The extrovert Ukrainian Andrei Belanov was always an interesting character, a real playboy of the team at any club he joined which usually got on the wrong side of the gaffer - his stay in Harchester would be no different. For Belanov moving to the Premiership is like a dream come true, although not entirely for the footballing reasons; the women, the fast cars and the nightlife are top of Andrei's list along with having as much fun as possible. In Harchester there is no doubt about his skill levels but their is a question mark on his professionalism and his ability to cope with the transferal into the English game.

Andrei Belanov joins the Dragons from Steaua Bucharest for £3.5million in the summer of 2001 when the prospect of Champions League football was in the city and its inhabitant's morale was at a high as a result of this. Andrei immediately makes an impact on the team when after a discussion with Jamie Parker he decides to get the goalkeeper and his wife - Tash - a baby as its easy to buy them in Eastern Europe, apparently. However Tash doesn't accept the generous gift from Belanov, that they paid for, instead she forces the Ukrainian to search for the mother it then emerges that she will only accept her baby back for another expensive fee.

Against Rushden and Diamonds Andrei scores an absolute cracker and after searching for someone to "celebrate" with he comes up with resident black-widow Victoria Baptiste, they party so hard that they get evicted from the Grange. After this David orders Andrei to stay with Monday but the midfielder brings Victoria along, much to Fletch's displeasure - she now lives next door! Using Andrei's video recorder she blackmails Fletch for half a million pounds. The Ukrainian soon breaks it off with Victoria and the rest of his brief stay in Harchester was relatively quiet. However when his past catches up with him in the form of his wife Anouk, it emerges that the Ukrainian playboy has neglected to send back some of his salary to his wife meaning she faces trouble from the fierce debt collectors.

Taylor Doyle's arrival in Harchester acts as a catalyst for Andrei's exit, in one of his first acts at the Midlands club Doyle catches a training ground spat between the Ukrainian and Monday Bandele. Lynda Block fights to contain the tape and succeeds by getting it off the shifty kiwi, only for Andrei to give Sky Sports the full story from the horses mouth so to speak. New Dragon's gaffer Patrick Doyle goes from initially planning to build his team around Andrei to deciding to sell him. Andrei's transfer out of United despite being their record signing just months beforehand is steeped in turmoil from the beginning, his current agent Jeff Stein arranges a big-money move to Seria A giants Parma only for his agent rival (and Patrick's son) Taylor to escalate the bitter rivalry between the pair by hijacking the Ukrainians move - and thus sending Belanov to AS Monaco, leaving his dramatic period in Harchester behind.

Statistics

First Appearance: Episode 5.01
Final Appearance: Episode 5.23

Season 5 Character Popularity: 1.14% (12th)

Filmography

Two Families (2006) .... Rocco
True True Lie (2006) .... Guy
Tirante el Blanco (2006) .... Tirant lo Blanc
Peperoni ripieni e pesci in faccia (2004) .... Francesco ... aka Too Much Romance... It's Time for Stuffed Peppers (USA)
La Femme Musketeer (2004) (TV) (as Caspar Zafer) .... Gaston
Nature Unleashed: Tornado (2004) (V) .... Daniel
The Hound of the Baskervilles (2002) (TV) (as Caspar Zafer) .... Warder 1

Last updated June 2006. For more up-to-date information, please visit IMDb.