Estonian Oper coach about a joint dinner with Karpin: “It did not affect my position in any way. I hope to put an end to the accusations.”

Anders Oper, assistant coach of the Estonian national football team, said that he was not aware of the invitation of the head coach of the Russian national team Valery Karpin to a joint dinner with Estonian players.

Earlier, one of the former players of the Estonian national team, Andrei Stepanov, published a joint photo with Karpin on social networks. Ex-players of the Estonian national team and the Russian coach had a joint dinner. A group of fans of the Estonian national team was outraged by this publication.

Oper said in an interview with Portimees that he “understands the outrage that the photo posted on social media caused”, but “did not know about the upcoming presence of Karpin at the dinner, so it was difficult to foresee such a situation.”

— I am a patriot of independent Estonia and I remember the times of the USSR. Of course, Karpin, who grew up in Narva, may have a different attitude to the past, I do not know his views. But I am a person with a stable position, and attending dinner did not affect my attitude towards the past or my position in the present.

I am sure that all former and current national team players who were present at the dinner are devoted to Estonia in every sense of the word. I hope that this issue does not cause a split among people who are actually unanimously opposed (the conflict in Ukraine), and now we can put an end to the accusations, Opera quotes the Estonian edition of Postimees.

Earlier Oper and national team players Konstantin Vasilyev and Sergey Zenev apologized for the photo with the Russian specialist.

Karpin is a native of the Estonian Narva and has led the Russian national team since the summer of 2021.