Thomas Häberli announced as new national football team manager
Swiss Thomas Häberli has started as the next manager for the Estonian men's national football team with his staff consisting of Norbert Hurt, Michael Müller and Estonian football legends Andres Oper and Mart Poom.
In his playing career, the 46-year old Häberli was a striker for Swiss top-flight clubs such as FC Basel and Bern Young Boys and he also represented the Swiss national team for one match. Häberli received four domestic league silver medals in his nearly ten years of playing for Young Boys and played in several Champions League and Europa League matches during that time.
Häberli became a manager right after his professional career ended and has now worked with several Swiss top clubs. In 2019, he was the manager for FC Luzern, he was also a talent manager for FC Basel from 2015-2018, when he was appointed as first team assistant manager, a position he resigned from six months later to manage Luzern.
He has also managed youth teams for Basel and Young Boys and is the striker coach for the Swiss under-17 national team.
Häberli has a UEFA Pro License and has a master's degree in coaching from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland.
38-year old Swiss Michael Müller begins working for Häberli's staff as a strength and conditiong coach. Müller was an assistant manager for FC Luzern in 2019-2020 and was working at FC Basel in 2015-2019. For the five years prior, he was working as a trainer for Swiss olympic athletes, including European championship bronze medal and Swiss record sprinter Alex Wilson. Müller also has a master's degree, in Physical Education.
37-year old Estonian Norbert Hurt has been the gaffer for Estonian clubs Tartu JK Tammeka and FC Flora, who he led to an Estonian championship in 2015. For the last couple of years, Hurt has been an assistant manager for Flora and is the manager for Estonia's under-17 national team, taking wins over Spain, Sweden and France in 2019. Hurt has a master's degree in Physical Education and Sport from the University of Tartu.
43-year old Andres Oper played 134 matches for Estonia in 1995-2014 and scored an all-time record 38 goals for the national team. He was named the best footballer in Estonia on three occasions, having played in Denmark, Russia, the Netherlands, China and Cyprus, in addition to his younger days in Estonia. Oper has managed in England and in Estonia, including with the national team and youth teams.
48-year old Mart Poom tended to the goal of Estonia's national team for 120 matches. During his long and illustrious career, he played for many English clubs, including getting a Champions League silver medal with Arsenal in 2006. Poom was named the best footballer in Estonia on six occasions, also being awarded as the greatest Estonian player of the half-century in 2003. Poom became a trainer at Arsenal and began working with the Estonian national team in 2009.
Contracts with the new managers are set to run until the end of 2022.
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Editor: Kristjan Kallaste