He first played youth football for KPS (Kokkolan Palloseura) before moving on to KPV in his home town of Kokkola.

He made his debut for KPV in 1998 at 19 years of age, before moving to second division side FF Jaro in 1999.

[1] In post-match interviews, Koppinen initially denied any wrongdoing,[2] but two days later he called Viking's director Egil Østenstad and asked for forgiveness, citing it was the Rosenborg way and he did not like it.

On 18 September 2007 he scored for Rosenborg in a Champions League game at Stamford Bridge in a shock 1–1 draw against Chelsea F.C.

However four years later, in October 2010, he was called back to the national team to play a UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying match against Hungary, but in the end he did not belong to the final squad because of an injury.

In January 2015 Koppinen joined Finnsnes IL as assistant coach to Bjørn Johansen, a former teammate from Tromsø.