Estonia national football team

Estonia

Nickname(s)	Sinisärgid (blue shirts)
Association	Estonian Football Association
Confederation	UEFA (Europe)
Head coach	Tarmo Rüütli
Captain	Raio Piiroja
Most caps	Martin Reim (157)
Top scorer	Andres Oper (36)
Home stadium	A. Le Coq Arena
FIFA code	EST
FIFA ranking	94
Highest FIFA ranking	60 (December 2002)
Lowest FIFA ranking	137 (October 2008)
Elo ranking	99
Highest Elo ranking	51 (August 1927)
Home colours Away colours
First international
Finland 6–0 Estonia (Helsinki, Finland; 17 October 1920)
Biggest win
Estonia 6–0 Lithuania (Tallinn, Estonia; 26 July 1928)
Biggest defeat
Finland 10–2 Estonia (Helsinki, Finland; 11 August 1922)

The Estonian national football team is the national football team of the Republic of Estonia. Controlled by the Estonian Football Association, they played their first match in 1920. In 1940, Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union and did not regain independence (and the possibility of a national football team) until 1991. They have yet to make their appearance in a FIFA World Cup or in a European Championship.

As a newly independent nation, they played their first match against Lithuania in the Baltic Cup on 15 November 1991, and their first FIFA-recognised match against Slovenia on 3 June 1992, a 1–1 draw in the Estonian capital city of Tallinn. Home matches are played at the A. Le Coq Arena in Tallinn.

Ranked 94th in the world, their highest FIFA World Ranking was 60th in December 2002, while their lowest ranking was 137th in October 2008.

Modern history

After Estonia regained independence, the national team was the weakest of the three Baltic teams, suffering defeats such as a 7–1 loss to Croatia in the UEFA Euro 1996 qualifiers. In the 1998 World Cup qualifiers, Estonia achieved notoriety when a home game against Scotland would be called off in bizarre circumstances.^[1] The replay in Monaco finished 0–0; goalkeeper Mart Poom earned a move to Derby County soon afterwards, with a move to Arsenal later on. The team's best FIFA World Ranking is that of 60th in December 2002. This allowed Estonia's players to be granted a work visa by the British Home Office to play in the Premier League.^[2]

Estonia's fortunes have improved since. In the Euro 2004 qualifiers, Estonia got 8 points from as many games, only 4 goals scored and 6 conceded. The 2006 World Cup qualifiers saw further improvement with 5 wins, 2 draws and 5 defeats, almost sending them to the 2006 FIFA World Cup. During the 2006 qualifiers Estonia played 1–1 against Russia in Tallinn, and this result is considered one of the greatest in Estonian football history. The team drew 0–0 against Turkey in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers. Estonia have players who have caps including Mart Poom, Andres Oper, Marko Kristal and Martin Reim.

Stadium

The main stadium for home matches is A. Le Coq Arena, the stadium named after a beer made in Estonia. The stadium was opened in 2001 and the first match was against the Netherlands, which Estonia lost 4–2. It is planned to add two more stories and complete the roof.

The Estonian team plays some of their matches at Kuressaare Linnastaadion. Linnastaadion will be replaced by a new stadium to host the games of FC Kuressaare and to be the back-up stadium for the Estonian team. When the stadium is complete, Estonia hopes to host the 2011 and 2013 European Championships for youth national teams.

Kit

Nike has been the kit provider for the national team since 2000 and the contract will last until 2011. Before Nike, the team was sponsored by Italy-based Lotto from 1992 to 2000.

The national team's home dress is a blue jersey with black shorts and white socks, although a few kits have had white shorts and white socks. The blue-black-white colors are derived from the flag of Estonia. The away kit has changed several times but it has usually been a white jersey, black shorts and blue socks, occasionally it has been with white socks. The goalie usually wears a yellow jersey, black shorts and yellow socks.

Kit evolution

1922

1924

1992-1996

1996-present

Supporters

Estonian fans in Riga, Latvia

One of the biggest group of Estonian fans are known as the Jalgpallihaigla, meaning "Football hospital". Members can buy a members card which allows fan goods cheaper from the shop.

Estonia fans are known as calm but loud. They are known for their singing abilities and using old Estonian songs. Jalgpallihaigla is usually seated at the south tribune of A. Le Coq Arena while the visitors fans are seated at the north tribune.

When Estonia won against Russia 2–1 in a friendly game in 2001, Russian fans started rioting but Jalgpallihaigla stayed calm. The incident lead to the creation of riot police in Estonia. Another incident took place on 4 June, after a friendly game against Faroe Islands which Estonia won 4–3. Before the game, the national anthem of Estonia was sung by Ewert Sundja, an Estonian singer. After the anthem, many Estonians felt that the Estonian pop-star had ruined it. After the game, two Estonian fans beat up the singer,^[3] and it is known the fans were members of Jalgpallihaigla.

