Syarhey Vyeramko


Syarhey Mikalayevich Vyeramko is a Belarusian footballer, who is currently playing for Minsk. He also played for the Belarus national football team, which he has captained.

Club career

Early career

Vyeramko was born in Minsk and made his first steps in professional football with local outfit FC Dinamo-Juni Minsk in the early 2000s.

BATE Borisov

Vyeramko made his official debut for BATE Borisov on 16 March 2008, in the 1:0 win over Veras in a 1/8 final match for the Belarusian Cup. On 13 August 2008, Vyeramko was one of the key players for BATE Borisov in the Belarusians' away game against Bulgarian side Levski Sofia, parrying a Georgi Ivanov shot from the penalty spot and making a number of other notable saves to deny the Levski Sofia forwards. The match ended 0:1 and a 1:1 home draw in Barysaw was sufficient to see the Belarusians progress to the group stages of the Champions League for the first time in their history.. However, Vyeramko was the starting goalkeeper in all of his team's games in the UEFA Champions League group stage, earning himself 1 yellow card during the Belarusians' 1:1 away draw against FC Zenit Saint Petersburg on 21 October 2008. On 9 April 2009, Vyeramko was shown a red card in the 17th minute of BATE Borisov's 0:1 away loss to FC Naftan Novopolotsk in a Belarusian Cup game for handling the ball outside his penalty area.
During the 2010 season, Vyeramko managed to keep a clean sheet in his first 6 games, but was subsequently injured. On 19 May 2010, he returned to first team action in the 1:0 home win against Dinamo Brest. Remarkably, he conceded his first goals for the season in the 1:2 home loss against FC Minsk on 13 June 2010. In the process, Vyeramko set a Belarusian Premier League record by keeping a clean sheet for 1016 consecutive minutes. His record lasted until June 2015 when it was eclipsed by another BATE Borisov player who went 1073 minutes without allowing a goal. In September 2010, Vyeramko managed to save three successive penalties that he faced – on 16 September 2010, he denied Artem Milevskiy from the spot in the 2:2 away draw against Dynamo Kyiv in a UEFA Europa League game, on 22 September 2010, he parried a penalty that was taken by Stanislaw Drahun in the 1:3 home loss against Dinamo Minsk in a Belarusian Premier League match, and on 30 September 2010, he was up to the task against AZ Alkmaar's Jonathas in the 4:1 home win in a UEFA Europa League match. During his first stay with the team from Borisov, Veremko appeared in 118 matches in total - 71 in the league, 15 in the Belarusian Cup, 1 in the Belarusian Super Cup, 19 in the Champions League, and 12 in the UEFA Europa League.

PFC Sevastopol

In early January 2011, it was revealed that Vyeramko will sign a 2.5 year contract with Ukrainian Premier League side PFC Sevastopol, with the player claiming that he had reached the limit for his professional development in the Belarusian Premier League. The transfer was finalized on 14 January 2011. On 25 January 2011, Vyeramko made his unofficial debut for his new team, playing the first half of the 1:1 draw with Kazakh side FC Shakhter Karagandy. His official debut came on 3 March 2011, in the 0:1 home loss against table leaders FC Shakhtar Donetsk, with Veremko playing the full 90 minutes. Veremko quickly established himself as a starter for the side, but the team was relegated to the Ukrainian First League at the end of the season.

Krylya Sovetov Samara

In late July 2011, he signed a three-year contract with Russian club FC Krylya Sovetov, being envisioned as a replacement for Raïs M'Bolhi. On 1 August 2011, Vyeramko debuted as a starter in the 1:1 home draw with Amkar Perm in a Russian Premier League match. In December 2011, he was selected as Krylya Sovetov's 2011 player of the year, with fellow Belarusian Sergei Kornilenko coming in second place. Veremko was also given the captain's armband on a full-time basis by manager Andrey Kobelev. On 24 July 2012, Veremko extended his contract with the Samara team until 2016. During the second half of the 2013–14 Russian Premier League season, Veremko faced competition for the goalkeeping spot from Ján Mucha and Denis Vavilin. He left the team in early July 2014, after it had been relegated from the Russian Premier League.

Ufa

On 10 July 2014, Veremko signed a one-year loan contract with newly promoted Russian Premier League club Ufa. On 3 August 2014, Vyeramko made his first appearance in a competitive match in the 0:2 league loss against Kuban Krasnodar. He struggled to become a regular first team player, making only 5 league appearances.

Levadiakos

On 28 August 2015, Veremko signed a one-year loan contract with Greek Super League club Levadiakos. He made his official debut on 28 October, in a 0:3 loss against Panathinaikos in a Greek Cup match.

Return to BATE Borisov

On 1 July 2016, Veremko rejoined BATE Borisov, which was shortly after the departure of Syarhey Chernik who had signed for Nancy. He kept a clean sheet on his return debut, a 2:0 win over Finnish side SJK Seinäjoki in the first leg of a second qualifying round Champions League match held on 12 July, repeating the performance in his comeback match in the Belarusian Premier League on 29 July against Dinamo Brest, which also finished in a 2:0 win for the team from Barysaw.

FC Minsk

In January 2018, Veremko reached an agreement with Minsk, signing a contract with the team. He made his debut on 30 March 2018, in the 0:0 draw with Luch Minsk in a league match.

International career

Since 2008 Vyeramko has been a regular member of the Belarus national football team. On 2 February 2008, Vyeramko made his debut for the national side in the 2:0 win against Iceland, which was the opening match of the unofficial Malta International Football Tournament 2008. His first stint between the sticks in a competitive game was in the 3:1 away win against Andorra on 10 September 2008 in a 2010 World Cup qualifier, with Vyeramko only conceding after a penalty kick. On 3 March 2010, Vyeramko earned his third cap in the 3:1 win against Armenia in a friendly match. On 26 March 2011, Vyeramko started in net in the Euro 2012 away qualifier against Albania due to an injury to first choice goalkeeper Yuri Zhevnov and made a number of good saves, though the only goal of the game was scored after a misunderstanding between him and defender Alyaksandr Martynovich. During Bernd Stange's tenure as head coach Veremko was mostly the second choice goalkeeper, but he became a starter after Georgi Kondratiev was appointed as manager. On 15 August 2012, he captained his country for the first time in the 2:1 win over Armenia in a friendly match. Veremko retained the captain's armband for the first two 2014 World Cup qualifiers – against Georgia and France. Veremko played in 7 of Belarus' 8 matches during the 2014 World Cup qualification campaign. Timofei Kalachev took over the captain's armband for the Euro 2016 qualifiers.

Honours

BATE Borisov
Individual
Vyeramko is married and has a daughter and a son.