Mart Poom

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Mart Poom
Personal information
Date of birth	3 February 1972 (1972-02-03) (age 37)
Place of birth	Tallinn, Estonia
Height	1.95 m (6 ft 5 in)
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Youth career
1979–1989	Tallinna Lõvid
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1988 1989–1990 1992 1992–1993 1993–1994 1994–1997 1995–1997 1997–2003 2002–2003 2003–2006 2005–2006 2006–2007 2007–2009	Tallinna Lōvid Sport Tallinn KuPS Flora Tallinn FC Wil Portsmouth → Flora Tallinn (loan) Derby County → Sunderland (loan) Sunderland → Arsenal (loan) Arsenal Watford	020 (0) 059 (0) 009 (0) 022 (0) 013 (0) 004 (0) 014 (0) 146 (0) 000 (0) 058 (1) 000 (0) 001 (0) 019 (0)
National team
1991–2009	Estonia	120 (0)
Teams managed
2008– 2009–	Estonia (goalkeeping coach) Arsenal (assistant goalkeeping coach)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Mart Poom (Estonian pronunciation: [ˈmɑrt ˈpoːm]; English: /ˌmɑrt ˈpoʊm/; born 3 February 1972 in Tallinn) is a retired Estonian football goalkeeper. He retired after Estonia's 0-0 draw against Portugal on the 10th June 2009 to focus on his job as goalkeeping coach at Arsenal and the Estonia national football team as well as other more personal projects.^[1]

Club career

Early career

Poom started his football career in the clubs "Lõvid" ("Lions") in the former Soviet Union and Flora Tallinn in his home country, before a brief stint at Finnish club KuPS and Swiss club FC Wil.^[2] In 1994 he moved to English club Portsmouth, but only played seven games and was loaned back to his former club Flora Tallinn.

Derby

In 1997 Poom moved to Derby County, making his Premier League debut against Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Sunderland

After Derby's relegation to the First Division in the summer of 2002, Poom moved to Sunderland in November of that year. On 20 September 2003, he headed a 90th minute equaliser for Sunderland against his former club at Pride Park.^[3]

Poom's career at Sunderland was beset by several injuries, and he spent much of the 2003–04 season on the sidelines.

Arsenal

Poom was signed by Arsenal in August 2005 as temporary cover for Jens Lehmann and Manuel Almunia. The deal was made permanent in January 2006. He was Arsenal's third-choice keeper, and did not play a single match in the 2005–06 season. However he became the first Estonian to receive a Champions League runners-up medal after Arsenal lost to FC Barcelona. Poom did not play nor did he make the substitutes' bench for the final, but was a member of Arsenal's 25-man European squad, each of whom won a silver medal.^[4]

He made his debut for Arsenal on 8 November 2006 in a League Cup match against Everton, replacing the injured Manuel Almunia at half-time; Arsenal won 1–0 with an Emmanuel Adebayor goal. His first and only appearance for Arsenal in the Premier League came on the last day of the 2006–07 season against his former team Portsmouth, in a goalless draw.

In 2009 Poom started as Arsenal's Goalkeepers coach , and he is Estonian National team goalkeeper coach

Watford

On 26 May 2007 Poom signed for Watford, who had recently been relegated from the Premier League, for an undisclosed fee.^[5] He had become surplus to requirements with Arsenal after they signed Polish international goalkeeper Łukasz Fabiański. He started the new season as Watford's first choice but went on to lose his place to Richard Lee.

Poom returned to the side for the start of the 2008–09 season. However, he sustained a dislocated shoulder in a game against Reading in September 2008 that ruled him out for the majority of the season. Although he returned to training before the end of the campaign, he was not considered for the first-team and he was released from his contract, which due to end in June, on 30 April 2009.^[6]

International career

Mart Poom before an Estonia-England game in June 2007.

Poom has represented Estonia on 120 occasions. He made his debut in a 1992 international friendly against Slovenia, while playing for KuPS in Finland. In November 2003, he was selected by the Estonian Football Association as the country's greatest player of the last 50 years. He played his last, 120th, international game on June 10, 2009 in a goalless draw against Portugal in Tallinn.

Personal

He is married to Lissel (b. 1975), with whom he has two sons named Markus (b. 1998) and Andreas (b. 2003).^{[citation needed]}

Honours

Sunderland FC

• Winner
  • Football League Championship: 2004-05

Arsenal

• Runner Up
  • UEFA Champions League: 2005-06
  • League Cup: 2007

Individual

• Estonian Footballer of the Year: 1993, 1994, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2003

References

External links

• Mart Poom profile at watfordfc.co.uk
• Mart Poom career stats at Soccerbase
• Google Video of Mart Poom's equalising header
• UEFA.com - Golden Player of Estonia
• Mart Poom - career abroad