2019 Meistriliiga

The 2019 Meistriliiga (known as A. Le Coq Premium Liiga for sponsorship reasons^[1]) was the 29th season of the Meistriliiga, the top Estonian league for association football clubs. The season began on 8 March 2019 and concluded on 9 November 2019.^[2] Nõmme Kalju were the defending champions. Flora won their 12th Meistriliiga title.

Meistriliiga

Season	2019
Dates	8 March – 9 November 2019
Champions	Flora 12th title
Relegated	Maardu Linnameeskond
Champions League	Flora
Europa League	FCI Levadia Nõmme Kalju Paide Linnameeskond
Matches played	180
Goals scored	597 (3.32 per match)
Top goalscorer	Erik Sorga (31 goals)
Biggest home win	FCI Levadia 8–0 Maardu (31 March 2019)
Biggest away win	Maardu 0–12 Flora (9 November 2019)
Highest scoring	Maardu 0–12 Flora (9 November 2019)
← 2018 2020 →

Teams

Ten teams competed in the league, nine sides from the 2018 season and 2018 Esiliiga champions Maardu Linnameeskond. Vaprus were relegated at the end of the 2018 season after finishing in the bottom of the table. Maardu Linnameeskond made their Meistriliiga debut having previously declined promotion after winning the 2017 Esiliiga.^[3] Kuressaare retained their Meistriliiga spot after winning a relegation playoff against Esiliiga runners-up Elva.^[4]

Venues

Flora
Kalev
Kalju
Levadia

Paide

Tammeka

Trans

Tulevik

Maardu

Kuressaare

Locations of the 2019 Meistriliiga teams

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
FCI Levadia	Tallinn	A. Le Coq Arena	14,336[5]
Flora
Kuressaare	Kuressaare	Kuressaare linnastaadion	1,000[6]
Maardu Linnameeskond	Maardu	Maardu linnastaadion	500[7]
Narva Trans	Narva	Narva Kreenholm Stadium	1,065[8]
Nõmme Kalju	Tallinn	Hiiu Stadium	650[9]
Paide Linnameeskond	Paide	Paide linnastaadion	268[10]
Tallinna Kalev	Tallinn	Kalev Keskstaadion	11,500[11]
Tammeka	Tartu	Tartu Tamme Stadium	1,500[12]
Tulevik	Viljandi	Viljandi linnastaadion	1,084[13]

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
FCI Levadia	Vladimir Vassiljev (caretaker)	Dmitri Kruglov	Adidas	Viimsi Keevitus
Flora	Jürgen Henn	Gert Kams	Nike	Tele2
Kuressaare	Dmitrijs Kalašņikovs	Elari Valmas	Nike	Euronics
Maardu Linnameeskond	Mark Kolk (caretaker)	Ilja Zelentsov	Adidas
Narva Trans	Oleg Kurotškin (caretaker)	Marko Meerits	Nike	Sportland
Nõmme Kalju	Roman Kozhukhovskyi	Igor Subbotin	Adidas
Paide Linnameeskond	Vjatšeslav Zahovaiko	Andre Frolov	Nike	Verston
Tallinna Kalev	Aleksandr Dmitrijev	Andreas Raudsepp	Nike	Coolbet
Tammeka	Kaido Koppel	Tauno Tekko	Nike	Metec
Tulevik	Sander Post	Kaimar Saag	Joma	Espak

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Tallinna Kalev	Argo Arbeiter[14]	Signed by KTP	8 November 2018	Pre-season	Aleksandr Dmitrijev[15]	28 December 2018
Narva Trans	Cenk Özcan[16]	Mutual consent	1 December 2018		Dmitrijs Kalašņikovs[17]	4 January 2019
Nõmme Kalju	Sergey Frantsev[18]	Sacked	25 April 2019	4th	Roman Kozhukhovskyi[18]	25 April 2019
Narva Trans	Dmitrijs Kalašņikovs[19]	Sacked	29 April 2019	4th	Valeri Bondarenko (caretaker)[19]	29 April 2019
Narva Trans	Valeri Bondarenko[20]	End of caretaker spell	1 June 2019	5th	Andrei Syomin[20]	1 June 2019
Kuressaare	Jan Važinski[21]	Mutual consent	22 August 2019	7th	Dmitrijs Kalašņikovs[21]	22 August 2019
Narva Trans	Andrei Syomin[22]	Resigned	23 August 2019	6th	Oleg Kurotškin (caretaker)[22]	23 August 2019
FCI Levadia	Aleksandar Rogić[23]	Mutual consent	15 September 2019	2nd	Vladimir Vassiljev (caretaker)[23]	15 September 2019
Maardu Linnameeskond	Andrei Borissov[24]	Mutual consent	3 October 2019	10th	Mark Kolk (caretaker)[24]	3 October 2019

