Former goalkeeper of “Minai”, “Agrobiznes”, LNZ and “Khust” Andrey Popovich, who was drafted into the TCK a year ago, talked to Tribuna.com about his move to “Kyrgyzaltin”.
Andrey Popovich— How did the transfer option to Kyrgyzstan even arise? Since it is quite an exotic championship.
— I was considering options in Europe, wanted to try myself there. I was offered to various clubs, had to wait a long time. Then the option with Kyrgyzstan came up. To be honest, I initially did not want to go there and wanted to stay somewhere in Europe. I put that option on pause, but they offered relatively good conditions.
At the same time, there was an option with the fourth league in Germany, I went there for a trial. I trained for 3-4 days, played a friendly match, but at one point, a 21-year-old Dutch goalkeeper arrived. And I will be 33 in March, so they kept him. I did not want to wait anymore, so I chose Kyrgyzstan.
— Did you not want to stay in the PFL partly because of the conditions you mentioned?
— Yes, among other reasons. I won’t say that the conditions are cosmic, but they are good. Plus, I was in contact with Ukrainians from this championship, and everyone told me that I would not regret it. Football here is beginning to receive investment, they are developing it.
I also really liked that they don’t look at your passport like we do in Ukraine. If you pull the level — it doesn’t matter if you are 20 or 30. The reason I didn’t really want to stay in Ukraine is that I have been annoyed by this trend towards young players in our football for the last couple of years. Wherever you look, only young goalkeepers are playing. You can count on the fingers of one hand the teams where older players are key. This trend doesn’t make sense to me — if everything depended on the level, I would agree.
— You also had an incident with the TCK in Uzhhorod. How did you manage to resolve it? Thanks to your Azerbaijani citizenship?
— Yes, I have citizenship, but it’s not just that. I have one mother — a second group disabled person. In Ukraine, I was the only one who could take care of her. I did not have the official documents showing that I was my mother’s guardian. I was told to do this right away when I returned to Ukraine (in the summer of 2022 at LNZ — ed.). But I did not, because I was sure they wouldn’t bother football players — the president said that football was needed.
No one bothers UPL, while the first league teams are taken from train stations and streets. There are many cases, but they were not publicized as much as mine, when someone happened to spill the beans. I resolved everything without problems; everything is official for me — just at that moment, the documents were not processed. But I’m not saying that football players are a special caste that shouldn’t fight. I have no Tis or forests — I resolved everything officially and without problems.
— Do you plan to return to Ukrainian football someday? Maybe already as a coach, not as a player.
— I have already received a C goalkeeper license. At “Agrobiznes”, I even partially practiced; I was a playing coach. I’ve written training sessions and was involved. Yes, I have plans. Of course, I would like to return to Ukraine because I have many friends-footballers there who are already studying and have received licenses. There were even talks about me being ready to come as a goalkeeping coach.
— Are you following “Agrobiznes”? Do you believe they can compete for promotion to the UPL?
— I genuinely cheer for them. The question is whether the team has that goal. I don’t know. I heard earlier that as long as the war is going on, there won’t be any goals — and Sobutski is in the Armed Forces. But I don’t know what the situation is now. If they succeed, I will only be happy for the guys. I have good relationships with everyone; I cheer for them.
Bohdan Andriuk
