Ragnar Klavan: I believe Estonian football has a lot of potential
Estonian men's football legend Ragnar Klavan announced on Tuesday that he is bringing an end to his playing career and wants to run for the presidency of the Estonian Football Association (EJL) next spring. Klavan told ERR that he would like to bring more cooperation and innovation to Estonian football.
On Tuesday, Klavan, 39, held a press conference in Tallinn, which began with him announcing the end of his playing career. "My legs couldn't take it anymore," Klavan said. "The day has come when I am really saying goodbye to my first love – chasing a football around on the pitch and my career as a professional player."
Klavan's professional career began in 2001, with the Estonian going on to play for the next 23 years , 19 of which were spent in Europe's top leagues, including the English Premier League, the German Bundesliga and Italy's Serie A.
"Having a dream in your bedroom at the age of 13 in Viljandi and making it come true is not that easy," he said.
"These are of course lots of highlights, but above all was making the Estonian national team, because I broke that dream down into smaller parts and one of the dreams I had was to play for the Estonian A-team. After my first international contract, from there things started moving forward and ended up with me playing in three of the top leagues in the world."
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What advice would Klavan give to young footballers who hope to have a career as successful as his?
"Dream big. Naivety and ambition is really important when dreaming, but you also have to understand right away that if you want to make it happen, you will need to put in a lot of effort and work harder than everyone else," Klavan replied.
During the press conference on Tuesday, Klavan also announced his candidacy for presidency of the Estonian Football Association (EJL) next spring, when current president Aivar Pohlak's fifth term expires. "The decision to run is definitely influenced by the fact that I see and believe that Estonian football has greater potential," Klavan explained.
"Certainly one of the things that has made the Nordics great throughout history can be summed up in two words – cooperation and innovation." he continued. "Innovation is very much in line with cooperation, and by cooperation I mean leadership. Things are open, transparent and collaborative, and that has always been the strength of the Nordics. Personally, I see that we still have a lot of potential for this."
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Editor: Kristjan Kallaste, Michael Cole
