Yegor Filipenko, aged 26, who has been playing in defence for Belarusian Borisov BATE, is joining the top division Spanish championship club Malaga

After the break of five and a half years, the Belarusian footballer has again appeared in the Spanish Premier League. Alexander Hleb used to play for Barcelona while now Yegor Filipenko, aged 26, who has been playing in defence for Belarusian Borisov BATE, is joining the top division Spanish championship club Malaga.

Named ‘Best Defender of the 2014 Belarusian Championship’ Yegor has signed a 2.5 year contract with Malaga. He trained with Minsk’s Smena football school and is only the fourth Belarusian to play in the Spanish football championship, following in the footsteps of defender Andrey Zygmantovich (Racing Santander, 1993-1996), Sergey Gurenko (Real Zaragoza, 2000-2001) and Alexander Hleb (Barcelona, 2008-2011).

To date, Filipenko has helped BATE take its fifth Belarusian championship title and second Super Cup title; he has played 182 matches with the Borisov team, scoring 12 goals, and has also played for such Russian clubs as Spartak Moscow, Tom Tomsk and Sibir Novosibirsk. In 2011, he helped the Belarusian youth team claim bronze at the European Championship (hosted by Denmark); he played 35 matches with the national youth team, scoring once.