Mart Poom

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Mart Poom
Personal information
Date of birth	February 3, 1972 (age 35)
Place of birth	Tallinn, Estonia
Height	1.94m (6 ft 4⅓ in)
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current club	Arsenal
Number	21
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1992 1992-1993 1993-1994 1994-1997 1995-1996 1996-1997 1997-2003 2002-2003 2003-2006 2005-2006 2006-	KuPS Flora Tallinn FC Wil Portsmouth → Flora Tallinn (loan) → Flora Tallinn (loan) Derby County → Sunderland (loan) Sunderland → Arsenal (loan) Arsenal	009 (0) 022 (0) 000 (0) 004 (0) 007 (0) 007 (0) 146 (0) 000 (0) 058 (1) 000 (0) 001 (0)
National team2
1992-	Estonia	105 (0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 2006-12-16. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 2006-09-04. * Appearances (Goals)

Mart Poom (born February 3, 1972 in Tallinn; pronunciation: [mɑrt poːm]) is an Estonian football goalkeeper. He currently plays for Arsenal, whom he joined on January 23, 2006 following a loan spell from Sunderland.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Club career 1.2 International career 2 Personal 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Club 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. In 1994 he moved to English club Portsmouth, but only played seven games and was loaned back to his former club Flora. In 1997 he moved to Derby County, making his Premiership debut against Manchester United at Old Trafford.

After Derby's relegation to the First Division in the summer of 2002, Poom moved to Sunderland in November of that year. On September 20 2003, he headed a 90th minute equaliser for Sunderland against his former club at Pride Park.^[1] It was described on BBC Radio Five Live as "The best headed equaliser by a goalkeeper against his former club in the last minute. Ever!", and earned him the nickname "Poominator".^{[citation needed]}

Poom's career at Sunderland was beset by several injuries, and he spent much of 2003-04 recovering. He was signed by Arsenal in August 2005 as temporary cover for Jens Lehmann and Manuel Almunia, before the deal was made permanent in January 2006. He is currently Arsenal's third-choice keeper, and did not play a single match in the 2005-06 season, although he became the first Estonian to receive a Champions League medal (albeit a 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.^[2]

He finally made his debut for Arsenal on 8 November 2006 in a Carling Cup match against Everton, replacing an injured Manuel Almunia at half-time; Arsenal won 1-0 with an Emmanuel Adebayor goal. In the post-match interview, Poom declared he would be playing at Arsenal FC for at least 'another 3 to 4 years',^{[citation needed]} which will span his amazing career to over 16 years.

[edit] International career

Poom has represented Estonia on 105 occasions, making his debut in a 1992 (while playing for KuPS in Finland) international friendly against Slovenia. In November 2003, he was selected by the Estonian Football Association as the country's greatest player of the last 50 years.^[3]

[edit] Personal

He is married to Lissel (b. 1975), with whom he has two sons named Markus (b. 1998) and Andreas (b. 2003).

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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

Preceded by Uram Hepner	Estonian Footballer of the Year 1993	Succeeded by Retained
Preceded by Current Holder	Estonian Footballer of the Year 1994	Succeeded by Martin Reim
Preceded by Marek Lemsalu	Estonian Footballer of the Year 1997	Succeeded by Retained
Preceded by Current Holder	Estonian Footballer of the Year 1998	Succeeded by Andres Oper
Preceded by Andres Oper	Estonian Footballer of the Year 2000	Succeeded by Indrek Zelinski
Preceded by Andres Oper/Raio Piiroja	Estonian Footballer of the Year 2003	Succeeded by Andrei Stepanov

Arsenal F.C. - Current Squad
1 Lehmann | 2 Diaby | 4 Fàbregas | 5 Touré | 6 Senderos | 7 Rosický | 8 Ljungberg | 9 Baptista | 10 Gallas | 11 van Persie | 13 Hleb | 14 Henry | 15 Denílson | 16 Flamini | 19 Gilberto | 20 Djourou | 21 Poom | 22 Clichy | 24 Almunia | 25 Adebayor | 27 Eboué | 30 Aliadière | 31 Hoyte | 32 Walcott | 33 Connolly | 43 Randall | 45 Traoré | Manager: Wenger