Peter Kopteff (born 10 April 1979) is a Finnish former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a

left winger In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

Club career

Kopteff was born in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

and began his career with

HJK Helsinki Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi (), commonly known as HJK Helsinki (), or simply as HJK (), is a Finnish football club based in Helsinki. The club competes in Veikkausliiga, the top division of the Finnish football league system. Founded in 1907, the ...

and

Jazz Pori Football Club Jazz, commonly known as just Jazz, is a Finnish football club based in Pori, which plays in the Finnish third tier, Ykkönen. The club was founded in 1934 as Porin Pallo-Toverit. PPT changed its name to FC Jazz in November 1991. FC ...

in Finnish

Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga () is a professional association football league in Finland and the highest level of the Finnish football league system. The league comprises the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agenc ...

, and appeared in five

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

group stage matches during HJK's 1998 campaign. He spent four years at

Stavanger Stavanger, officially the Stavanger Municipality, is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the third largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the ...

making over 100

Tippeligaen Eliteserien () is a professional association football league in Norway and the highest level of the Norwegian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Norwegian First Division ...

appearances. Whilst at Viking he scored one of the goals as they famously defeated Chelsea in the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

in 2002. He joined English club

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, the cl ...

in December 2005. Kopteff failed to make any impact at Stoke making nine appearances in 2005–06 and was released at the end of the season. He then joined Dutch side

FC Utrecht Football Club Utrecht () is a Dutch professional association football, football club based in Utrecht. The club competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football league system, Dutch football, and plays its home matches at the Stadion ...

where he spent two years and on 31 August 2008 Kopteff signed a short-term contract to play for Aalesund for the remainder of the 2008 season. The contract was later extended for the 2009 season at the end of which he decided to retire.

International career

Kopteff used to be a regular squad member of the

Finland national football team The Finland national football team (, ) represents Finland in men's international football competitions and is controlled by the Football Association of Finland, the governing body for football in Finland, which was founded in 1907. The team ...

. Due to his lack of first-team football caused by an injury during his second season in Utrecht, he has not played international football since 2007, only limiting him to occasional call-ups. He has been capped 39 times and scored once. He was recalled to the national team in April 2009 against Norway.

Career statistics

Club

International

Source:

References

External links

Voetbal international profile

Guardian Football
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kopteff, Peter 1979 births Living people Eredivisie players FC Utrecht players Finland men's international footballers Finnish expatriate men's footballers Finnish expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in England Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Norway Expatriate men's footballers in Norway Finnish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Finnish men's footballers Men's association football wingers Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi players Footballers from Helsinki Stoke City F.C. players Viking FK players FC Jazz players Veikkausliiga players Eliteserien players Finnish people of Hungarian descent English Football League players