Athletistic / Football. Two-time Olympic hockey champion Alexander Kozhevnikov appreciated the decision of foreign players who are not afraid to sign contracts with KHL clubs, despite pressure from politicians and possible exclusion from national teams.
“It’s great that foreigners don’t pay attention to the pressure in their country, even if they are threatened with a ban from playing for the national team, I am not a big fan of domination by foreign players in Russian hockey, I do. I want to see more of my students – young Russian hockey players. However, at the same time I am annoyed when in the so-called democratic West some countries prohibit their citizens from earning money wherever they want.
In the United States and Canada, such madness has not reached this point, which is why from 2022 we see many North American Legionnaires in the KHL. However, in Europe everything is bad, so we have almost no Finns, Swedes and Czechs here. It’s good that Slovaks are not afraid to decide for themselves what to do. Even despite the fact that their play in the KHL led to the fact that they are no longer called up to the national team,” Kojevnikov said, as quoted by Izvestia.
In the 2024/2025 season, the KHL returned to the old foreign player limit. From now on, Russian clubs can once again have up to five foreign players in their squad. During the last campaign, their number was limited to three legionnaires.
Source: Sport

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