Born in Minsk, the capital of the Soviet Republic of Belarus, Sergey Gotsmanov is of an age that enabled him to play 31 times for the USSR – including scoring v England at Wembley in 1984 and playing in the 1988 UEFA Championship – and, then, after the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, to win three caps for Belarus.

In the meantime, the four-times Belarusian Footballer-of-the-Year had arrived in England, in February, 1990, to play-out the rest of the season, on a non-contract basis, for Second Division Brighton. The diminutive forward was a hit, but when Brighton sought to make the arrangement permanent, they were scuppered by Chris Nicholl’s offer of First Division football. Not that Sergey would see a great deal of that – only two starts and six sub appearances in 1990-91. Southampton had, at that time, arguably three of the finest young forwards in the country in Rod Wallace, Alan Shearer and Matt Le Tissier.

All of which gave some credence to suggestions that Sergey had been signed merely as company for his fellow-Soviet international, Aleksey Cherednik. He headed home via Germany, but he and his wife, Olga, who had been Belarus’s gymnastic coach, then made for Minnesota, where Sergey has latterly coached youths. Both his sons Sasha and Andrei became professional soccer players in the States.