Taijo Teniste (born 31 January 1988) is an Estonian 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 le ...

who plays as a

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for Estonian

Meistriliiga Meistriliiga (, known as the A. Le Coq Premium Liiga for sponsorship reasons) is the highest division of the Estonian Football Association annual football (soccer), football championship. The league was founded in 1992, and was initially semi-p ...

club Tartu Tammeka and the Estonia national team.

Club career

SK 10

Teniste came through the Spordiklubi 10 youth academy and played for the club's first team in the IV liiga.

Levadia

In January 2005, Teniste signed for

Levadia Livadeia ( el, Λιβαδειά ''Livadiá'', ; grc, Λεβάδεια, Lebadeia or , ''Lebadia'') is a town in central Greece. It is the capital of the Boeotia regional district. Livadeia lies north-west of Athens, west of Chalkida, south-eas ...

. He made his debut in the

on 3 April 2005, in a 4–0 home victory over Merkuur Tartu. Teniste helped Levadia win four successive Meistriliiga titles in

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

and

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

. On 4 July 2011, Teniste joined

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

side

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at ...

for a trial, but was not offered a contract as manager

Paolo Di Canio Paolo Di Canio (born 9 July 1968) is an Italian former professional footballer and manager. During his playing career he made over 500 league appearances and scored over one hundred goals as a forward. He primarily played as a deep-lying forward, ...

felt Teniste was not a natural left back.

Sogndal

On 1 September 2011, Teniste joined Norwegian club

Sogndal Sogndal is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located on the northern shore of the Sognefjorden in the traditional district of Sogn. The village of Hermansverk is the administrative center of Sogndal municipality. Other villages i ...

on loan until the end of the season, with the option to make the deal permanent. He made his debut in the

Tippeligaen Eliteserien () is a Norwegian professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the Norwegian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion ...

on 11 September, in a 0–0 home draw against Aalesund, coming on as a substitute for Ole Jørgen Halvorsen in injury time. On 23 December 2011, Teniste signed a two-year contract with Sogndal. His contract was subsequently extended to 2015 and then to 2017. Teniste scored his first goal for Sogndal on 26 November 2017, in a 5–2 home win over

Vålerenga Vålerenga () is a neighbourhood in the city of Oslo, Norway, belonging to the borough of Gamle Oslo. Vålerenga is located between the neighbourhoods of Gamlebyen, Jordal, Ensjø, Etterstad and Lodalen. Vålerenga is in particular known for it ...

in the last match of the 2017 season.

Brann

On 14 August 2017, it was announced that Teniste would join Brann after the 2017 season on a three-year deal.

International career

Teniste has represented Estonia at under-17, under-18, under-19, under-21 and under-23 levels. Teniste made his senior international debut for

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

on 9 November 2007, replacing

Urmas Rooba Urmas Rooba (born 8 July 1978 in Kaaruka) is a retired Estonian footballer, who last played for Paide Linnameeskond in Meistriliiga. He played the position of defender. Club career Rooba played for FC Midtjylland before he joined FC Københav ...

in the 70th minute of a 0–2 away loss to

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

in a friendly. Teniste finally scored his first goal for the national team on his 93rd cap on 26 September 2022 scoring in a 0-4

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is a biennial international football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The first tournament began in September 2018. The ...

away win against

San Marino San Marino (, ), officially the Republic of San Marino ( it, Repubblica di San Marino; ), also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino ( it, Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino, links=no), is the fifth-smallest country in the world an ...

. This goal also helped Estonia seal their return to the C League.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

Honours

Club

;Levadia II *

Esiliiga The Esiliiga is the second division in the Estonian football league system. The Esiliiga is ranked below the Meistriliiga and above the Esiliiga B. As in most countries with low temperatures in winter time, the season starts in March and ends i ...

;Levadia *

Estonian Cup The Estonian Cup ( et, Eesti Karikas) is the national knockout competition in Estonian football. In 2012, the competition was unofficially rebranded as Evald Tipner's Cup. The winner will compete in UEFA Europa Conference League first qualifyi ...

: 2006–07, 2009–10 *

Estonian Supercup The Estonian Supercup ( et, Eesti Superkarikas) is Estonian football's annual super cup, contested between the champions of the previous Meistriliiga season and the holders of the Estonian Cup. If the Meistriliiga champions also won the Estoni ...

: 2010 ;Sogndal * OBOS-ligaen:

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Teniste, Taijo 1988 births Living people Sportspeople from Tartu Estonian footballers Association football defenders Esiliiga players FCI Levadia U21 players Meistriliiga players FCI Levadia Tallinn players Eliteserien players Norwegian First Division players Sogndal Fotball players SK Brann players Estonia youth international footballers Estonia under-21 international footballers Estonia international footballers Estonian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Norway Estonian expatriate sportspeople in Norway Tartu JK Tammeka players