Valeri Aleksandrovich Popovitch (russian: Валерий Александрович Попович; born 18 May 1970) is a Russian former football

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. Popovitch is the all-time scoring leader of

FC Haka FC Haka is a Finnish football club based in the industry town of Valkeakoski. It is currently competing in Finland's premier division of football, Veikkausliiga. It is one of the most successful clubs in Finland, with nine Finnish championships a ...

. After his contract ended with HJK in 2010, he joined

Ilves Tampere Ilves (; Finnish for " Lynx") is a Finnish professional ice hockey team based in Tampere. They play in the Liiga at the Tampere Deck Arena. The colors of Ilves, green, yellow, and black, were taken from what was then the coat of arms of the cit ...

playing in

Kakkonen Kakkonen or II divisioona is the third level in the league system of Finnish football and comprises 36 Finnish football teams. The II divisioona was introduced in 1973 and in the mid-1990s became known as the Kakkonen (Finnish for 'Number Two' ...

, as a player-coach, signing a two-year contract. Currently he is a youth coach at FC Haka. He has also capped several times for

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

U-17 and U-19 National football teams. U-17 finished third in the 1986 UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship, and U-19 won the UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship in 1988. Popovitch played in both tournaments. Popovitch played for

FC CSKA Moscow Professional Football Club CSKA (russian: link=yes, Профессиональный футбольный клуб – ЦСКА, derived from the historical name 'Центральный спортивный клуб армии', English: ...

in Soviet First League and FC Spartak Moscow in the Soviet Top League.

Legacy

Popovitch holds a legendary status in Finland and especially in Valkeakoski, where his regarded as one of the best players ever to play for FC Haka. FC Haka retired his number, 14.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Popovitch, Valeri 1970 births Living people Sportspeople from Nizhny Novgorod Finnish footballers Soviet footballers Soviet Top League players Veikkausliiga players Eredivisie players Danish Superliga players PFC CSKA Moscow players FC Spartak Moscow players SC Heerenveen players FC Haka players Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi players FC Lokomotiv Nizhny Novgorod players Ikast FS players Expatriate footballers in Denmark Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Russian emigrants to Finland FC Haka managers Association football forwards Association football midfielders FC Khimik Dzerzhinsk players Russian football managers Russian expatriate sportspeople in Finland Russian expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Russian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands