“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 The request is on a desk at FCI Tallinn, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FCI Tallinn they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Joonas Puri 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Erik Vassiljev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
1‑2 to Sillamae Kalev, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at FCI Tallinn training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Vassiljev 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FCI Tallinn can pretend not to have heard.
Taijo Igonen 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.
Marked 8.18. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at FCI Tallinn.
Squad31 May 2027
The division's best last weekend was a FCI Tallinn man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Markus Kait was the best thing in any of them.
The words a physio says slowly. 35 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Position 8 and 7 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
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.
Sander Sorga 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.
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. FCI Tallinn lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 FCI Tallinn, and it is not being withdrawn.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Taijo Igonen 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.
Levadia left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at FCI Tallinn training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Vassiljev 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.
“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 FCI Tallinn, and it is not being withdrawn.
Artur Ainsalu 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at FCI Tallinn can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sander Alamaa did not need any: 8.04, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FCI Tallinn can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FCI Tallinn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“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 FCI Tallinn, and it is not being withdrawn.
Artur Ainsalu 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.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
“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 FCI Tallinn know it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Brent Liivak has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Taijo Sorga has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Marek Pikk has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
In brief
SquadErik Vassiljev falls out with a teammate over standards
BoardroomNobody left the FCI Tallinn dressing room in a hurry
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FCI Tallinn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Nobody at FCI Tallinn will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Taijo Igonen 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at FCI Tallinn training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Vassiljev 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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at FCI Tallinn has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
In brief
SquadSander Sorga asks for a word with the manager
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FCI Tallinn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at FCI Tallinn has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Daniil Pareiko arrives from Narva Trans with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
Taijo Igonen 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.
Add another name to the list: Levadia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Joonas Puri. The answer from FCI Tallinn has not changed — yet.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at FCI Tallinn training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Vassiljev 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FCI Tallinn can pretend not to have heard.
Taijo Igonen 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; FCI Tallinn are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
In brief
SquadSander Sorga falls out with a teammate over standards
Silver Klavan 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at FCI Tallinn training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sander Sorga 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.
Nobody at FCI Tallinn will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vlasi Teniste will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FCI Tallinn the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Taijo Igonen 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.
In brief
SquadSander Sorga falls out with a teammate over standards
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. FCI Tallinn lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vlasi Teniste will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FCI Tallinn the goodbyes have quietly begun.
90 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. FCI Tallinn lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FCI Tallinn is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FCI Tallinn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at FCI Tallinn training over how hard people work
The words a physio says slowly. 105 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FCI Tallinn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at FCI Tallinn training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sander Sorga 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 words a physio says slowly. 112 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FCI Tallinn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Sander Sorga 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FCI Tallinn can pretend not to have heard.
Silver Klavan 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.
7 goals in one match, Frank Dmitrijev on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of FCI Tallinn and Narva Trans.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Markus Kait, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at FCI Tallinn training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sander Sorga 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at FCI Tallinn has been clear about where Rauno Antonov stands, which is more than many ever get.