By This winter has seen an unusual amount of transfer activity concerning Estonian national football team players, with 12 finding new clubs and 11 still searching.
Ats Purje (29 years old, 44 games played for the national team) is the latest to look for a new employee, having cut ties with his Finnish team, err.ee reported.
Others in a similar position are Ken Kallaste (26, 8), Aleksandr Dmitrijev (32, 85), Enar Jääger (30, 105), Joel Lindpere (33, 92), Sergei Pareiko (38, 57), Dmitri Kruglov (30, 91), Tarmo Kink (29, 82), Sergei Mošnikov (27, 21), Hannes Anier (22, 2) and Kaimar Saag (26, 45).
Many of the above are currently training with Estonian top league clubs, and if they fail to find teams outside of Estonia, they are likely to begin the season in Estonia. This would greatly boost the popularity of the domestic league as Kink, Lindpere and Pareiko are all some of the most talented players to come out of Estonia in the past decade or more. Kallaste, Dmitrijev and Kruglov took part in Estonia’s top league last season, with the latter two winning the title with FC Levadia.
The following national team players have changed clubs in recent weeks (age and games played for the national team in brackets):
Karol Mets (21, 7) from FC Flora to Viking FK (Norway)
Martin Vunk (30, 63) from Nõmme Kalju to Persija Jakarta (Indonesia)
Gert Kams (29, 34) from Seinäjoen JK (Finland) to FC Flora
Sergei Zenjov (25, 33) from Blackpool (England) to Torpedo Moscow (Russia)
Frank Liivak (18, 1) from Napoli SSC (Italy) to Alcobendas Sport (Spain)
Henri Anier (24, 15) from FC Aue (Germany) to Dundee United (Scotland)
Rimo Hunt (29, 6) extended contract with FC Kaysar (Kazakhstan)
Siim Luts (25, 20) signed for FC Levadia
Igor Subbotin (24, 1) from FC Levadia to KF Mlada Boleslav (Czech Republic)
Artjom Artjunin (25, 3) from Levadia to FC Brasov (Romania)
Sander Puri (26, 57) signed for Sligo Rovers (Ireland)
Henrik Ojamaa (23, 17) from Motherwell (Scotland) to Sarpsborg FF (Norway)
by J.M. Laats
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