Otto Silber (17 March 1893 – 23 December 1940) was an Estonian

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 le ...

. He competed in the men's tournament at the

1924 Summer Olympics The 1924 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1924), officially the Games of the VIII Olympiad (french: Jeux de la VIIIe olympiade) and also known as Paris 1924, were an international multi-sport event held in Paris, France. The op ...

. Silber participated in the first official football game between Tallinn clubs JS Meteor and Merkur on the 6 April 1909 (on the Meteor side). A defender, Silber played in the

Estonia national football team The Estonia national football team ( et, Eesti jalgpallikoondis) represents Estonia in international football matches and is controlled by the Estonian Football Association, the governing body for football in Estonia. Estonia's home ground is ...

between 1920 and 1926, captaining Estonia's first international match against

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

in 1920. He was a founder player in the club Tallinna JK from 1921 to 1925, later becoming a board member. He was also a

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

.
Otto Silber, ESBL biography, in Estonian. Silber, a former soldier in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and

Estonian War of Independence The Estonian War of Independence ( et, Vabadussõda, literally "Freedom War"), also known as the Estonian Liberation War, was a defensive campaign of the Estonian Army and its allies, most notably the United Kingdom, against the Bolshevik westwa ...

, was, following the Soviet annexation of his country in 1940, arrested by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

and executed in

Saue Saue is a town in north-western Estonia. It's the administrative centre of Saue Parish in Harju County. The territory of Saue is and population about 5,800. Closest centres are Tallinn (), Keila (), Saku () and Laagri (). Geography Saue is ...

, Estonia in December 1940 aged 47, although he was alternatively reported to have died in a motor car accident. He is buried in the

Defence Forces Cemetery of Tallinn The Defence Forces Cemetery of Tallinn ( et, Tallinna Kaitseväe kalmistu), sometimes called the Tallinn Military Cemetery ( et, Tallinna Sõjavae kalmistu), is one of the three cemeteries of the Tallinn City Centre Cemetery (Estonian: ''Siselin ...

, Estonia.

References

External links

* 1893 births 1940 deaths Estonian men's footballers Estonia men's international footballers Olympic footballers for Estonia Footballers at the 1924 Summer Olympics Footballers from Tallinn Men's association football defenders Estonian people executed by the Soviet Union {{Estonia-footy-bio-stub