Zhlobin

Sergei Kostitsyn arrived in Zhlobin in 2022 to captain a club he had never played for as a younger man, and left it three years later.

The name on the shirt reads Metallurg because the Belarusian Metallurgical Plant stands behind the club, and the nickname "Steelworkers" follows straight from that; "Steel Wolves" is the other tag supporters use.

Home games are played in front of just over two thousand at the Ice Palace, whose opening in 2006 gave the club its real starting point.

Across town, HK Gomel provides the fixture that matters most, the Polesian Derby, named for the region both clubs share. It began, in the end, with a new rink and a team that needed rebuilding from nothing in 2006.