co/3ZjFNv08to
— skysport (@SkySport) April 8, 2022
The British newspaper reported that Belanov was born in Odessa, and began his career in local clubs, and played 33 matches for the Soviet Union and scored 8 goals.
In 1986, he achieved the surprise by winning the Ballon d'Or after his contribution to Dynamo Kyiv's victory in the European Cup Winners' Cup after defeating Atletico Madrid of Spain 3-0 in the final.
Bilanov scored 132 goals in 462 matches in his career. He is one of 3 Ukrainian players who won the Golden Ball, along with Oleh Blokin (1975) and Andy Shevchenko (2014), and in 2011 he was named one of the "Legends of Ukrainian Football".