Career
Having
spent most of his youth at Trudovyye Rezervy, he graduated to the FC Dinamo
Minsk first team in 1979, where he was part of the team that won the Soviet
championship in 1982 under manager Eduard Malofeyev. He made his international
debut against Finland on May 15, 1984 and, in his second international
appearance on June 2, 1984, he came on as a substitute against England in a
friendly at Wembley and scored the opening goal as the USSR won 2-0. In the
1988 UEFA European Football Championship, he was a member of the Soviet Union
squad, appearing in two of the Group B games as the Soviet Union headed the
group (with England coming in last with three defeats); he also appeared in
both the semi-final (when he was elbowed in the face by Italy's Ancelotti) and
the final, where the Soviets were defeated 2-0 by the Netherlands, with goals
from Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten. His exploits with both FC Dinamo
Minsk and the USSR national team earned him the accolade as Belarusian
Footballer of the Year four times (in 1983, 1985, 1987 and 1989); this feat was
subsequently matched by Alexander Hleb.
In England
In February
1990, Gotsmanov joined Brighton & Hove Albion on a non-contract basis and
scored four goals in 16 games for Albion, and in his short time at the
Goldstone Ground he became something of a cult figure with the crowd. In one
game he showed his class when he rounded the opposition goalkeeper and saluted
to the fans in the South Stand before putting the ball in the net. Albion
wanted to sign Gotsmanov permanently but could not compete with the terms
offered by Southampton and the player moved to The Dell. In August 1990
Southampton paid a fee of £150,000 for Gotsmanov’s services and he was
considered by some fans to have been signed just to keep Saints’ other recent
Soviet signing, Aleksei Cherednik, company. His chances with the Saints were
limited and he struggled to oust Alan Shearer, Matt Le Tissier and Rod Wallace
from the starting line-up. In his season with the "Saints" he only
made 14 appearances in all competitions and failed to score.
Later
career
In
September 1991 he departed for German football where he spent a season with
Hallescher FC before returning to Minsk, firstly with FC Dinamo Minsk, before
moving to their reserve team Dinamo-93 Minsk. Following the break-up of the
Soviet Union, he made three appearances for Belarus, scoring in his first
appearance on October 28, 1992, a 1-1 draw with Ukraine. In the mid 1990s,
he moved to the United States where he played for Minnesota Thunder. His wife, Olga, was the Belarusian national
gymnastics coach. He is currently resident in Woodbury, Minnesota, where he has
coached in local youth football. His sons, Sasha Gotsmanov and Andrei
Gotsmanov, are also professional footballers.