Former Zenit-2 coach Vladislav Radimov believes that the transfer of the player of the Amkal media club Mikhail Prokopiev to the Bulgarian Botev took place for sports reasons.

– Well, God forbid that he plays there, the team is doing well now. Bulgaria is a normal country. There are worse leagues. Let’s see if he gets game time there. And whether the invitation is related to his professional abilities. Or maybe with the fact that the club has Russian owners.

– Could this be due to the fact that Prokop is a popular blogger with an audience of one and a half million in social networks, and they are interested in him in terms of PR?

– I don’t think. In terms of PR, you can take anyone there – whoever has more subscribers. I think they took him because he knows how to play football. To what extent this will correspond to the Bulgarian league, only time will tell.

– Is this a plus for the Zenith Academy? The guy studied there, found himself in European football.

“You don’t have to exaggerate either. The Bulgarian Premier League is the same as the Baltics in football. Let’s just say: there he will have to play professional football, not blogging. You need to train constantly, every day to prove your right to a place in the composition in competition with other professionals. The fact that he made his way there and got a contract is wonderful. Let it progress, maybe it will rise even higher, – RB Sport quoted Radimov as saying.

Botev is owned by Russian businessman Anton Zingarevich. On Tuesday, the Bulgarian club announced the signing of a contract with 20-year-old Prokopyev, who is a graduate of Zenit. As Botev’s media director told Match TV, the agreement is for 3 years.