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Mart Poom interview

Dave Bowler

11/15/07

There are few footballers whose lives have seen such dramatic change as Mart Poom has. This is his story, from Soviet Union to goalkeepers union.

It’s very nearly 20 years now since the Berlin Wall fell, since Mikhail Gorbachev’s policies of glasnost and perestroika changed

the face of the world that we lived in, tore up the old fault lines of east and west and put most of what seemed the apocalyptic dangers of the Cold War behind us. Long enough for a whole generation to have grown up with no first hand memories of just what the Soviet bloc represented in its chilly face off with the United States, long enough for some to forget just how different life was for all of us, on either side of the Iron Curtain.
But for those who lived through it, those were defining years, not least in the various republics of the USSR, nations that were bolted together to form the Soviet Union, a political alliance that held together for much of the 20th Century. Take Mart Poom for instance. He was born in 1972, a citizen of the Soviet Union. Now, he’s not only an Estonian, but perhaps the greatest sporting figure that that republic has ever produced, renowned across Europe. Had it not been for the events of the late 1980s though, that would have been impossible.

“Estonia was a very different place when I was growing up compared to the country that it is now. When I was young, it was still a part of the Soviet Union. They had taken over the country in 1940, and we did not get our independence back until 1991, when I was 19, so I have seen both sides of life there, before and after communism.

If things hadn’t changed, then probably I would have had a very different kind of life and a very different kind of career. I remember when I was starting to do well as a goalkeeper, around 1990, there was a chance for me to go to Finland to play for a team there but back then, everything to do with going out of the country had to be referred back to Moscow and I was not allowed to go, I could not get the papers I needed.

When we were part of the Soviet Union, we had no real control of our affairs, in football we didn’t have a national team, as we do now and as we did before the second World War. I was very lucky that we got our freedom back just as I was becoming old enough to make a career as a footballer. I’m very grateful for that.

“I was a sporty kid, played most things, I played lots of basketball which is a very popular sport in Estonia. They were looking for some boys to go football training at school and I was one of the ones that was picked and, because of my height I think, I was put straight into goal as well. I enjoyed playing in goal right away and just stayed there.

At that time, it was difficult to dream or imagine that one day I would play as a professional, even in the Soviet Union, but especially outside there in other countries, in the English league. It was nearly impossible to think of things such as that, because they just did not happen. But I enjoyed playing the game, I tried to do my best.
“My parents wanted me to get good marks at school, to be academically successful, which I managed to do.

I finished high school with top grades and then I went to university as well as playing football still - of course my time at university ended when things opened up at home and I had the chance to go and play abroad. I had to stop my studies, but I was studying economics at the time, so I guess I would have ended up in a business career. I don’t think I will be going back to that when I finish playing, because I would definitely like to stay in football.”

With Estonia gaining independence in 1991, quite literally a whole new world opened up for Mart. Suddenly, a career in football was a realistic proposition.

“In 1992, finally I was able to go and play in Finland which is a neighbouring country of Estonia, across the Baltic Sea. I came back to Estonia for a couple of years and played with Flora Tallinn, but then I really started my career away from home when I went to FC Wil in Switzerland and then to Portsmouth. It was a very big change to live overseas because Switzerland and England were very different countries to what I had experienced in the Soviet Union.
And I was still very young, I was 22 when Jim Smith signed me at Portsmouth in the summer of 1994. That was very difficult because at that time, Estonia was not a part of the EU, so I had to wait for some time for my work permit. Later on, I had a couple of injuries and did not play. When I was fit, I could not dislodge Alan Knight who was the number one there, so again, that caused work permit difficulties for me and I had to come back to Estonia for a year and play more games for the national team before I could get my permit renewed.

“I was only really with Portsmouth for one and a half years but it was great experience for me, a totally different sort of life. It really opened my eyes about what a football career could be like, it gave me great motivation, it made me even more ambitious to play in the English league and be a regular first team player. But it was very hard too, to be in a foreign country and in such a different way of living to what I had grown up with, everything was new, it was very strange. Fortunately I knew the language already, we studied it at school, I was a good student! In Estonia, most young people speak very good English, it’s a small nation so they need to learn other languages. When I was growing up, the first foreign language we learned was Russian, and then the second was English, but I think in schools now, English is the first foreign language they learn. So being able to communicate did help me but it took time to understand the country.

