On Friday the 27th, the Estonian FA published the III.Liiga groups composition for 2017 season. Rumori Calcio was included into the Northern group, which means the Skyblue will play in Tallinn and surroundings. In fact, the ’longest’ trip is the 20’ ride from the city center to Saku where Rumori Calcio will pay a visit to local club Saku Sporting. Let’s check one by one the 11 clubs in the III.Liiga Northern according to last-year final table
PIRITA JK RELIKVIA
They should not be here. Assumingly for financial reasons (the club’s licensing costs in II.Liiga are more expensive without mentioning the travelling costs for a semi-national tier), the club founded in 2007, and playing in Wismari Stadium albeit their district being Pirita, has decided to stay in III.Liiga, a tier they dominated last season as they finished 4 points clear of FC Hell Hunt winning 17 games out of 22 and scoring 65 goals (second best attack) while suffering only 26 in the process. More than half of the goals were scored by Marion Adusoo (a former Paide Linnameeskond player) and Jaanus Põllumees (14 each) and 10 goals by Kristian-Hindrek Tamvelius. The team is coached by Priit Simson, a 49-year-old former lower league player (his last game dates back to 2007 when he featured for now defunct club FC Volunder in a 2-5 loss to FC Olympic) but most of all, Estonian Champion with defunct FC Norma Tallinn in 1988 when our coach Angelo Palmeri was only 13! Siimson went on winning also the Estonian Cup in 1989. Talking about lower league careers, Pirita JK Relikvia is the first club to whom our coach, Angelo Palmeri, scored a goal to in a 7-0 whitewashing in IV.Liiga in 2008. A survivor of that game is August Sai, 1983-born striker (and an artist in everyday life) who hit the back of the net only 3 times last season in 20 games of III.Liiga, Estonian Cup and Amateurs Cup. According to last-year squad the team does not include any foreigner. In 2016 they debuted away with a scoredraw against Castovanni Eagles. Their motto is ’In Hoc Signo Vinces’, the famous sentence that led Emperor Constantine to the victory in the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in Rome: the reference to the ties of the Pirita district with the St.Brigit nunnery is very strong as the club’s coat of arms reproduces the typical cross of the order. Faith and football sometimes go along.
Stadium: Wismari (artificial)
Coach: Priit Simson
Website: www.jkreliikvia.ee
Facebook: reliikvia
Twitter: @JKReliikvia
Contact: einar@jkreliikvia.ee (Mr.Einar Lillo)
FC HELL HUNT
If lower leagues were once known in Estonia as ’pub leagues’, FC Hell Hunt is the ’pub club’ by name as they clearly refer to one of the Old Town’s favourite pubs, Hell Hunt (literally, the gentle wolf). From the club’s history page, we learn that initially the club was known as Eurouniv FC as the initiative to create the club started from university students. Founded in 2001, the club started to compete in Estonian lower leagues in 2002 (they started from the then-existing V.Liiga). Except from Taras Bondarenko (from Ukraine) the team is fully composed by Estonian citizens who collected 15 wins out of 22 games with a +31 goal difference in the process. Their top-scorer was Jaan Sinka with 11 goals: the 1993-born scored 2 hattricks, one against KSK FC Strommi (6-3 FT score) and one against Nõmme Kalju FC III (3-2 FT score). In the latter game, the score was opened by our very new signing in defence, Federico Levi. Mihkel Heinaste was the king of bookings with 7 yellow cards collected in the league games. In 2017 squad (check the list here) there is also Delfi football reporter and former FC Castovanni Eagles player Rasmus Raidla.
Stadium: Kalev (artificial)
Coach: –
Website: www.hundid.ee
Facebook: fchellhunt
Twitter: –
e-mail contact: info@hundid.eu
JK RETRO
Flora’s Alliku (left) tries to catch veteran and former national team coach Tarmo Rüütli in a cup tie (Delfi Sport)
With due respect to all other opponents in this league, this is probably the most interesting ones the Rumori Calcio footballers will have a chance to compete against. As the name suggests, this is a squad composed by ’retro-players’. From former national team coach Tarmo Rüütli (who might not be part of the squad this year) to former national team goalkeeper Toomas Tohver (24 caps); football agents and former international players Andrei Stepanov and Jevgeni Novikov (they represent, among others, Konstantin Vassiljev, the Estonian National team Maestro plying trade in Poland at Jagiellonia Byalistok); the Estonian National Team doctor, Kaspar Rõivassepp; FC Infonet sport director, former football player and Estonian Futsal National Team coach Dmitry Skiperskiy (also team and league topscorer with a whoppy 30 goals in 22 games!); Levadia’s coach and former player of the same club, Igor Prins; Nõmme Kalju’s former player Alo Dupikov and Estonian U19 National Team coach Lars Hopp. The latter, together with Mikhail Iliin, is the only foreigner of the team as Mr. Hopp is a German national as our very own German Christoph Puschmann: whether we will see a ’Battle of the Panzers’ will depend upon Lars’ engagement with the youth national team during the football season. The team is also coached by a former international, Erko Saviauk (1977), 60 caps and 1 goal.