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Flora (C)	36	29	3	4	110	21	+89	90	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
2	FCI Levadia	36	24	6	6	98	32	+66	78	Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round
3	Nõmme Kalju	36	22	11	3	79	34	+45	77
4	Paide Linnameeskond	36	23	5	8	78	30	+48	74
5	Tammeka	36	14	7	15	57	62	−5	49
6	Narva Trans	36	13	9	14	57	49	+8	48
7	Tulevik	36	7	7	22	35	75	−40	28
8	Tallinna Kalev	36	6	6	24	29	89	−60	24
9	Kuressaare (O)	36	6	5	25	24	87	−63	23	Qualification for the Relegation play-offs
10	Maardu Linnameeskond (R)	36	4	5	27	30	118	−88	17	Relegation to the Esiliiga

Source: Estonian Football Association (in Estonian), UEFA
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Less matches awarded against; 3) Head-to-head points; 4) Head-to-head goal difference; 5) Matches won; 6) Goal difference; 7) Goals scored; 8) Away goals scored; 9) Fairplay ranking.^[25]
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated

Relegation play-offs

At season's end Kuressaare, the ninth place club, participated in a two-legged play-off with the runners-up (of independent teams) of the 2019 Esiliiga, Vaprus, for the spot in 2020 Meistriliiga.

Vaprus v Kuressaare

16 November 2019	Vaprus	1–4	Kuressaare	Pärnu
13:00 (UTC+2)	Saarts 23'	Report	Pajunurm 43' (pen.) Opp 51' Komissarov 66' Seeman 68'	Stadium: Pärnu Rannastaadion Attendance: 344 Referee: Joonas Jaanovits

Kuressaare v Vaprus

23 November 2019	Kuressaare	1–2	Vaprus	Kuressaare
13:00 (UTC+2)	Pajunurm 23' (pen.)	Report	Grahv 60' Saarts 75'	Stadium: Kuressaare kunstmurustaadion Attendance: 194 Referee: Kristo Tohver

Kuressaare won 5–3 on aggregate and retained their Meistriliiga spot for the 2020 season.

Results

Each team played every opponent four times, twice at home and twice away. A total of 180 matches were played, with 36 matches by each team.

First half of season

Home \ Away	LEV	FLO	KUR	MAA	NAR	NÕM	PAI	KLV	TAM	TUL
FCI Levadia	—	1–2	5–0	8–0	2–0	0–0	1–1	5–1	7–0	5–2
Flora	1–3	—	5–0	6–0	2–2	0–1	4–1	6–0	4–1	2–0
Kuressaare	0–1	0–4	—	1–0	1–1	0–0	0–1	2–0	1–1	1–0
Maardu	1–6	3–8	1–0	—	0–1	0–5	1–4	0–0	2–1	0–0
Narva Trans	1–2	0–1	0–0	5–1	—	0–0	0–1	2–2	2–5	0–1
Nõmme Kalju	2–1	0–3	3–2	6–0	3–2	—	0–2	2–2	2–0	2–1
Paide	0–2	0–1	7–0	2–0	0–0	0–2	—	2–0	2–1	6–0
Tallinna Kalev	1–6	0–2	3–0	2–0	0–4	0–1	0–3	—	0–4	0–2
Tammeka	1–2	0–2	1–1	2–2	1–2	0–0	0–3	2–0	—	0–1
Tulevik	0–3	1–3	1–2	2–0	1–1	2–3	2–2	1–2	0–4	—

Source: Estonian Football Association (in Estonian)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Second half of season

