FC Sheriff new Moldavian defender Maxim Potirniche talked to the official site of the club for the first time. In his interview he talked about his career as a football player, about the things he achieved and those he didn’t, as well as about his interests.

Welcome to FC Sheriff, Maxim. Share your first impressions…
Thank you very much. I was welcomed warmly. I can say that everything is great so my first impressions are wonderful.

Have you ever expected that you would become FC Sheriff player?
I have been thinking about it lately. I was asked a few times whether I want to play in Moldova. I answered that the only club I would like to play in, is FC Sheriff. And so this happened and I am very glad about it.

It is known that you might not have been a football player. Your father wanted you to go in for taekwondo.
In order not to waste time on the street and do the right thing, my dad took me to martial arts. To tell the truth, I still missed football, the ball. Yes, I did well in taekwondo but after some time I had to leave it due to change in the place of residence. I decided to stop these training sessions and quickly found myself in football. I started attending football school and made my first steps in football. I played for the youth team FC Sfintul George and FC Rapid second team. For the first time I played in the National Division in FC Academia squad.

What can you say about performance in FC Academia? You spent over four years in this squad…
This is a special time of my career. It was in FC Academia where I was developed as a professional player. I would like to mention coaches who I worked with: Vitaly Kulibaba, Oleg Bezhenar and of course Igor Dobrovolsky. It is notable that FC Academia started in the National Division in a match against FC Sheriff. We lost that game.

Then it was Iskra-Stal FC…
I think I could not fully realize myself in that club. The reason was probably in me. Only by the end of my performance I started to show football I needed to show. As for team performances, we had a good squad but we could not show our strongest sides. The worst thing in football is that when you cannot realize your full potential.

You left to Belorussia to the club Belshina. Your team performed well in the championship but they did not take higher places. What can you say about this stage of your career?
Belshina is my first foreign experience. I am grateful to people who we worked there with. I learned a lot there. It was late to get to the first six in the championship. We failed the first part of the season. And successful performances in the second round were not enough.

How did matches against FC BATE and Dinamo Minsk go?
I remember my first game against FC BATE. It did not go well for me since the very start. We lost. In the next round we met them again. The game was quite successful for our team but we conceded by minimal score. I cannot say I was satisfied with my actions despite playing quite well. I am a maximalist so I always want to improve. As for Dinamo Minsk, I played with them only one time and it ended in a draw.

At the beginning of the previous year you left to Poland to the club Energetyk ROW Rybnik but you spent there only six months. Why?
I signed a short-termed contract for six months. After it expired I left the club. When I signed the contract there was one head coach, but after three games he was dismissed. Then there was another specialist as a head coach and he did not see me in the team. Of course, it is also my fault too but I do not think I did not deserve playing there. The coach decided he does not know me and does not want to know me. I stopped playing and when you stop it influences your psychology.

In FC Zimbru you even had a chance to enter the UEFA Europa League group stage…
I could not do it at that time but now I am FC Sheriff player and I have a goal to help the team win the championship, the cup and enter the group stage of one of European tournaments. I hope it will come true in the same way as I got to FC Sheriff.

We found out that you support Real C.F. and your favorite player was Zinedine Zidane. He always played as an attacking midfielder. Why do you play a central defender?
Zidane was a great player not always due to football features but also to personal ones. At first I did not play as a central defender, I was a defensive midfield. When I played in FC Academia we played in three defenders, I played higher than they. After a few years in the National Division FC Academia change the scheme of play, in particular the game in four defenders. I was the fourth one. I played in the center of the defense with Serghei Kuznetsov who taught me a lot. It was when they saw me as a central defender. Although in the summer when I played for FC Zimbru, Oleg Kubarev put me as a holding midfielder in the most important European matches.

Do you still have passion about books?
Yes, I still love reading. I can say that I don’t only read books but I collect them. It is my hobby.

It is also known that you were in England where you had a trial in one of the clubs. Please tell us more about it…
I cannot say that my so called English experience was negative. I could not sign a contract but there were also other aspects. In Bornmut we had a trial with Radu Ginsari. In the end we had to go home and no one explained us anything. I think I showed myself well in the club but not enough I guess if I left. However, it was precious experience for me.
 
FC Sheriff Press Service