These are the kind of opponents you can expect anything from thanks to their huge experience on the field. The club was originally known as ’Eesti Koondis’ (Estonian National Team) as it was the gathering team for veterans willing to play at amateur level. Albeit the name changed, the purpose has remained the same.
Stadium: EJL TNTK (real grass)
Coach: Erko Saviauk
Website: –
Facebook: –
Twitter: –
Contact: toomas.tohver@gmail.com (Mr. Toomas Tohver)
JK KALEV TALLINN III
Rumori Calcio will have the chance to clash with another glorious club of Estonian football, albeit their 3rd team: JK Kalev. We shall remember that Kalev has been the only Estonian club which made it to the USSR Premier League in the early 60’s snatching also a scoredraw (2-2) at Spartak Moscow (3rd that season) and a goalless draw at Yashin’s legendary Dynamo Moscow. Going back to lower leagues business, their first team is the Kalev U21 team, whereas Kristiine JK was elected as double, a match that won’t be longer possible since the latters were promoted in the same league and will also compete in Northern. The team is coached by Daniel Meijel, an everlasting man at Kalev since he’s been coaching at any level including the first team currently in Esiliiga (Estonian second tier). A fully Estonian squad is basically a spring of youth since the oldest player (excluding few 1980’s and a couple of 1970’s out of a 30-man squad) during last season was 1990-born Tambet Laan (team’s topscorer with 18 goals and second-best league finisher) up till 1999-born Jürgen Jurisalu, Kenlou Laasner, Marko Maal and Kiur Mägiste. The team is obviously used as a natural place where to make continue playing their own youth as Kalev can count upon one of the biggest youth system in the country. The club was recently taken over by FC Liverpool defender, Ragnar Klavan (honorary president), and former Chicago Fire (MLS) midfielder Joel Lindpere (sport director) with the blessing of the Estonian FA who had previously commissioned the club. Lindpere recently signed an important global sponsorship agreement with Alexela (an Estonian chain of gas stations) which shall help the club rise again. ‘Juki’ was also registered within the Kalev III ranks and it is quite likely he will play somes games albeit he is not fond of artificial grass due to some back problems that have been afflicting is end-of-career years.
Stadium: Kalev (artificial)
Coach: Daniel Meijel
Website: www.jkkalev.ee
Facebook: tallinnakalev
Twitter: JKTallinnaKalev
Contact: info@jkkalev.ee
PÕHJA-TALLINNA JK VOLTA
Rüütli will keep the Volta’s flag high (JK Volta Facebook)
A new/old club is in town. The reality is that the name and the club are new, but the team might be ‘old’.
Part of the former FC Castovanni Eagles, in fact, has gone under the new entity born in Nothern Tallinn district (Põhja Tallinn) and financed by the energy company Volta OÜ albeit the former was reinstated in IV.Liiga after Trummi SK dissolved. We shall assume that many Castovanni players (full squad from last year here) shall also dress Volta’s jersey. The first team coach will be no less than the abovementioned Tarmo Rüütli! Will Tarmo play also for JK Retro? Quite unlikely, however this is not a rethoric question since, in the past, a similar circumstance has already happened: it was August 2006 when the same Rüütli delivered his speech to the Levadia players he was the coach of ahead of a cup tie and before running onto the green grass of Kadriorg Park Stadium as FC Soccernet player in a 24-0 loss (or win?) which used to be the record loss in a cup game before 2015 (FC Infonet vs. JK Virtsu 36-0). Welcome to Estonia. If expectations will be maintained, we shall see Castovanni’s best striker, Aleksei Naariste (also a youth coach at the club) in the squad as he collected 10 goals last season of the 45 scored by the team in 22 games. The club main aim is to become a point of reference for youth in the Northern district of the city and assumingly have the first team climb the ladder of the Estonian football pyramid in the next years. Ambitions animated by former president of Kalev, Raimo Nõu, a former teammate of our coach Angelo Palmeri at the same FC Soccernet.
Stadium: Sõle Gymnasium (artificial)
Coach: Tarmo Rüütli
Website: www.jkvolta.ee
Facebook: jkvolta
Twitter: –
Contact: info@jkvolta.ee
FC ESTON VILLA
Villa have been holding season prep camp at Sõle Gymnasium stadium which is covered during Winter.
