BATE Borisov: Belarus’s fallen giants dream of glory again

Back-to-back promotions in 1996-7 saw the Minsk region team hit the Belarusian top flight, where they then finished 2nd and 1st, in the following 2 seasons. There would 'only' be 1 more league title in the following 6 campaigns, before it clicked. They did, as is now known in Belarus, the 'unlucky 13-in-a-row' from 2006-18. When I first (link) https://backpagefootball.com/land-of-milk-and-vests-belarus-rising/47603/" target="_blank">reported on them mid-pomp, there were worries about the club's stability and future, the next time (link) https://backpagefootball.com/big-trouble-in-little-belarus-for-bate/110560/, it was game over.

Last season, I not only got to see a few of their games, I also went behind the scenes while shooting a sports series and spoke with club officials. Their 'new' stadium remains one of the most futuristic and impressive I've ever visited. Great views from everywhere, lovely grounds, yet this year they played their 'home' cup game at the Energetik Stadium in Minsk. Having invested tens of millions into a superb stadium and training base, they didn't include an all-weather ground for springtime, when most natural grass surfaces in Belarus are unplayable.

That they were playing near neighbours Torpedo-Belaz Zhodino, who also don't have a reserve stadium capable of hosting matches in spring, is a definite knock on both clubs. A week previous, Torpedo, perennial cup pretenders, had to host BATE at the tidy Dinamo-Yuni Stadium in Minsk. 'Yuni' is the home of Dinamo Minsk's reserve and women's teams. It’s far from the top tier.

Back to BATE, after 3 runners-up spots, last year the club sank to 10th place in the table and looked like being relegated at one point. Losing to Neman Grodno home and away was not an issue, losing at home to the relegated and terribly inadequate Molodechno was. The newly promoted side, also from the Minsk region, were woefully poor. Interestingly, the team who came up with them, ML (Maxline) Vitebsk, went on to win the Premier League. Maxline, a betting company, owns the club and avoids the regulations for maximum player payments that state-owned/sponsored clubs like BATE, Torpedo, and Dinamo Minsk face. 2025 was one of the weakest domestic seasons in Belarus and only for being marginally less awful than 4 other clubs, BATE would be back in the 2nd tier with financial, management, and infrastructural issues. And then...

Green Buds in Borisov

Last season the club managed to grab the impressive, if fragile, Ivorian attacker Yao Jean Charles from Russia's SKA Khabarovsk. Pacey and skillful with a superb left foot, Charles and youth product Vlad Yatskevich (22) saved them. In the 2nd leg of the cup tie with Torpedo in March, 'JC' scored a screamer from 25 yards that set the club up for a 2-1 aggregate win. As good as the African is, the crop of youngsters from their youth system, who grew up knowing only glory, are a promising supporting cast.

Nikita Neskoromny (20) is a very tidy defender getting more game time as the club don't have the cash to splash on older players. Nikita turned down trials this off-season with top clubs in Russia, Austria, and Holland. Nikolay Mirsky (20) impressed against Torpedo and will eventually find himself as an attacking midfielder with the ball control and speed to make an impact anywhere. Midfielder Egor Rusakov (19) is already on the radar of top Polish and German clubs, Wisla Krakow and VfB Stuttgart. And these ‘kids’ have brought fans back to the club.

Back to Basics

Beating Torpedo, a team in transition, was huge for their fans. They then went on to make their first cup final since 2022. As was pointed out by a former colleague at the game in March, BATE had a far younger following. Lots of kids, brought up on songs and stories of great deeds at home and abroad. Draws with Juventus in 2008, beating Everton away in 2009 and Roma in 2015, and those 13 championships. The hunger in Borisov is back, off the field as well.

Having won 5 leagues with BATE as a player, Artem Kontsevoy cut his teeth as a youth coach with the club before getting the top job last July. He knows the talent and potential in the pipeline and is keen to develop it. His assistant Vladimir Nevinsky was a player in the early days of BATE's rise, before becoming part of the club’s coaching staff. Kontsevoy was coached by him and was keen to keep him at the club when he took over. Another senior coach, Dmitry Likhtarovich, is a former BATE star who won 11 leagues with the club before retiring in 2015. He immediately joined the reserve team coaching staff and was promoted to the first team in 2020. BATE have gone back to basics with their coaching system, using the old 'Liverpool Boot Room' method which the late Anatoly Kapski, the club founder and chair, espoused.

Kapsky's son, Andrey, has finally begun to get to grips with being chairman. Financial worries have been eased by agreeing long term tenancy at the stadium, along with a solid sponsorship deal with a betting company. The latter saw heated debate among club followers, though as one fan leader told me – "Just to keep the first team together and not lose players to Lithuania or Kazakhstan, we need to do such a deal, even with a devil."

Can't Win With Kids

Three times, at that game with Torpedo, I heard variations of ex-Liverpool great Alan Hansen's catchphrase and one of those was from the BATE fan organiser. Two busloads of supporters made the 90-minute journey to watch their heroes in yellow and blue make a cup semi-final, but she wasn't happy.

“Too many false starts, corners to turn and moments to be excited. I agree with giving young academy players games, but look at Vitebsk [league champs ML], they bring in a famous Jamaican for lots of money, how do we compete with that? With kids!”

The Jamaican is Shamar Nicholson (29), the Caribbean island's 6th top goal scorer and mainstay of the national team. He arrived in Belarus on a loan deal from Mexican club Tijuana, who pay 90% of his salary. Having seen Nicholson in the flesh, when he was with Spartak Moscow, he may have found his level. A big, strong forward, he routinely embarrassed himself against solid and unspectacular Russian defenders. In fairness, he showed little glimpses of promise before the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, but usually was poor.

BATE can't afford themselves luxuries like expensive imports and are now trying to live within their meagre means. The draw for the cup semi-finals gives them a route back into European football, even if they lose in the final. They take the field against Belarusian giants Dinamo Minsk, in the Chinese-built and supported National Football Stadium on Saturday, knowing that they will already play UEFA Europa Conference League football this summer. If Borisov win their 6th national cup, the financial boost alone will fund the club for 12 months. If they win a couple of games in Europe, then a lot of locals will be dreaming of a return to the heady days of yore. I'll leave the last word to the club's fan organiser.

“Two year(s) ago we won eleven, drew seven, lost twelve. Last year, they won eleven, drew seven and lost twelve. If we can win the same and draw more than we lose, we go up one place. That is BATE's victory, because we still live.”