“I think my most successful time in England so far was with Derby County, the best time in my career. I was back in Estonia after Portsmouth, playing for my local team, but Jim Smith did not forget about me and when he became manager of Derby County, in the Spring in 1997, just before the transfer deadline, he signed me again. It was Derby’s first season in the Premier League and I enjoyed five very good years there. Steve McClaren was his assistant for a time before he went to Manchester United, Steve Round was there, Bill Beswick, who are all now part of the England coaching staff. Eric Steele was the goalkeeping coach, he is now at Manchester City, but he has probably been the biggest single influence on my career in England. The staff was very good and so were the players. We had a good team, we had players like Paolo Wanchope, Igor Stimac, Stefano Eranio, Lee Carsley, who is still playing at Everton now. We managed to finish 12th, 9th, 8th, then we had two years when we were fighting against relegation to survive, but finally we were relegated after some changes in management and staff. But I enjoyed immensely my time at Derby.
“When we were relegated, my move to Sunderland was very quick, it came from nowhere. A couple of years later, when I went back to Derby to play in my first game against them since I left, I actually scored, that was one of the highlights of my career! I had not really had chance to say goodbye to anyone at Pride Park when I left because it happened so quickly, so it was an interesting way to say goodbye to the Derby fans, to score an equaliser in injury time. It was an amazing feeling to score a goal and such an important goal. It was a good header as well! But at the end of the game, I got a standing ovation from both sets of supporters, even the Derby fans, so that was a great moment for me to remember.”

Ironically, Poom is one of the most experienced players in England now, having been here for the best part of 13 years. As an observer with an outsider’s perspective, what does he make of his time here?

“In the years that I have been in England, the game has changed so much. The quality in the Premier League just gets higher and higher, and it is more and more difficult to break into that division. When I was at Derby, it was a fairly small team, but we had some good years in the Premier League. Now Derby has got promoted and they are at the bottom of the league and I think they will probably stay there all season which is sad. The money plays such a big role nowadays, top clubs can buy players from anywhere, and they are making a bigger and bigger gap between them and the other teams.

“The Champions League has made a big difference also because that gives the big clubs even more money. It is very hard for any team that gets promoted, but that is still what you must aim for. You must aim for the chance to play against the best players in the world and even now, it is still possible to be successful, as Reading have. But the English league is the most popular in the world, it is the best in quality and in intensity, the speed and the excitement, it’s a great league to watch.”

The last two seasons afforded Mart the chance to work at one of England’s leading clubs. It’s a period he clearly relished.

“Being at Arsenal was a very interesting experience, and it was a great opportunity to work with Arsene Wenger. He is one of the very best managers in the world and to work with him day in, day out, has been very helpful for my game. The only downside was that I didn’t play many games there but I do not have any regrets about it. It’s a great thing to have been at Arsenal, I learned many things about the game there and they are things I can put into practice at Watford I hope.

“I am enjoying my time here very much. The goalkeepers have a very good relationship. Alec Chamberlain is a very good coach and a nice man too, a Watford legend and has so much experience in the game. Richard Lee has come through the ranks, he’s done very well in the last month while I have been inured, so it is good competition between us, a friendly rivalry which is good for all of us.

“For me, not playing so much in the last two years, it does take a little while to get back to your very best, which is why this back injury has been frustrating. I just felt that after playing six or seven games at the start of the season, I was getting on top of things again, finding my match confidence, reading the game, getting my decision making right. These things only come by playing games, however hard you train. Hopefully I can get back into the team now and I’m looking forward to trying to have a much longer run of games through to the end of the season I hope. Our main goal is to get promoted and if we do that by having Richard in goal instead of me, that is the most important thing. But of course, I want to play as big a part as possible for the club. We have had a very good start. But the job is not done, it is a long way from that, so we must focus on our job. Our work ethic has to be good and we have to be at our best in every game, whether it is against Charlton or Colchester, they are all very dangerous opposition.”