The Estonian men's national football team gathered on Monday for their first training session ahead of the upcoming World Cup qualifiers at home against Israel and Norway. First choice goalkeeper Karl Jakob Hein is back from injury, having made three consecutive appearances for Real Valladolid at the end of the La Liga season.
"I was able to play in three more games after the injury and got into a good rhythm. Now it's great to be back representing Estonia," Hein told ERR.
Despite Valladolid finish in last place in the La Liga table and being relegated from the Spanish top flight, Hein took a lot of positives from his loan spell in Spain.
"On an individual level, it was a very successful season. I was thrown in at the deep end as a rookie and I think I managed to swim through it. I got a lot of games, a lot of experience, a lot of toughening up – I can take all that with me for the future."
Hein's loan deal is now over, with the Estonian number one due to resume pre-season training with his parent club Arsenal in July, However, his longer-term future remains up in the air. "I'll have a short break after the internationals and then it will all start again in early July. We'll see what happens. For now, I'll go back to Arsenal and start pre-season training with them. We'll see what the future brings."
Estonia will first face Israel on Friday evening (June 6), before taking on Norway three days later. Both games will take place at the A Le Coq Arena in Tallinn and are the latest in the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup. Despite taking a tenth minute lead, Estonia's previous encounter with Israel ended in a 1-2 defeat. Hein scored an unfortunate own goal and Markus Soomets was sent off with three minutes to go.
"Our goal is still to win this game. In the previous game we were at a very decent level for at least half the match. Now we need to do it again. We'll go over the previous game to see how we can hurt them more. It's going to be a tough game for sure, a man-to-man game, but we have five days to prepare for the game," Hein said.
Injuries have hit the national team's defensive line particularly hard, with several key players, including captain Karol Mets (FC St. Pauli) missing out on these two fixtures. Hein told ERR that will not affect his preparation for the game.
"I still do my job the same way. I prepare for every game the same way, do my routines the same way. It doesn't matter which players are there with me in the defensive line – my job is to protect the goal and that's it," said the Estonian number one.
Estonia versus Israel takes place on Friday June 6. Estonia versus Norway is on Monday, June 9. Both games will be shown live on ETV2 here, with kick off at 9.45 p.m. Estonian time.
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