Yury Tsyhalka

Yury Vladimirovich Tsyhalka (Russian: Yuri Tsygalko) was born on 27 May 1983 in Minsk, then part of the Byelorussian SSR. He had a twin brother, Maksim, and the two boys took up football at about the age of five. Both came through the youth system of Dinamo Minsk, Maksim as a forward and Yury as a goalkeeper. Tsyhalka later said that, as with many young players who started so early, there was little time left for study, although both brothers went on to complete higher education.

Tsyhalka made his first team debut for Dinamo Minsk in 2000 and stayed with the club until 2005, playing 61 league matches. He had loan spells with the reserve side Dinamo-Yuni and with Vostok of Kazakhstan, and he was part of the Dinamo squad that won the Belarusian Premier League in 2004. He represented Belarus at under 21 level from 2002 to 2004, taking part in the European Under 21 Championship finals in Germany, and won three caps for the senior Belarus team in 2002 and 2003.

He moved to Dinamo Brest for 2006 and 2007 and then spent 2008 and 2009 in Romania, playing for clubs in Ramnicu Valcea, for Pandurii Targu Jiu and for Energia Rovinari, before a second spell with Vostok. In 2010 he joined Shakhtyor Soligorsk, where he played about 100 league games over four seasons and won several league silver medals. Football.by credited him with two Belarusian Cup wins in his career, with Dinamo Minsk and with Shakhtyor. A persistent injury ended his career, and he announced his retirement in January 2014.

Tsyhalka's twin brother Maksim played as a forward for Dinamo Minsk and other clubs in Belarus and abroad and was capped by Belarus. Maksim died in 2020 at the age of 37. In an interview reported by Betnews in December 2025, Yury spoke frankly about his brother's last years, saying Maksim never came to terms with the end of his football career, that both brothers had liked beer and that in Maksim's case it grew into something more serious, and that heart, liver and kidney problems had gone unchecked for years.

Tsyhalka died on the night of 22 October 2026, aged 43. His death was reported that evening by football.by, which described him as the former goalkeeper of Shakhtyor and of Dinamo Minsk and Dinamo Brest, and by Betnews. No cause of death was given in those reports.

Tsyhalka belonged to the generation of Dinamo Minsk players who brought the Belarusian title back to the capital in 2004, and he was part of the Shakhtyor Soligorsk side that established itself as a regular challenger at the top of Belarusian football in the early 2010s. Together with his brother Maksim he formed one of the few sets of twins in Belarusian football, both capped by their country. In his final years he spoke publicly about his brother's struggles after football, drawing attention to the pressures players face when their careers end.