18-year-old Bohdan Popov scored a double in his second match for “Empoli”. The Ukrainian forward scored twice against “Padova” in Serie B.
Bohdan PopovIt was not a surprise to me that Popov would become a newsmaker in Ukrainian football media. Last season, Bohdan was included in the “Empoli” roster in Serie A but played and scored for the Primavera team. He already worked as a full-fledged player of the senior team during the pre-season training camp this summer. I just did not expect that he would start scoring at such a fast pace at the adult level.
Popov is a native of the city of Nizhyn, in the Chernihiv region. He was raised in the Dynamo Academy. Bohdan comes from a football family. His father played at a professional level for “Spartak” (Sumy) and Chernihiv’s “Desna”. He worked within the Dynamo Academy system.
After the start of the war, Popov found himself in Poland, where he played for “Gurnik” (Zabrze). He showed quite a good performance at this level. He caught the attention of stronger clubs. There were talks about interest from German clubs, but he ended up in Italy, where he became a player for “Empoli”. He scored a lot at the Primavera level and at the beginning of last season, he was included in the roster for a Serie A match.
Bohdan Popov is physically well-built, knows how to use his body and play with his head. Standing at 193 cm, his good physique allows him to compete with opposing defenders. At the same time, he also has good speed and technique. At the Euro (U-17), he played as a winger for the Ukraine national team. However, he is more of a classic modern striker like Artem Dovbyk or Erling Haaland.
As I mentioned above, he participated in the Euro with the Ukrainian national team of his age, where Yuri Moroz’s team did not perform very well. He played on the flank not only because Artem Stepanyuk was at the forefront of the attack. Now, considering the problems of the Ukrainian U-21 team with strikers, he has every chance to try his luck at the “youth” level. The national team born in 2007 will start its qualification for the Euro (U-19) this fall.
Are there risks of losing this player to Italy? It’s still too early to talk about that. I think that at the youth level, definitely not. At the U-21 level, Bohdan will most likely also play for the “yellow-blue” team very soon, already in the next Euro (U-21) qualifying rounds. To reach the national team, a long path must be traveled. Everything will depend on his performance. So far, he has only scored in Serie B as a newcomer on a team that has not long ago played in Serie A. The difference in class is obvious. I really hope that his double at the start of the season gives even more motivation to the Ukrainian striker.
For me, it is definitely the case that Bohdan Popov is the biggest loss of the Dynamo Academy since the start of the war among players born in 2010. Possibly, somewhere nearby is Zakhar Osmukhin, who recently signed a contract with “Getafe”.
Serhiy TYSCHENKO
