It would be disgraceful for Botev Plovdiv to decide to hire a Russian. After all, almost the whole world excludes and suspends Russian athletes after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. It is also shocking that the club that plays at the highest level in the Bulgarian league tended to transfer an influential amateur.
Bulgarians hired a TikTok star
Influencers are more daring and daring to enter the professional football. There are a lot of videos online with their interviews football playersTraining pitches and various football challenges. They even appear at prestigious parties, such as Luva de Pereiro at the last Golden Ball Awards. It’s time for the next step – they are starting to play football professionally.
Mikhail Prokopyev, the 20-year-old influencer known on TikTok as Prokop, has as many as 1.7 million followers there, and his content has been liked more than 48 million times. Sometimes he posts videos showing off his soccer skills.
The Russian has been associated with football. Play at Zenit St. St. Petersburg. Later, he played only an amateur. In 2018, he took part in the FK Amkal Moscow project. This is the club where people associated with the Russian media play. This season, they participated in the Russian Cup and were eliminated from the second round.
Prokopiev was tested at Botevo Plovdiv throughout October. His departure was doubtful due to injury. When he appeared at the club, he made such a good impression on the coaches that it was decided to sign a contract with him, which was valid from January 2023. However, Aamkal will not gain from this transfer.
It is worth noting that thanks to the tests, Prokopyev was able to avoid the partial mobilization announced by Putin.
Anton Zingarevich, Russian businessman and owner of Botev since 2021, certainly played an important role in bringing Prokopyev. In addition, the president is another Russian, German Chistyakov.
Bulgarian media stunned
The new player of the Bulgarian team plays as a midfielder. In Amkalo he had a positive effect on the atmosphere, and on the pitch he was influenced by his dribbling and dribbling style. The Russian did not hide that his dreams come true.
“My dream is to play in Europe, to feel this atmosphere” – was quoted by the Championat.com portal. The portal also cites the announcement of the Internet star that he will try to bring his family to Bulgaria, which he did not do while living in Moscow.
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This transfer seemed like a formality to article owners from the start. – I’m sure Prokop will be a better player Leagues – says German Popko, founder of the amateur club. He also adds that this could open the door to the dreams of millions of Russian boys.
Bulgarian media consider this transfer strange and not related to sports. They suggest that Botew may now be more interested in promoting in social media.
Botev Plovdiv is ranked in the Bulgarian table Premier League 10th place after 15 games with 13 points.
“Bacon scholar. Incurable social media ninja. Professional travel aficionado. Beer buff.”
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