Last year our lads had the chance to taste the double team. The results were very different. If in the away tie we lost 3-1 to a double team re-inforced with first-team players (among others former Rumori Calcio one-game player Richard Barnwell who scored the opener for the most classic of the ex’ goals), in the return there was no story as, albeit some help from first team (among others Portuguese winger Ricardo De Sousa), the boys in Skyblue steamrolled the city center rivals 5-0 (in goal the first-team goalkeeper, Martin Goldśmit). The first team earned their promotion in 2015 and with 31 points they managed to conquer safety well in advance thanks also to the 61 goals scored (4th best striking force) in 22 games. The previous year topscorer in IV.Liiga confirmed himself also one tier above as Englishman Daniel Harold Field bagged 14 goals and the 3rd place as best scorer in the league in 2017, the only Villa player in the top10 of the league ’bombers’.
The team is populated by another foreigner as Hungarian defender Andras Gelencser. The same Richard Barnwell will be the head coach of Eston Villa as he has officially replaced Mati Pari flown to JK Tabasalu. FC Eston Villa have already played a friendly game and lost to Dünamo Tallinn (score unknown). It will be a special game for a new signing, 20-year-old Giacomo Piron from Italy who, albeit mainly based at the second team, was included in the call-ups for a game against Igiliikur with the first team but did not enter the pitch. Their debut game at Kalju III was a scoredraw (1-1).
Stadium: Sõle Gymnasium (artificial)
Coach: Richard Barnwell
Website: –
Facebook: fcestonvilla
Twitter: –
Contact: estonvillafc@gmail.com
NÕMME KALJU FC III
If he could do it with the national team jersey, he can do again for Kalju III, Kristen Viimäe (Soccernet)
It will be a special day for our Federico Levi when he will square up with his old teammates at Kalju third team. ’Fede’ has been playing in pink and black for all his career in Estonian lower leagues as his first game in the system dates back to April 2012 when he debuted and played 74’ against FC Soccernet, a game he remembers well since he scored the opener on 41’ (2-2 the FT score). Federico can be deemed a III.Liiga expert since he has played at this level almost on each and every season (except 2013 when Kalju III was in IV.Liiga following relegation the year before). We leave Federico to describe his former team whose topscorer (9 goals) is no less than former international (over 100 caps) Kristen Viimäe, Kalju youth coordinator: ’they are a tough team made of a good mixture of expert players and youngsters,‘ told Federico to our website ‘their strenght is the amount of time (years) they have been playing together: many of them started in Kalju III in 2009. Coach (Peter) Kuusma knows football very well and know how to develop each player’s strenght and can read football very well. He doesn’t like wasting the game with long balls but rather tries to control the game. Ball possession and first-touch football are the key-words for Kalju III. We will have to pay attention to the speed of the two attacking wingers Rämson and Adler, to avoid the through-passes between central and lateral defenders.’
As we write, only 12 players are in the list with five 2001-born players available for pick…we are basically talking about 15-16 years old players.
Kalju III will be the second team of Nõmme Kalju U21. Another former international and club’s sport director, Sergei Terehhov, is part of the team albeit he did not collect a single appearance during season 2016.
Rumori Calcio has 2 precedents with Nõmme Kalju FC III at Hiiu Stadium, both friendlies and a set of losses: 2-0 in March 2016 and and eventful 5-4 in August 2016.
Albeit the Estonian FA websites mentions Finno-Brazilian coach Getulio Fredo as head coach, according to our sources the Kalju III coach shall be former Narva Trans and Rakvere Tarvas, Valeri Bondarenko.
Stadium: Hiiu (artificial)
Coach: Valeri Bondarenko
Website: www.kaljufc.ee
Facebook: NommeKaljuFC
Twitter: @KaljuFC
Contact: info@jkkalju.ee
KSK FC STROMMI
A vintage Strommi at the 2009 End-of-Year tournament (jalgpall.ee)
Together with JK Retro, it is the only club in our group not to have either a website or a Facebook page. They are the double team of TJK Legion, a II.Liiga club quite known for their football youth activity in the Russian-speaking community. Some young players find space also in this team (a 2000, Vadim Hõppe, and a 1999, Aleksei Volis) however the team is mostly composed by 1970’s and 1980’s. Their topscorer (nr.8 in the general table) was Rauf-Roman Mikailov (11 goals) a 1995 whose playing rights belong to TJK Legion. Rauf-Roman scored 4 goals in one game at his debut against Saku Sporting in a 5-0 win. The team impressed for the amount of red cards collected in past season: 9, same number Mikailov and Kondakov share in the bookings table they top unrivalled. The coach is 49-year-old Andrei Bespomoštšnov, who played his last game in lower leagues for FC Strommi in 2011.
