FC Kuressaare

Kuressaare

Full name	FC Kuressaare
Nickname(s)	Kure[1]
Founded	14 March 1997; 27 years ago (1997-03-14)[1]
Ground	Kuressaare linnastaadion[2]
Capacity	2,000[3]
President	Priit Penu[1]
Manager	Roman Kozhukhovskyi
League	Meistriliiga
2022	Meistriliiga, 5th
Website	http://www.fckuressaare.ee
Home colours Away colours

FC Kuressaare, commonly known as Kuressaare, is a professional football club, based in Kuressaare, Saaremaa, Estonia. The club's home ground is Kuressaare linnastaadion.

Founded on 14 March 1997, the club competes in the Meistriliiga, the top tier of Estonian football.

Kuressaare was founded on 14 March 1997. Its predecessor was a youth club B.B. Sport, coached by Johannes Kaju. Kuressaare joined the Estonian football league system and began competing in the Western division of the III liiga. The club's first president and manager was Aivar Pohlak.

Kuressaare was promoted to the Esiliiga for the 1998 season and finished in 6th place under the new manager Jan Važinski. Most of the team were Saaremaa locals who were reinforced by players from Kuressaare's parent club Flora. Kuressaare won the Esiliiga in the 1999 season and was promoted to the Meistriliiga.

Kuressaare finished the 2000 season, its maiden season in the Estonian top-flight, in 7th place. The club finished the 2001 season in 10th place under new manager Zaur Tšilingarašvili and was relegated to the Esiliiga.

In 2002, Sergei Zamogilnõi was hired as manager. Kuressaare finished the 2002 season as runners-up, qualifying to the promotion play-offs. Kuressaare won the play-offs against Lootus and returned to the Mesitriliiga. Kuressaare's stay in the top-flight was cut short again as the club finished the 2003 season in 8th place and was relegated. The team was restructured in 2004, using players from reserve team Sörve and was promoted back to the Meistriliiga despite finishing in 5th place due to the expansion of the league.

The 2005 season was the most successful in the club's earlier history, winning 7 and drawing 6 matches out of 36. The 8–1 victory over Dünamo became the new club record. Despite that, the team finished 8th and was relegated after losing the relegation play-offs against Ajax.

Kuressaare earned its way back to the Meistriliiga in the 2006 season, but was once again relegated in the following Meistriliiga season. The team finished the 2008 season as runners-up and was promoted to the Meistriliiga. Kuressaare remained in the Meistriliiga for the next five seasons from 2009 to 2013, when the club was relegated to Esiliiga after finishing the season in 10th place.^[4] After the 2015 season, Kuressaare were relegated to Esiliiga B, which they won the following season.

After finishing 5th in the Estonian second tier Esiliiga during the 2017 season, FC Kuressaare were unexpectedly offered the chance to return to Meistriliiga, due to FC Infonet and Sillamäe Kalev leaving top-flight football and Maardu Linnameeskond and Rakvere Tarvas, who both finished in front of Kuressaare in the 2017 Esiliiga season, opting to not fill the vacant Meistriliiga spots. Jan Važinski returned to the manager role and Kuressaare finished the 2018 Meistriliiga season in ninth place, beating FC Elva in the relegation play-offs to maintain their spot in Estonian top-flight football. The following 2019 season concluded in a similar way, with Kuressaare finishing in ninth place and this time beating Pärnu Vaprus in the play-offs.

With the introduction of solidarity mechanisms in 2020, Marco Lukka became the first ever fully proffesional football player of the club. Kuressaare also appointed Roman Kozhukhovskyi as the manager. Again, Kuressaare finished the season in 9th place and won the relegation play-offs against Maardu. The 2021 season proved to be successful for the club, as they finished in seventh place. Otto-Robert Lipp's goal against FC Flora in their 2–2 draw also won the Meistriliiga's 'goal of the season' award.

The 2022 season was the most successful in FC Kuressaare's history, as the club finished 5th and accumulated 50 points in 36 matches.

