According to Rauli Urama, Andrei Karejev appealed to family reasons, and there was no disagreement.
Andrei Karejev had a contract with TPS for next season. Jussi Saarinen
- SM league top goalkeeper Andrei Karejev terminated his contract with TPS and left for Russia.
- According to Rauli Urama, TPS’s sports director, Karejev justified the decision on family grounds.
- Goalkeeper coach Ari Moisanen was not surprised by the news.
Last season’s silver medalist TPS suffered a significant loss. Last Friday it was reported that one of the best goalkeepers in the series Andrei Karejev leaves Turku behind.
Salavat Yulayev Ufa, who plays in the Russian KHL, announced that he had signed an agreement with Kareyev.
– He considered it best to make an agreement with Russia and return to his family. This was not its more wonderful situation. He saw the world as such and certainly saw an opportunity to become the goalkeeper of his hometown team, TPS Sports Director Rauli Urama commented on Monday.
Karejev, 27, played in Ufa from 2017 to 2020 before moving on to TPS.
It was quoted in Russia
Russian at the weekend Sport-Express website shared his own views on the course of events. The site called it a “fun story”.
– One day Karejev went to the speeches of the club leadership and said that he could not stay in Finland due to the political situation. He said the same words his foreigners said to their KHL clubs during the period that ended. TPS was surprised and demanded that Karejev pay for his next season’s contract with the club. Somehow the money mess was cleared up, Sport-Express wrote.
In its story, the newspaper referred to foreigners, such as Finnish players, who left KHL in the middle of the season when Russia started an offensive war in Ukraine.
Urama, on the other hand, says things went smoothly.
According to Russian media, Karejev justified his departure on the basis of the political situation. Was this the message he told you too?
– There were family reasons. They are expecting more families, and things are easier when there is a support network around them. The thing is, we didn’t have the desire or ability to block a person’s will. We can’t say he has to sign a contract with TPS.
Urama confirms that Karejev also had an agreement with TPS for next season.
– He had the right to dismantle it.
– Ufa paid for what Kareev asked for. As far as I know, no money has moved in our direction, Urama continues.
Karejev defeated TPS for two consecutive seasons in the finals. From both seasons, a silver medal was left around his neck.
Harder lychee
Andre Karejev returns to his familiar company, Salavat Yulev Ufa. Petri Saarelainen
TPS goalkeeper coach, once also worked at KHL Ari Moisanen not surprised by Karejev’s departure.
– He understands that in Russia he is also offered a thicker salary bag than can be offered in the SM League. At the same time, here’s the side of him going home. It changes the game considerably. If it had been a Finnish player, it would have been a surprise.
– We got so much out of him that he got better salaries and better plots. One task has been completed for the Ball Club, Moisanen says.
Moisanen describes Karejev as a perfectionist as an athlete.
– It must have started to get excited how the wife would get along with her first child when there would have been no caring hands nearby in Finland. Everyone knows that the game changes a bit when it comes to the little ones in the house.
In Turku, Karejev may have realized that hockey is important, but not for life.
– It was a step forward that he was released a little as a person and realized that there was room for mistakes. In the past, he was a second guard in Russia, and the pressure to succeed in that role was pretty huge.