Russia’s Honored Coach Gennady Kurdin, in an interview with , said he favors a limit of two foreign players per KHL club, in order to have foreign stars coaching young Russians.
Starting from the 2023/24 season, Russian teams in the Fonbet KHL Championship cannot include more than three foreigners in their application for matches. The KHL turned to the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation with a proposal to increase the limit on foreign athletes. The FHR coaches council unanimously opposed it.
“I don’t know why we’re going back to the five-person limit.” The same Ilya Nabokov might not have shot this season – Magnitogorsk would have taken a foreign goalkeeper, and that’s it. And Danila Yurov probably wouldn’t have played. He sat on the bench there for two years.
Our system, our coaches generally do not trust young people. It’s bad. I have said for so many years that young people should be allowed to play. And at the end of the season, he becomes leader. Yes, at the start of the season, they are going somewhere… Yes, the young man is going to have some slumps, and we will have to be patient… No, no, I am against foreign players. I would usually do two foreign players for the club. So these are star foreigners who get a lot of money to do business. But so that they teach young Russians. And not like in Ufa, where foreigners played with their fives without thinking about anything else. We must divide the legionnaires into units to be able to stop the Russians! And so that young people can learn and grow on this basis.
Look at the NHL, where three Russians are making the difference in Tampa… Who are they? Attacker, defender, goalkeeper. Everyone is strong in their own role. And they are real leaders. This is a competent package in an open league, where there are no limits. And now they will catch all the worthless legionnaires in a row. That’s what’s wrong,” Kurdin told .
Among Kurdin’s students – Nikita Koucherov And Nikita Gusev who became the top scorer in the NHL and KHL respectively this season.
Watch live broadcasts of Fonbet KHL Championship matches on Match Group channels, matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru websites.
Source : MatchTV
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