KSK stands for ’Kunstigümnasium SK’, meaning Art Gymnasium Sporting Club, the previous name of the club (year of foundation, 1998)
Stadium: Wismari (artificial)
Coach: Andrei Bespomoštšnov
Website: –
Facebook: –
Twitter: –
Contact: tjklegionbes@mail.ru
SAKU SPORTING
A happy Saku Sporting who won the 2016 End-of-Year tournament for III.Liiga teams (jalgpall.ee)
Not only beer. If the word ’Saku’ reminds of one of the most popular beer brands in Estonia, the Sporting is there to remind that the small town in the ourskirts of Tallinn (about 4,000 inhabitants) is also a center of football interest. The head coach is UEFA-A licencesed Jan Harend, who has been our coach’s teacher during the licensing course for D and C level. ’Jan is a very calm person but at the same time he is very passionate about what he does,’ recounts Angelo about his direct experience with him at the courses ’it will be interesting to challenge him on a football pitch.’ The club’s main activity is the youth sector as the many 2000’s and 1990’s are a testimony to their work. However, this might explain the 10th place with 19 points in 22 games and the -25 goal difference as a reflection of the lack of experience of the young side where none of the players have managed to collect more than 5 goals (the maximum amount reached by Indrek Siir (1991) and Anthony Enden (1987). This is why the club has added the experience of former Trummi SK midfielder, Raimo Leosk, into its ranks.
18 players have finished on referees books for a total of a whoppy 41 yellow cards collected in the process.
Stadium: Saku Gymnasium (artificial)
Coach: Jan Harend
Website: www.sakusporting.ee
Facebook: sakusporting
Twitter: SakuSporting
Contact: info@sakusporting.ee
HARJU JK LAAGRI
Indrek Nuuma with his kids at a recent youth tournament (Harju Facebook)
After Saku, it will be the longest haul for our boys who will take another trip to Laagri artificial pitch (last year it was a happy one at Majandusmagister as it marked the club’s first-ever win in club football). Laagri is the home of one of the finest football academies of the city, Harju JK. Included in the III.Liiga Eastern group, the team will finally have an easier schedule with games in Tallinn area. The team has several 1990’s in their list including the 2016 topscorer (10 goals) Ken-Glaid Nool. The team is also formed by Harju JK academy coaches as Ranno Seppel, and the brothers Nuuma who are the founders of the school (2009). The team featured also a Portuguese player, Joao Pedro Lourenco, who was a coach at the club and shall have assumingly left. Harju JK fared quite well in the Eastern group as they classified 7th with 33 points with the second-best attack of the league, 71 goals! 17 players out of 24-man squad hit the goal at least once in past season.
Coach Angelo Palmeri has been visiting their trainings with youth back in late Summer and also attended a seminary with youth coaches from Bayern Munich and Benfica: ’a very interesting club dedicated to youth,’ told us the gaffer ’I have seen with my eyes how they work, and they put a lot of passion and quality in what they do. We talked a lot with Lauri about football and I definitely love their approach and philosophy of work.’
Stadium: Laagri (artificial)
Coach: –
Website: www.harjujk.ee
Facebook: HarjuJkLaagri
Twitter: –
Contact: info@harjujk.ee
KRISTIINE JK
Last but not least, the only other club along us that rose from IV.Liiga thanks to their second place in the Northern/Eastern group.
Rumori Calcio have precedents with KJK: a 6-5 win in a 9-a-side preseason friendly in Kotka Hall in January 2016, a 2-2 in Kalev artificial pitch in March 2016, a goalless draw in a mini-football challenge at the End-of-Year Tournament in last December and the very recent 0-1 loss in one of our five pre-season games. The double tie in the league will be the first official games in the football system. Kristiine fought for the direct promotion till the end as they arrived 2 points clear of FC Depoo who were later promoted as well as 3rd classified following the Estonian FA decision to award a place in III.Liiga to the third placed of Northern/Eastern and Northern/Western groups. Kristiine could count on the goals of Carl-Erik Sellenberg (12 goals, third best in the league) and Sander Talviste (11): they account for almost 50% of the goals scored in 18 games (45). Coached by Tarmo Randver, the team could count on 2 French, Allan Gery and Jimmy Dewerdt (a Rumori Calcio player in IAFA futsal 2014-15) and on the long-time member of the team, Japanese Taro Kageyama. Another foreigner is Mindaugas Grigaitis from Lithuania.
Stadium: Kalev (artificial)
Coach: Tarmo Randver
Website: www.kristiinejk.ee
Facebook: KristiineJK
Twitter: –
Contact: info@kristiinejk.ee
