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Mart Poom: From a Reserve to a Coach | 
While he was honored as Estonia’s best player in the past half a century by the nation’s football association, Mart Poom could not earn even remotely the same kind of respect on club level. Despite boasting a variety of Eastern European and English clubs on his resume during his early days as a player, the legendary former Estonia goalkeeper is best remembered for an extremely inactive spell as a back-up keeper at Arsenal F.C.
Brought to North London by Arsene Wenger as the third choice goalkeeper behind Jens Lehmann and Manuel Almunia in 2005, Poom was relegated to the reserves that entire season. Despite becoming the only Estonian player to receive a UEFA Champions League runner up medal at the end of that season, Poom went on to make one appearance each in both the Carling Cup and the Premier League over the course on the next twelve months.
With the arrival of Lukasz Fabianski at The Emirates, Poom respectfully exited Wenger’s youthful Gunners in pursuit of first-team football at another outfit – Watford. At Vicarage Road, however, Poom struggled to hold down a place in the starting line-up due to constant concerns over his fitness.
It was during these testing times that Poom demonstrated the strength in character that won him countless presitigious accolades back home. Rather than surrendering abruptly to the struggles towards the end of his playing career, he took a step back to reflect on his options before deciding to make a swift transition into coaching. Since he burned no bridges during his classy exit from Arsenal, Arsene Wenger once again brought him aboard earlier this year as a mentor to the same exact players who had previously forced him down the pecking order.
Before pursuing his duties as Arsenal’s goalkeeping coach on a fulltime basis, Poom announced his retirement following an excellent performance for Estonia, which earned them a precious goalless draw against Portugal. To continue his affiliation with the Estonia national team, he has also acquired Arsenal’s permission to act as his nation’s goalkeeping coach during international breaks.
After reflecting upon Poom’s remarkable journey, one can only try and think if there was ever another retired footballer who siezed an opportunity as wonderful as the one that Poom earned through his distinctive leadership abilities. Certainly, no specific player comes to mind right away. In a nutshell, the journey of Mart Poom serves the purpose of constantly reminding the current generation of football professionals that in the long run, professionalism is the key to succeeding at the highest level.
Mart Poom at Arsenal? A good move for the former keeper or not? Have your say below!
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during his career, he had so many injures. About 10 years ago, when he played in derby, he was named as one of the greatest goalkeepers in premierleague. On his debute day, it was against man u, derby won it 3:2, Poom was hero.
Thanks, Amandeep – I am not surprised because not many Gunners fans even saw him around, let alone know much about him as a player. As for his coaching role, I don’t know whether the initial intention was to bring him in to coach the ladies’ team. All I know is that he eventually went on to join our first team squad while also being allowed to coach the Estonia goalkeepers during International breaks.
Great information Zain!
I didn’t know much about him.
But wasn’t he brought to coach arsenal ladies team… ?