On Friday, will show the football Veikkausliiga match between KuPS and HJK. The live broadcast of the match starts on TV2, Areena and the app at 18:00.
KUOPIO. When Anton Popovits a little over two years ago, I stepped into the dressing room of Kuopio Palloseura, a fellow player Take Virtanen warned that Savona will still have snow in May. The journey from Valkeakoski to Kuopio is not long, just over 300 kilometers, but Virtanen was right.
– Then I got depressed, Anton Popovits laughs.
Haka’s school is in its third season in the ranks of Kuopio Palloseura. Savolaism has not caught on, however. At least if it’s measured in fish cocks.
– Doesn’t fall at all. I just recently got a fish cock as the best player award. It went straight to the guardian. Although I’m not a master chef, luckily football players can get by on chicken and rice, Popovits continues with a laugh.
His father is Veikkausliiga’s all-time top scorer Valery Popovits. It also creates challenges and expectations for the boy’s career, which Anton has had to wrestle with all his life. Well, maybe not always.
– As a child, I thought that other parents have the same situation: the media revolves around and everyone knows. During Dad’s games, we played our own games on Tehtaa’s end court. After the match, the father always wondered what’s the matter when the clothes are right on the grass, Anton smilingly remembers his childhood in Valkeakoski.
Now Anton plays and dad sits in the stands, and after the games there is no talk of dirty clothes.
– After every game, we talk about what was good and what could have been done better. However, all discussions these days end with analyzing Arsenal’s games. Arsenal has been my dad’s, my big brother’s Sasha’s and my favorite club ever. We are Arsenal fans through and through, Popovits reveals.
Dad’s computer crashed in his head
In the opinion of many, Valeri Popovits is still Veikkausliiga’s all-time confirmation. “Vallu” played 15 seasons in Valkeakoski Haka, where he got to celebrate the Finnish championship five times. One championship came later in HJK’s shirt.
Anton, 26, names his father as his biggest idol.
– It’s great to understand at this age how great a player he has been. Dad’s computer runs quite well in his head. He has been really comprehensive in the ball game: how he has taken the tats and knew how to pass with the right hardness and so on. And I guess those number of goals show that he has been quite good at putting the ball in the goal as well, Anton enumerates.
Valeri Popovits finished with 166 league goals, which is still the Veikkausliiga record. He accumulated almost 400 games.
Antoni has eight hits as his fourth season in the major league begins. Anton doesn’t want to compete with his father, but to stand out with his own actions.
– Today it is said that the world needs someone with special skills. Must be fast, good at deflecting or a good one-on-one player. However, I feel that I do not have such a single weapon. That’s why I’ve tried to emphasize the level of my basic playing and I hope that it would be noticed, Popovits thinks.
That level of basic playing has not gone unnoticed by the experts. Popovits makes the right decisions in the midfield, and helps his team with hard work. It can also be a strength that Popovits practically lacks weaknesses.
Anton is entering the last year of his contract with KuPS. The goal is to continue playing abroad, even if Arsenal doesn’t come to that agreement.
– When I came to KuPS, the club had just won the championship. I have been able to taste European games and managed to raise the level of my game. Those were exactly the things why I came to Kuopio.
KuPS has taken off well after the master coach Jani Honkavaara jumped on a moving train Pasi Tuut in place of. Honkavaara is a new acquaintance for Popovits.
– Honkavaara made a good impression right away. Everything he thinks about the game and my strengths. Otherwise, the situation regarding the coach change is rather absurd. You feel empathy for the old coach, you think about what you could have done better, and at the same time you have to start giving evidence to the new coach that you really belong on the field, Popovits recalls the moment a few weeks ago.
KuPS has won both league games under Honkavaara. Ilves lost 1–0 and IFK Mariehamn 2–0.
Sota talks to relatives
There is also life outside of football. Antoni’s father, Valeri Popovits, once played in the Soviet youth national team until he moved to Finland in the early 1990s. Like his father, Anton also has dual Finnish and Russian citizenship.
Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has been a difficult thing for the Popovits family, as relatives still live in Russia.
– Hardly anyone from the outside has come to me to say anything, but people have understood the situation, Popovits says.
Do you discuss the world situation with your relatives?
– Yes, we will discuss.
What thoughts does the war evoke in you?
– I am definitely against it, Anton nods.