Career
He was primarily a right midfielder. At club level, Karpin has played for Fakel Voronezh (1989), Spartak Moscow (1990-1994), Real Sociedad (1994-1996 and 2002-2005), Valencia CF (1996-1997), and Celta Vigo (1997–2002). He retired at the end of the 2004-2005 season with Real Sociedad.
Russia/Commonwealth of Independent States
Foreign Russia, Karpin has been capped 72 times, scoring 17 goals (he was also capped once for the Commonwealth of Independent States ).
Karpin played for Russia at the 1994 World Cup, Euro 96, and the 2002 World Cup. In 2003, he took up Estonian citizenship, keeping the Russian one.
In August 2008, Karpin was named as Director General of Spartak Moscow, replacing Sergei Shavlo. In April 2009, following a poor run of results, he replaced Michael Laudrup as caretaker manager of the club
On 18 April 2011, Karpin declared resignation from his position following one of the worse starts in club history.
Eventually, he continued working as a manager up to the end of 2011-2012 season. After the sacking of the newly appointed manager Unai Emery on 25 November 2012, Karpin took the responsibility of caretaker manager up until the end of the year. He later officially became the team"s coach again and wasn"t the caretaker anymore.
On 18 March 2014, Karpin was relieved from his duties, after exiting the Russian Cup to third division Football Club Tosno and drawing with top flight"s bottom side Football Club Anzhi Makhachkala.
On 12 August 2014, he was appointed at the helm of RCD Mallorca. In 2007 Karpin became the holder of road bicycle racing team Karpin-Galicia.
He also owns a real estate company with former Celta Vigo team-mate Michel Salgado.