Home \ Away	LEV	FLO	KUR	MAA	NAR	NÕM	PAI	KLV	TAM	TUL
FCI Levadia	—	1–2	2–1	3–1	1–0	1–1	3–2	7–0	1–1	1–1
Flora	2–1	—	7–0	3–0	1–0	1–1	1–0	5–0	0–1	3–0
Kuressaare	0–3	0–3	—	1–0	0–1	0–3	0–3	0–1	0–1	4–1
Maardu	1–4	0–12	2–1	—	1–3	1–4	2–4	2–2	0–1	2–2
Narva Trans	1–3	0–1	4–2	5–2	—	1–1	0–1	2–0	3–2	3–2
Nõmme Kalju	2–1	2–1	7–2	4–0	2–2	—	1–1	6–0	2–3	2–2
Paide	3–1	1–1	6–1	5–0	1–0	0–1	—	2–1	2–0	4–0
Tallinna Kalev	0–1	0–2	2–1	1–4	0–3	2–3	0–2	—	1–2	3–0
Tammeka	1–1	1–6	4–0	2–0	6–4	1–2	3–2	2–2	—	1–3
Tulevik	0–3	0–3	3–0	2–1	0–2	0–3	1–2	1–1	0–1	—

Source: Estonian Football Association (in Estonian)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[26]
1	Erik Sorga	Flora	31
2	Nikita Andreev	FCI Levadia	13
	Alassana Jatta	Paide Linnameeskond
	Eric McWoods	Narva Trans
	Kaimar Saag	Tulevik
6	Herol Riiberg	Flora	12
	Konstantin Vassiljev	Flora
8	João Morelli	FCI Levadia	11
	Sten Reinkort	Tammeka
	Mark Oliver Roosnupp	FCI Levadia
	Yann Michael Yao	Paide Linnameeskond

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Erik Sorga4	Flora	Maardu Linnameeskond	6–0 (H)	7 April 2019[27]
Mark Oliver Roosnupp	FCI Levadia	Tammeka	7–0 (H)	11 May 2019[28]
Aleksandr Zakarlyuka	Narva Trans	Maardu Linnameeskond	5–1 (H)	22 May 2019[29]
Liliu	Nõmme Kalju	Maardu Linnameeskond	6–0 (H)	1 June 2019[30]
Kotaro Amemiya	Maardu Linnameeskond	Flora	3–8 (H)	15 June 2019[31]
Alassana Jatta5	Paide Linnameeskond	Kuressaare	7–0 (H)	19 June 2019[32]
João Morelli	FCI Levadia	Maardu Linnameeskond	6–1 (A)	29 June 2019[33]
Jasper Uwaegbulam	Maardu Linnameeskond	Tallinna Kalev	4–1 (A)	7 July 2019[34]
Eric McWoods	Narva Trans	Tulevik	3–2 (H)	21 July 2019[35]
Max Mata	Nõmme Kalju	Kuressaare	7–2 (H)	3 August 2019[36]
Erik Sorga	Flora	Kuressaare	3–0 (A)	13 August 2019[37]
Patrick Genro Veelma	Tammeka	Narva Trans	6–4 (H)	16 August 2019[38]
Indrek Ilves	Tulevik	Tammeka	3–1 (A)	20 October 2019[39]

⁴ Player scored four goals
⁵ Player scored five goals

Average attendance

Club	Average attendance[40]
Tallinna FC Flora	711
Tartu JK Tammeka	461
Viljandi JK Tulevik	386
FCI Levadia	365
Nõmme Kalju FC	363
Paide Linnameeskond	349
JK Narva Trans	318
JK Tallinna Kalev	252
Maardu Linnameeskond	224
FC Kuressaare	209
League average	364

Awards

Monthly awards

Month	Manager of the Month		Player of the Month
	Manager	Club	Player	Club
March[41]	Jürgen Henn	Flora	Magnus Karofeld	Kuressaare
April[42]			Märten Kuusk	Flora
May[43]	Roman Kozhukhovskyi	Nõmme Kalju	Marcelin Gando	FCI Levadia
June[44]	Aleksandar Rogić	FCI Levadia	Alassana Jatta	Paide Linnameeskond
July[45]	Vjatšeslav Zahovaiko	Paide Linnameeskond	Eric McWoods	Narva Trans
August[46]	Kaido Koppel	Tammeka	Yann Michael Yao	Paide Linnameeskond
September[47]	Jürgen Henn	Flora	Sander Sinilaid
October[48]	Roman Kozhukhovskyi	Nõmme Kalju	Eduard Golovljov	Narva Trans

Player transfers

• Winter 2018–19 – before the season

See also

• 2019 in Estonian football