Belarusian Beckham: A Stange tale of brotherly hype

Alexander Hleb is not just Belarus' best player, he is probably the greatest Belarusian footballer of all time but after a dispute with Barcelona it looks like the formal Arsenal winger will not even be in the stands to watch tonight's game in Minsk. Barcelona have said they do not want the player to travel, fearful that he may even opt to play despite a knee injury.

For the 9.7m people of Belarus, it is a source of some disappointment that their biggest name will not be around to face Fabio Capello's team – Hleb is a superstar whose fame is comparable to David Beckham's at its height. Hleb has even followed Beckham's template for celebrity by marrying the Belarusian pop star Anastasia Kosenkova whose girl-band "Topless" were once every bit as popular as the Spice Girls – albeit only in Belarus.

Hleb is a big loss to Belarus's German coach Bernd Stange who is no stranger to adversity having signed up to coach Iraq just months before American forces invaded the country.

Beyond Hleb, however, there is not a galaxy of stars from which to choose. The Barcelona man's brother Slava is in the squad but is by no means a certainty to start the match. Slava, who at 25 is two years younger than Alex, is regarded as equally talented but let down by an attitude that, among hard-working Belarusians, leaves much to be desired.

The perception of Hleb junior is that his fondness of a night out will prevent him from reaching the same levels as Alex, even though the more celebrated of the Hlebs has never really produced his club form at international level. Slava has played at Stuttgart and Hamburg in the Bundesliga but his career has tailed off and he now finds himself back at the Belarusian club FC MTZ-RIPO. He is, like his brother, quick and has the ability to go past players, but is also desperately unreliable.

Beyond the Hleb brothers, Stange can call upon the veteran striker Vitaly Kutuzov who played for Milan and is now in Serie B with Parma. The midfielder Alex Kulchy is also regarded as a great player but is now 34 and plays in the Russian second division. The striker Vitali Rodionov, who plays for BATE Borisov, who qualified for this season's Champions League group stages, has an elbow injury and may not play.

So far in qualifying, Stange's team have beaten Andorra and lost to neighbours Ukraine. For a country who rate ice hockey above football a victory tonight would be their greatest achievement in the sport. They consider a 1-0 victory over the Netherlands in June 1995 in a Euro 1996 qualifier as their best result since they played their first match as a separate entity from the Soviet Union in 1992. They beat the Dutch again last November but Marco van Basten's side had already qualified for Euro 2008, and it is almost a year since Stange's team suffered a humiliating home defeat to Luxembourg in a Euro 2008 qualifier.

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