Olympic games

Estonia national football team at the 1924 Summer Olympics.

The Estonia national football team have played once in the Olympics. It was on 1924 Summer Olympic Games. They played only one game in the preliminary round against the United States and lost 1–0 to a penalty scored by Andy Straden after ten minutes. Estonia had a chance for a draw against the United States, but the penalty given to Estonia on the 68th minute hit the crossbar. Over 7,500 people came to see the match, played in Paris.

Recent results and fixtures

Date	Competition	Venue	Home Team	Result	Away Team	Scorers
2009-10-14	FIFA World Cup 2010 qualifying	A Le Coq Arena, Tallinn	Estonia	2–0	Belgium	Piiroja  30' Vassiljev  67'
2009-11-14	Friendly	A. Le Coq Arena, Tallinn	Estonia	0–0	Albania
2009-12-30	Friendly	Estadio Algarve, Faro	Estonia	1–0	Angola	Saag  79'
2010-03-03	Friendly	Lokomotivi Stadium, Tbilisi	Georgia	2–1	Estonia	Purje  83'
2010-05-21	Friendly	A. Le Coq Arena, Tallinn	Estonia	2–0	Finland	Oper  5' Post  55'
2010-05-26	Friendly	A. Le Coq Arena, Tallinn	Estonia	0–0	Croatia
2010-06-19	2010 Baltic Cup	S. Darius and S. Girėnas Stadium, Kaunas	Latvia	0–0	Estonia
2010-06-20	2010 Baltic Cup	S. Darius and S. Girėnas Stadium, Kaunas	Lithuania	2–0	Estonia
2010-08-11	UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying	A. Le Coq Arena, Tallinn	Estonia	2–1	Faroe Islands	Saag  90+1' Piiroja  90+3'
2010-09-03	UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying	A. Le Coq Arena, Tallinn	Estonia	1–2	Italy	Zenjov  31'
2010-09-07	Friendly	A. Le Coq Arena, Tallinn	Estonia	3–3	Uzbekistan	Purje  25' Vassiljev  62'  71'
2010-10-08	UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying	Stadion Crvena Zvezda, Belgrade	Serbia		Estonia
2010-10-12	UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying	A. Le Coq Arena, Tallinn	Estonia		Slovenia

UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying

Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Italy 4 3 1 0 10 1 +9 10  Slovenia 4 2 1 1 7 3 +4 7  Estonia 4 2 0 2 6 5 +1 6  Northern Ireland 3 1 2 0 2 1 +1 5  Serbia 4 1 1 2 5 7 −2 4  Faroe Islands 5 0 1 4 3 16 −13 1

Current squad

The squad named for the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifier against Italy on 3 September 2010 and friendly against Uzbekistan on 7 September 2010.^[6] Caps and goals as of 8 September 2010.

0#0 Pos. Player Date of Birth (Age) Caps Goals Club 1 GK Sergei Pareiko January 31, 1977 (1977-01-31) (age 34) 20 0 Tom Tomsk 12 GK Mihkel Aksalu November 7, 1984 (1984-11-07) (age 26) 9 0 Sheffield United 22 GK Artur Kotenko August 20, 1981 (1981-08-20) (age 29) 23 0 AEP Paphos 3 DF Taavi Rähn May 16, 1981 (1981-05-16) (age 29) 53 0 Baltika Kaliningrad 4 DF Raio Piiroja July 11, 1979 (1979-07-11) (age 31) 98 8 Fredrikstad 5 DF Dmitri Kruglov May 24, 1984 (1984-05-24) (age 26) 55 1 Inter Baku 16 DF Gert Kams May 25, 1985 (1985-05-25) (age 25) 15 0 Flora 17 DF Enar Jääger November 18, 1984 (1984-11-18) (age 26) 71 0 Aalesunds 19 DF Alo Bärengrub February 12, 1984 (1984-02-12) (age 27) 34 0 Bodø/Glimt 23 DF Andrei Sidorenkov February 12, 1984 (1984-02-12) (age 27) 18 0 SønderjyskE DF Igor Morozov May 27, 1989 (1989-05-27) (age 21) 6 0 Levadia DF Tihhon Šišov February 11, 1983 (1983-02-11) (age 28) 24 0 Khazar Lankaran 6 MF Aleksandr Dmitrijev February 18, 1982 (1982-02-18) (age 28) 59 0 Hønefoss 7 MF Sander Puri May 7, 1988 (1988-05-07) (age 22) 24 2 Larissa 11 MF Ats Purje August 3, 1985 (1985-08-03) (age 25) 22 3 AEP Paphos 13 MF Martin Vunk August 21, 1984 (1984-08-21) (age 26) 28 0 Syrianska 14 MF Konstantin Vassiljev August 16, 1984 (1984-08-16) (age 26) 35 5 Nafta Lendava 15 MF Ragnar Klavan October 30, 1985 (1985-10-30) (age 25) 64 1 AZ 8 FW Andres Oper November 7, 1977 (1977-11-07) (age 33) 117 36 Unattached 9 FW Tarmo Kink October 6, 1985 (1985-10-06) (age 25) 45 3 Middlesbrough 10 FW Sergei Zenjov April 20, 1989 (1989-04-20) (age 21) 13 4 Karpaty Lviv 18 FW Sander Post September 10, 1984 (1984-09-10) (age 26) 7 1 Flora 20 FW Kaimar Saag August 5, 1988 (1988-08-05) (age 22) 25 2 Silkeborg FW Vjatšeslav Zahovaiko December 29, 1981 (1981-12-29) (age 29) 38 7 União de Leiria