As of 5 March 2022.^[5]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  EST Magnus Karofeld 2 DF  EST Michael Schjonning-Larsen 3 DF  EST Markus Allast 4 DF  EST Sander Alex Liit 5 DF  EST Moorits Veering 6 MF  EST Oliver Rass 8 MF  EST Joonas Soomre 10 MF  EST Sander Seeman 11 MF  EST Silver Alex Kelder 15 DF  EST Märten Pajunurm 16 DF  EST Tristan Teeväli 17 FW  EST Sten Reinkort 19 MF  EST Daniel Tuhkanen

No. Pos. Nation Player 22 DF  EST Mairo Miil 24 MF  EST Rauno Tutk 26 FW  EST Sander Laht 27 FW  EST Mattias Männilaan (on loan from Flora) 28 DF  EST Kristjan Kurim 33 MF  EST Sten-Egert Paap 35 MF  EST Artjom Jermatsenko 42 DF  EST Sten Penzev 46 FW  EST Otto-Robert Lipp (on loan from Flora) 48 DF  EST Ralf-Sander Suvinomm (on loan from Flora) 66 MF  EST Aleksander Iljin 77 GK  EST Kristen Lapa (on loan from Flora) 87 DF  EST Rasmus Saar

For season transfers, see List of Estonian football transfers winter 2021–22.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Current technical staff Position Name Manager Roman Kozhukhovskyi Assistant manager Martti Pukk Elari Valmas Physiotherapist Karina Talk

Managerial history Dates Name 1997 Aivar Pohlak 1998–2000 Jan Važinski 2001 Zaur Tšilingarashvili 2002 Sergei Zamogilnõi 2003–2007 Jan Važinski 2010–2013 Sergei Zamogilnõi 2014–2015 Pelle Pohlak 2016–2017 Sander Viira 2018–2019 Jan Važinski 2019 Dmitrijs Kalašņikovs 2020– Roman Kozhukhovskyi

• Esiliiga
  • Winners (1): 1999
• Esiliiga B
  • Winners (1): 2016

Season	Division	Pos	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Top goalscorer	Cup
1997–98	III liiga	1	6	5	1	0	18	3	+15	16	Toivo Alt (8)	First round
1998	Esiliiga	6	14	4	5	5	20	19	+1	17	Svajūnas Rauckis (8)
1999		1	28	21	4	3	92	25	+67	67	Svajūnas Rauckis (27)	Fourth round
2000	Meistriliiga	7	28	5	4	19	25	68	−43	19	Risto Kallaste Tarmo Saks (5)	Third round
2001		8	28	2	1	25	18	114	−96	7	Tiit Tikenberg (5)	Quarter-finalists
2002	Esiliiga	2	28	17	2	9	82	50	+32	53	Tarmo Neemelo (21)	Second round
2003	Meistriliiga	8	28	1	2	25	11	121	–110	5	Tiit Tikenberg (3)	Second round
2004	Esiliiga	5	28	11	2	15	56	70	−14	35	Martti Pukk (13)	Quarter-finalists
2005	Meistriliiga	9	36	7	6	23	40	96	−56	27	Martti Pukk (11)	Second round
2006	Esiliiga	2	36	22	5	9	64	44	+20	71	Rainer Veskimäe (12)	Quarter-finalists
2007	Meistriliiga	9	36	5	3	28	25	94	−69	18	Dmitri Kulikov (5)	Third round
2008	Esiliiga	2	36	20	9	7	67	35	+32	69	Martti Pukk (14)	Third round
2009	Meistriliiga	8	36	7	3	26	21	99	−78	24	Dmitri Skiperski (8)	Fourth round
2010		9	36	7	3	26	32	93	−61	24	Dmitri Skiperski (9)	Fourth round
2011		9	36	7	5	24	28	68	−40	26	Martti Pukk (8)	Third round
2012		8	36	5	11	20	31	80	−49	26	Andre Ilves (6)	Fourth round
2013		10	36	2	5	29	22	87	−65	11	Andre Ilves Karl Mööl Elari Valmas (4)	Second round
2014	Esiliiga	6	36	14	5	17	69	81	−12	47	Tõnis Koppel Sander Laht Maarek Suursaar (10)	Quarter-finalists
2015		10	36	10	7	19	48	95	−47	37	Sander Laht (14)	Third round
2016	Esiliiga B	1	36	23	7	6	117	48	+69	76	Maarek Suursaar (33)	Third round
2017	Esiliiga	5	36	17	4	15	70	63	+7	55	Sander Laht (17)	Quarter-finalists
2018	Meistriliiga	9	36	6	3	27	34	115	−81	21	Sander Laht (15)	Quarter-finalists
2019		9	36	6	5	25	24	87	−63	23	Märten Pajunurm (7)	Third round
2020		9	30	5	9	16	28	63	−35	24	Mattias Männilaan (14)	Third round
2021		7	30	10	4	16	38	47	−8	34	Mattias Männilaan (10)	Fourth round

Wikimedia Commons has media related to FC Kuressaare.

• Official website (in Estonian)
• FC Kuressaare at Estonian Football Association