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According to the Belarusian press, the national team striker Viačeslavas Hlebas will not play for the Lithuanian champion FBK and will return to his homeland to represent the Minsk "MTZ-RIPO" team, whose coach position was left by former Kaunas strategists Eduardas Malofejevas.
The brother of Arsenal defender Aleksandr Hleb, 24-year-old V.Hlebas, along with fellow countryman Oleg Strachanovich, represented "Kaunas" in the Sandraugos Cup competitions in January, later prepared for the season in Turkey with the team and also appeared on the field in the Baltic League match against Narva's "Trans".
However, according to the newspaper "Pressbol", V.Hlebas will not stay in Lithuania for undisclosed reasons and should return to the Minsk "MTZ-RIPO" club, where he played last season. It is expected that on April 1st, the striker will represent "MTZ-RIPO" in the Belarusian Cup quarter-final match against Borisov's "BATE".
During his short career at the "Kaunas" club, V.Hlebas, along with 27-year-old O.Strachanovich, were involved in an unpleasant incident. While traveling by train from Minsk to Vilnius, Belarusians were detained by border guards. Although V.Hleb had no complaints, intoxicated O.Strachanovich was removed from the train. Later, the players had to explain the incident not only to the "Kaunas" management but also to Belarus national team coach Yuri Puntus.
As known, "Kaunas" and "MTZ-RIPO", along with Edinburgh "Hearts" club, which is another expected stop in V.Hleb's career, belong to businessman from Kaunas Vladimir Romanov. According to "Pressbol", the former "Kaunas" strategist Eduardas Malofejevas left the post of chief coach of the Minsk club, likely to take on the role of consultant.
Meanwhile, it is reported in Latvia that the goalkeeper who represented "Šilutė" last season and belongs to "Kaunas" participated in the trial of the "Riga" club held in Turkey along with five other players.
The Riga team played five friendly matches in the camp and two other Lithuanian players besides T.Papečkis represented Latvia - former Vilnius "Žalgiris" goalkeeper Andrey Maksimovich and forward Martynas Karalius, who spent last season at Klaipeda "Atlantas". Both of these players had signed contracts with the Latvian capital's club earlier.