Call-ups

The list of players that have been called up by the national team coach in the last 12 months. Retired players are not included.

Pos. Player Date of Birth (Age) Caps Goals Club Latest Callup GK Pavel Londak May 14, 1980 (1980-05-14) (age 30) 17 0 Bodø/Glimt 2010-06-20 v  Lithuania GK Stanislav Pedõk June 6, 1988 (1988-06-06) (age 22) 0 0 Flora 2009-12-30 v  Angola DF Karl Palatu December 5, 1982 (1982-12-05) (age 28) 2 0 Flora 2010-06-20 v  Lithuania DF Andrei Stepanov March 16, 1979 (1979-03-16) (age 31) 81 1 Khimki 2010-06-20 v  Lithuania DF Taijo Teniste January 31, 1988 (1988-01-31) (age 23) 6 0 Levadia 2010-06-20 v  Lithuania MF Oliver Konsa March 4, 1985 (1985-03-04) (age 25) 15 0 Nõmme Kalju 2010-06-20 v  Lithuania MF Joel Lindpere October 5, 1981 (1981-10-05) (age 29) 74 5 New York Red Bulls 2010-09-03 v  Italy MF Sergei Mošnikov January 7, 1988 (1988-01-07) (age 23) 2 0 Flora 2010-06-20 v  Lithuania MF Eino Puri May 7, 1988 (1988-05-07) (age 22) 3 0 Levadia 2010-06-20 v  Lithuania FW Alo Dupikov November 5, 1985 (1985-11-05) (age 25) 3 0 Flora 2010-06-20 v  Lithuania FW Kristen Viikmäe February 10, 1979 (1979-02-10) (age 32) 114 15 Panegialios 2010-06-20 v  Lithuania FW Vladimir Voskoboinikov February 2, 1983 (1983-02-02) (age 28) 25 3 Levadia 2010-05-21 v  Finland

Managers and performance

As of 3 September 2010

1920–1940 Years Name M W D L 1920–1923 No manager 10 2 3 5 1924 Ferenc Kónya 2 0 0 2 1924 No manager 5 0 0 5 1925 Ferenc Nagy 2 2 0 0 1925–1926 No manager 7 2 3 2 1927 Antal Mally 4 3 0 1 1927–1929 No manager 12 3 4 5 1930 Fritz Kerr 6 1 1 4 1931 No manager 7 4 0 3 1932 Albert Vollrat 7 1 0 6 1933–34 No manager 9 3 2 4 1934 Bernhard Rein 2 0 2 0 1935 Antal Mally 8 0 5 3 1936–1938 Bernhard Rein 21 7 3 11 1939–1940 Elmar Saar 5 1 1 3

1992–present Years Name M W D L 1992–1993 Uno Piir 19 2 4 13 1994–1995 Roman Ubakivi 22 0 1 21 1995 Aavo Sarapct 2 0 0 2 1996–1999 Teitur Thordarson 57 13 17 27 1999–2000 Tarmo Rüütli 10 6 2 2 2000 Aivar Lilleverect 2 0 0 2 2000–2004 Arno Pijpers 55 16 14 25 2004–2007 Jelle Goes 28 5 6 17 2007 Viggo Jensen 8 2 2 4 2007– Tarmo Rüütli 34 10 9 15 ct – caretaker manager

See also

• Category:Seasons in Estonian football

References

External links

• Estonian Football Association Official site
• Estonian Football Association at FIFA official site
• Estonian Football Association at UEFA official site
• RSSSF archive of results 1920–
• RSSSF archive of most capped players and highest goalscorers
• Estonia national team matches (Estonian)
• Estonia national team matches 1920–1940

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