By Yegor Glebov
Alexander Hleb, who has celebrated his 32nd birthday on May 1st, is a true legend for would-be football stars. He took up football when he was six in Minsk’s Dinamo School, reached big successes and joined German Stuttgart (a club of the Bundesliga) when he was 19 years old. Then he had such outstanding teams in his career as London Arsenal and Spanish Barcelona. When he was playing for the latter the Spanish club became a winner of the Champions League. Now, he has returned to his homeland and continues to perform as a member of Belarus’ nine-time champion — BATE Borisov — where he started his professional career. Hleb noted that the Danone Nations Cup competitions enable youngsters to show their mettle while meeting best junior teams from all over the world. “The most important is to set a goal and achieve it, without turning off the road,” notes Hleb.
The Danone Nations Cup was founded in 2000 and is held for 14th time. Over these years, the competitions brought together over 20 million young football players from all over the globe. As is traditional, each country selects an ambassador of the tournament. In 2011, the then head coach of the Belarusian national football team, Bernd Stange of Germany, was an ambassador of Belarus while, in 2012, Vitaly Rodionov, a forward of the BATE and the national team of Belarus, took on this role. In other countries Zinedine Zidane (France), Deco (Portugal), Andrйs Iniesta (Spain) and other stars of the world football took on the roles of ambassadors of the tournament in various years.
