Andrei Karpovich, former head coach of the Kazakhstan national team and current manager of Semey's Yelimay, has assessed the prospects of 17-year-old forward Dastan Satpayev at London's Chelsea, where the young Kazakh is undergoing pre-season training and has already scored his debut goal in a friendly against Australia's Western Sydney Wanderers, reports infohub.kz.
In an interview with Sports24.kz, Karpovich expressed his delight for the young player: "We just need to be happy for the guy and watch. We know he's talented. We'll naturally follow him and root for him. It'll be interesting to see how he competes with players of a fairly high level. Time will tell. We're glad our compatriot is at Chelsea."
The Kazakh specialist also commented on Satpayev's chances of getting playing time under new Chelsea head coach, Spaniard Xabi Alonso. Karpovich believes the young footballer will get minutes on the pitch: "I don't know, but it seems he'll get time anyway. So it all depends on him how he uses it."
Chelsea's next friendly is on August 5 in Hong Kong against Italy's Juventus. The match starts at 16:30 Kazakhstan time.