Marked for Ilya Rabeshko
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Jan 2028
Momodou Jallow has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Flora U21 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 Jan 2028
He is 18, he is averaging 7.16, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad17 Jan 2028
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Flora U21 know it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market3 Jan 2028
FCI Levadia come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Flora U21 did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market3 Jan 2028
Only the photograph left for Robert Veering
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Robert Veering will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Flora U21 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market3 Jan 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad3 Jan 2028
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Flora U21 had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Market3 Jan 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Ilja Antonov may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Squad3 Jan 2028
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Flora U21 have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market20 Dec 2027
Only the photograph left for Momodou Jallow
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Momodou Jallow will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Flora U21 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad20 Dec 2027
A season average of 7.16 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Flora U21 know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad20 Dec 2027
A row about effort at Flora U21
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Momodou Jallow was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ilja Antonov, and the manager let it.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
Nikita Kalmõkov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market20 Dec 2027
1 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Flora U21 could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market13 Dec 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Flora U21 can pretend not to have heard.
Market13 Dec 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Flora U21 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad13 Dec 2027
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad13 Dec 2027
He is 19, he is averaging 7.03, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Flora U21 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Momodou Jallow is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
Maksim Pavlov knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Maksim Pavlov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market6 Dec 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Flora U21 is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Flora U21 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sander Alamaa is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Matvei Jekimov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
Maksim Pavlov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market15 Nov 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Karl-Tristan Lorenz will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Flora U21 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 Nov 2027
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Flora U21 will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Squad15 Nov 2027
At 19, Nikita Kalmõkov is already the best thing here
An average of 7.03 in a first team he is several years too young for. Flora U21 have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market18 Oct 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Karl-Tristan Lorenz will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Flora U21 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad18 Oct 2027
A season average of 7.03 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Flora U21 know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad18 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Flora U21
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Momodou Jallow was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words exchanged at Flora U21
Matvei Jekimov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ilya Rabeshko, and the manager let it.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
Momodou Jallow knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Momodou Jallow trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market11 Oct 2027
Only the photograph left for Robert Veering
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Robert Veering will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Flora U21 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad11 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Flora U21
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Momodou Jallow was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
The manager makes an example of Maksim Pavlov
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market4 Oct 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market4 Oct 2027
Sander Alamaa has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Flora U21 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ilja Antonov, and the manager let it.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Market4 Oct 2027
Flora U21 have made Maksim Pavlov available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
Maksim Pavlov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market30 Aug 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market30 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Flora U21 is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad30 Aug 2027
At 18, Andero Kaares is already the best thing here
An average of 7.16 in a first team he is several years too young for. Flora U21 have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Matvei Jekimov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market30 Aug 2027
Harju JK Laagri are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Flora U21 will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Momodou Jallow falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market16 Aug 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and FC Tallinn waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Flora U21 is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market16 Aug 2027
Robert Veering has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Flora U21 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Momodou Jallow falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market19 Jul 2027
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Flora U21 money.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
Remo Valdmets asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Ilya Rabeshko in the team of the week — 6.82
6.82 across the ninety minutes, and a place in the division’s best eleven for it. Nobody who saw the match will argue.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match10 Jul 2027
3‑0, and Deivid Andreas took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Flora U21 tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Match12 Jul 2027
The season ends: position 6 for Flora U21
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 29 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
A brace, and Deivid Andreas takes the afternoon — 8.40
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Deivid Andreas provided it, and the 8.40 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market12 Jul 2027
The bid was some way short and Flora U21 did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
Sander Alamaa, 19, steals the show — 7.98
Marked 7.98 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match10 Jul 2027
Flora U21 make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Flora U21 have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad12 Jul 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flora U21 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jul 2027
One booking too many, and Deivid Andreas sits out. Flora U21 lose him for the sort of avoidable reason that makes a manager's week longer.
Squad12 Jul 2027
A new face in his position, and Robert Veering suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Flora U21 have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 Jul 2027
9‑2, and Deivid Andreas took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Flora U21 tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad5 Jul 2027
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Squad5 Jul 2027
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market5 Jul 2027
Welco come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Flora U21 did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
Sander Alamaa, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.47
A mark of 8.47 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad5 Jul 2027
At 18, Andero Kaares is already the best thing here
An average of 7.16 in a first team he is several years too young for. Flora U21 have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.92, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market5 Jul 2027
Sander Alamaa has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Flora U21 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Jun 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 23 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match12 Jun 2027
0‑11 to Welco, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match12 Jun 2027
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 11 goals between Flora U21 and Welco, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad14 Jun 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flora U21 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom14 Jun 2027
Nobody left the Flora U21 dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
Ilya Rabeshko knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Flora U21, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad14 Jun 2027
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Flora U21 will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Match14 Jun 2027
Flora U21 in the hunt for Europe
Position 6, 20 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Market14 Jun 2027
5 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Flora U21 money.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Jun 2027
He is 17, he is averaging 7.16, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Remo Valdmets, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.10
A mark of 8.10 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market7 Jun 2027
Sander Alamaa has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Flora U21 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad7 Jun 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flora U21 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match5 Jun 2027
A 1‑0 win over Viimsi, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Flora U21 will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Robert Veering named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Robert Veering is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
Ilya Rabeshko knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ilya Rabeshko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead7 Jun 2027
The leaders are next for Flora U21
Welco top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market12 Apr 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Flora U21, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Robert Veering was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match10 Apr 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market12 Apr 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Flora U21, another week without a signature from Robert Veering.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Robert Veering knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Robert Veering trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 10. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Kristen Lapa makes the position his own
At 27 he is in the side on merit and somebody else is watching. Places at Flora U21 are won quietly and lost loudly, and this one was won.
Squad12 Apr 2027
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
Market12 Apr 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Ilya Rabeshko may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.