Kristen Viikmäe (born 10 February 1979) is an Estonian former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a striker. He now plays beach soccer.

Club career

Born in

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju '' ...

, Viikmäe started his career with

FC Flora Tallinn FC Flora, commonly known as Flora Tallinn, or simply as Flora, is a professional football club based in Tallinn, Estonia, that competes in the Meistriliiga, the top flight of Estonian football. The club's home ground is Lilleküla Stadium. Fo ...

, and has since played for Tallinna Jalgpallikool,

Tallinna Sadam Jalgpalliklubi Tallinna Sadam (Port of Tallinn Football Club) was an Estonian football club that existed from 1991 until 1998. The club won the Estonian Cup in 1996 and 1997 and were Estonian Meistriliiga runners up in 1997–1998 and 1998 seas ...

, Vålerenga, Enköpings SK,

Fredrikstad Fredrikstad (; previously ''Frederiksstad''; literally "Fredrik's Town") is a List of cities in Norway, city and Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Viken (county), Viken Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative centre of the ...

Gefle IF Gefle Idrottsförening, also known simply as Gefle IF, Gefle (, as if spelled ''Gävle''), or locally Gif (), are a Swedish professional football club based in Gävle. The club is affiliated with Gestriklands Fotbollförbund and play their home ...

and

Jönköpings Södra IF Jönköpings Södra IF, also known as J-Södra IF, J-Södra or simply Jönköping, is a Swedish football club based in Jönköping. The club, founded in 1922, returned to the Swedish second division Superettan in 2018 after relegation from the ...

. January 2010 he moved to Panegialios F.C., a third division team in Greece. He left the club in September because of salary problems. In January 2011 he joined JK Nõmme Kalju. On 9 October 2012, he scored the winning goal in a 1–0 victory against

FC Kuressaare FC Kuressaare, commonly known as Kuressaare, is a professional football club, based in Kuressaare, Saaremaa, Estonia. The club's home ground is Kuressaare linnastaadion. Founded on 14 March 1997, the club competes in the Meistriliiga, the top ...

, which secured JK Nõmme Kalju's first ever title. After the match, Viikmäe announced his intention to retire at the end of the season. He scored in his last match on 5 November 2012.

International career

During his Estonia national team career Viikmäe was capped 115 times and scored 15 goals. He made his debut on 26 January

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

in a friendly against

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

, replacing

Andres Oper Andres Oper (born 7 November 1977) is an Estonian football coach and former professional player. He is currently an assistant manager of Estonia national team. Oper played as a forward for Lelle, Flora, Tervis Pärnu, AaB, Torpedo Moscow, ...

in the second half. On 30 May 2006, at the age of 27 years and 109 days, Viikmäe became the youngest European footballer to reach 100 caps, which was beaten by German striker

Lukas Podolski Lukas Josef Podolski (; born Łukasz Józef Podolski, , on 4 June 1985) is a German professional footballer who plays as a forward for Ekstraklasa club Górnik Zabrze. Known for his powerful and accurate left foot, he is known for his explosive ...

(27 years and 13 days) during

Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th European Championship for men's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament, held between 8 June and 1 ...

. His

testimonial match A testimonial match or testimonial game, often referred to simply as a testimonial, is a practice in some sports, particularly in association football in the United Kingdom and South America, where a club has a match to honour a player for servic ...

for the national team, as with all Estonians who are capped more than 100 times during their career, was held on 3 June 2013 against

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

Post-retirement career

Viikmäe became the head of youth department at JK Nõmme Kalju after his retirement.

Career statistics

:''Scores and results list Estonia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Viikmäe goal.''

Honours

Individual * Estonian Silverball: 2004

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Viikmae, Kristen 1979 births Living people Footballers from Tallinn Estonian men's footballers Estonia men's international footballers FC Flora players Meistriliiga players FIFA Men's Century Club Estonian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Norway Estonian expatriate sportspeople in Norway Vålerenga Fotball players Fredrikstad FK players Expatriate men's footballers in Sweden Estonian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Enköpings SK FK players Gefle IF players Jönköpings Södra IF players Allsvenskan players Eliteserien players Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Estonian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Nõmme Kalju FC players Estonian beach soccer players Panegialios F.C. players Men's association football forwards