Serhiy Oleksandrovych Popov (; born 22 April 1971) is a Ukrainian football manager and former footballer. He is the highest scoring defender of the

Ukraine national football team The Ukraine national football team ( ) represents Ukraine in men's international Association football, football, and is governed by the Ukrainian Association of Football, the governing body for football in Ukraine. Ukraine's home ground is the ...

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 and

FC Nyva Vinnytsia FC Nyva Vinnytsia is a Ukrainian professional association football, 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 201 ...

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

Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk () is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club that was based in the city of Donetsk until 2014 when, due to the War in Donbas (2014–2022), War in Donbas, the club was forced to move to Lvi ...

of the

Ukrainian Premier League The Ukrainian Premier League ( ) or UPL is a professional association football league in Ukraine and the highest level of the Ukrainian football league system. Originally known as the Vyshcha Liha ( , ) it was formed in 1991 during the 1992 in ...

, 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 (, ), 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, according to some Russian sources), the club plays in the Russian Pr ...

. 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 Footballers from Makiivka Men's association football defenders Soviet men's footballers Ukrainian men's footballers Ukraine men's international footballers SKA Kiev players FC Mariupol players FC Zenit Saint Petersburg players FC Zenit-2 Saint Petersburg players FC Shakhtar Donetsk players FC Shakhtar-2 Donetsk players FC Metalurh Zaporizhzhia players Ukrainian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Ukrainian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Ukrainian Premier League players Ukrainian First League players Russian Premier League players FC Nyva Vinnytsia players Ukrainian football managers Ukrainian expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Kyrgyzstan Ukrainian expatriate sportspeople in Kyrgyzstan FC Shakhtar-3 Donetsk managers 20th-century Ukrainian sportsmen {{Ukraine-footy-defender-1970s-stub