Serhiy Oleksandrovych Popov ( uk, Сергій Олександрович Попов; russian: Серге́й Александрович Попов; born 22 April 1971 in

Makiivka Makiivka ( uk, Макіївка, Makíyivka, ; russian: Макеевка, Makeyevka, ), formerly Dmytriivsk, is an industrial city in Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine. Located from the capital Donetsk, the two cities are practically a conurbat ...

) is a former footballer from

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian invas ...

. He is the highest scoring defender of the

Ukraine national football team The Ukraine national football team ( uk, Збірна України з футболу) represents Ukraine in men's international football and is governed by the Ukrainian Association of Football, the governing body for football in Ukraine. U ...

Career

Popov is a graduate of the Donetsk sports school of Olympic reserve and started to compete at senior level at age of 17 playing for the Novator Mariupol (Zhdanov). After being drafted to the army, he defended colors of

SKA Kiev Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a ...

and

FC Nyva Vinnytsia FC Nyva Vinnytsia is a professional Ukrainian football club based in the city of Vinnytsia. The name "Nyva" translates to "grain field". The club was originally created in 1958 in the Soviet Union and folded in 2005 and 2012, but was reformed a ...

in 1990–91. After the fall of the Soviet Union Popov signed with

Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk ( uk, Футбольний клуб «Шахтар» Донецьк , short nickname "miners") is a Ukrainian professional football club from the city of Donetsk. In 2014, due to the War in Donbass, the club was ...

of the

Ukrainian Premier League The Ukrainian Premier League ( uk, "Українська Прем'єр-ліга", ''Ukrayinska Premier Liha'') or UPL is the highest division of Ukrainian annual football championship. As the Vyshcha Liha ( uk, Вища ліга, ''Top League' ...

, with which he stayed until 2004. In the mid 90s he also spend couple of seasons for the Russian

Zenit Saint Petersburg Football Club Zenit (russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб «Зенит» ), also known as Zenit Saint Petersburg or simply Zenit, is a Russian professional football club based in Saint Petersburg. Founded in 1925 (or in 1914, acc ...

. Before retiring in 2006 Popov played for Metalurh Zaporizhia.

International career

The hard-nosed defender was also a regular member of the

from 1993 to 2003, having appeared in 54 international matches and notching 5 goals.

Career statistics

International goals

References

External links

* 1971 births Living people Sportspeople from Makiivka Association football defenders Soviet footballers Ukrainian footballers Ukraine international footballers FC CSKA Kyiv players FC Mariupol players FC Zenit Saint Petersburg players FC Shakhtar Donetsk players FC Metalurh Zaporizhzhia players Ukrainian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Russia Ukrainian Premier League players Russian Premier League players FC Nyva Vinnytsia players Ukrainian football managers Ukrainian expatriate sportspeople in Russia FC Shakhtar-3 Donetsk managers {{Ukraine-footy-defender-1970s-stub