Three-time champion of Estonia, three-time winner of the Cup and Super Cup of the country. Three times he was recognized as the football player of the year in Estonia. Knight of the Estonian Order of the White Star, 4th class.

Tanel Padar (b. October 27, 1980, Haljala, Rakvere district, Estonian SSR) - Estonian rock musician and pop singer, in a duet with Dave Benton won the Eurovision Song Contest 2001 in Copenhagen.

He studied clarinet and saxophone, sang in church and children's choirs, as well as in boys ' choirs, was fond of folk music and sports dancing.

He is the creator of the band "Speed free", which released its first CD "Woman Knows" in May 2001. Padar wrote all the songs for the ensemble himself.

Mart Poom (b. 3 February 1972 in Tallinn, Estonian SSR) is an Estonian football player and goalkeeper. He played for the Estonian national team for 16 years. Six times he was recognized as the best football player of the year in Estonia (1993, 1994, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2003). The most famous Estonian football player in Europe. In November 2003, he was recognized by the Estonian Football Union as the best Estonian football player in the last 50 years. On June 2, 2009, he announced his retirement. He worked as an assistant goalkeeping coach at Arsenal in London.

In the 2017 and 2018 seasons, Tänak and Järveoja finished third in the overall driver's standings, behind rivals Thierry Neuville and Sebastien Ogier. Tänak achieved his maiden drivers' world title in the 2019 World Rally Championship, making him the first Estonian to win the driver's championship, the first non-Frenchman to win the title since Petter Solberg in 2003 and the first for Toyota since Didier Auriol in 1994.

Tanel Padar (born 27 October 1980) is an Estonian singer and songwriter. He is best known internationally for winning the Eurovision Song Contest 2001. Padar became famous by winning the Kaks takti ette, a biennial televised competition for young Estonian singers, in 1999.


Mika Keränen (born 24 November 1973 in Helsinki) is a Finnish-Estonian children's writer, poet and translator. He is best known for his series of Estonian-language crime stories, which are addressed to children. The settings of these stories take place in the Supilinn neighborhood of Tartu.

In 1999, he graduated from University of Tartu, studying the Estonian language as a foreign language. From 2002 to 2006, he was the director of the Estonian Institute in Finland. Since 2006, he returned to Estonia and is living and working in Tartu.


Mart Poom Estonian pronunciation: born 3 February 1972) is an Estonian football coach and former professional player. He is currently the goalkeeping coach of the Estonia national football team.

Poom played as a goalkeeper for Lõvid, Sport Tallinn, KuPS, Flora, Wil, Portsmouth, Derby County, Sunderland, Arsenal, and Watford. Poom made his international debut on 3 June 1992 in Estonia's first official match since restoration of independence, a 1–1 draw against Slovenia in a friendly. He made a total of 120 appearances for Estonia and was the team's captain. Poom won the Estonian Footballer of the Year award six times, in 1993, 1994, 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2003, the second most times won, behind only Ragnar Klavan. In November 2003, Poom was named Estonia's Golden Player. He ended his career on 10 June 2009, after a 0–0 draw against Portugal.

Friedrich Robert Faehlmann (Fählmann) (31 December 1798 in Ao Manor – 22 April 1850 in Tartu) was an Estonian writer, medical doctor and philologist active in Livonia, Russian Empire. He was a co-founder of the Learned Estonian Society at the University of Dorpat and its chairman (1843-1850).

He was born to the family of the manager of Ao Manor in Järva County. In 1825 he graduated from the medical department of the University of Dorpat. In 1827 he earned the M.D. degree and become a physician in Dorpat (now Tartu). In addition he gave lectures in the Estonian language at the university during 1842–1850.

In the 1820s he became interested in Estonian culture and, in 1838, became a co-founder of the Learned Estonian Society.

He brought attention to Estonian folklore, notably the Kalevipoeg which, since his death, has become the Estonian national epic, thanks to the efforts of another Estophile, Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald. He also recorded a number of tales.

In 1840 his story "Koit ja Hämarik" (Dawn and Dusk) was first published.

He died of tuberculosis in Dorpat.

Lydia Emilie Florence Jannsen, (24 December [O.S. 12 December] 1843 – 11 August [O.S. 30 July] 1886), known by her pen name Lydia Koidula, was an Estonian poet. Her sobriquet means 'Lydia of the Dawn' in Estonian. It was given to her by the writer Carl Robert Jakobson. She is also frequently referred to as Koidulaulik – 'Singer of the Dawn'.

In Estonia, like elsewhere in Europe, writing was not considered a suitable career for a respectable young lady in the mid-nineteenth-century. Koidula's poetry and her newspaper work for her populist father, Johann Voldemar Jannsen (1819–1890) remained anonymous. In spite of this, she was a major literary figure, the founder of Estonian theatre, and closely allied to Carl Robert Jakobson (1841–1882), the influential radical and Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald (1803–1882), writer of the Estonian national epic, Kalevipoeg (The Son of Kalev).


Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald (26 December [O.S. 14 December] 1803 – 25 August [O.S. 13 August] 1882) was an Estonian writer who is considered to be the father of the national literature for the country. He is the author of Estonian national epic Kalevipoeg.

Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald's parents serfs^[1] at the Jömper estate, Governorate of Estonia, Russian Empire (in present-day Jõepere, Lääne-Viru County). His father Juhan worked as a shoemaker and granary keeper and his mother Anne was a chambermaid. After liberation from serfdom in 1815, the family was able to send their son to school at the Wesenberg (present-day Rakvere) district school.

In 1820, he graduated from secondary school in Dorpat (present-day Tartu, Tartu County, Estonia) and worked as an elementary school teacher. In 1833, Kreutzwald graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the Imperial University of Dorpat.

Kreutzwald married Marie Elisabeth Saedler on 18 August the same year. From 1833 to 1877, he worked as the municipal physician in Werro (present-day Võru).^[2] He was the member of numerous scientific societies in Europe and received honorary doctorates from a number of universities.


Carl Robert Jakobson (26 July [O.S. 14 July] 1841 – 19 March [O.S. 7 March] 1882) was an Estonian writer, politician and teacher active in the Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire. He was one of the most important persons of the Estonian national awakening in the second half of the 19th century.