Artur Kotenko (born 20 August 1981) 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 ...

who plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting ...

for

FCI Levadia Football Club Infonet Levadia Tallinn, commonly known as FCI Levadia, or simply as Levadia, is a professional football club based in Tallinn, Estonia, that competes in the Meistriliiga, the top flight of Estonian football. The club's home groun ...

Club career

Career in Estonia

On 24 October 2004, Kotenko scored

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 ...

's second goal against Tulevik in the penultimate round of

2004 Meistriliiga 2004 Meistriliiga was the 14th season of the Meistriliiga, Estonia's premier football league. Levadia won their third title. Season overview Levadia Tallinn won their third title with a six-point advantage over the runners-up TVMK Tallinn. Ta ...

. The team won the match 4–1 and secured the title, ultimately making it the league winning goal. Having been frozen out of the Levadia side in 2007, after refusing to sign a contract extension with the club (a similar fate was suffered by teammates Konstantin Vassiljev and Ats Purje earlier that season), Kotenko joined the

Norwegian First Division The Norwegian First Division, also called 1. divisjon and OBOS-ligaen (named sponsor is property developer OBOS), is the second-highest level of the Norwegian football league system. Each year, the top finishing teams in the 1. divisjon are ...

side

Sandnes Ulf Sandnes Ulf is a Norwegian association football club from Sandnes, Rogaland, currently playing in the 1. divisjon, the second highest division in the Norwegian football league system. The club play their home matches at Øster Hus Arena. The cl ...

, but was free to leave the club after less than a year because of a relegation release clause in his contract. In December 2008, Kotenko underwent a successful two-week trial at the English Championship side Nottingham Forest and was expected to join the club in January. The deal, however, fell through when Colin Calderwood was sacked following a boxing day defeat to Doncaster Rovers.

Viking

On 6 February 2009, he joined

Eliteserien 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 promotio ...

club

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and s ...

. The Estonian goalkeeper made his league debut for the Dark Blues more than eight months after the signing, on 25 October 2009. It ended after just 25 minutes, as he was sent off for handling the ball outside the 18-yard box.

AEP Paphos

On 10 June 2010, he signed a 1-year deal with Cypriot team AEP Paphos, with an option to extend it by another year, joining compatriot Ats Purje. He failed to make an impact there and only appeared in 7 league matches.

Ravan Baku

After an spell in Cyprus, Kotenko moved to

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

and joined a newly promoted

Ravan Baku Ravan Baku FK ( az, Rəvan Futbol Klubu) is an Azerbaijani football club, based in Baku, that plays in the Azerbaijan First Division. History The club was founded in 2009. In May 2011, team secured their promotion to Azerbaijan Premier League a ...

on a two-year contract. He made the debut on 6 August, in a 2–3 defeat against Kapaz. The contract was mutually terminated in October 2011.

Jaro

On 20 January 2012, Kotenko signed 1-year deal with Finish Veikkausliiga club Jaro.

Dnepr Mogilev

On 26 February 2013, Kotenko signed a 1-year contract with Belarusian club

Dnepr Mogilev FC Dnepr Mogilev ( be, ФК Дняпро Магілёў, ''FK Dniapro Mahilyow''; russian: ФК Днепр Могилёв) is a Belarusian football team, playing in the city of Mogilev. Their home stadium is Spartak Stadium. History Dnepr M ...

. After a successful season in Dnepr Mogilev, Artur Kotenko moved to bronze medalist Shakhtyor Soligorsk.

Shakhtyor Soligorsk

On 3 May 2014, Kotenko became Belarus Cup winner. His great performance helped Shakhtyor Soligorsk to win bronze medals of Belarus premier league and reach play-off round of Euro League where Shakhtyor Soligorsk lost to

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; en, Philips Sports Association ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional football department, wh ...

. Artur Kotenko have played 29 games in the Belarus premier league and made 17 clean sheets. On 13 December 2014, Artur Kotenko was awarded by Belarus Football Association as a best goalkeeper of Belarus premier league 2014.

Back in Estonia

On 8 February 2017, Kotenko signed for Estonian top tier club Narva Trans. After two seasons with Trans Kotenko signed for rival

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

. During his first season in Levadia he was mainly used as a backup for the national team first choice goalkeeper

Sergei Lepmets Sergei Lepmets (born 5 April 1987) is an Estonian retired professional footballer who last played as a goalkeeper for Meistriliiga club Nõmme Kalju. Club career TJK Lepmets came through the TJK youth academy. Merkuur In 2004, Lepmets joined ...

. However, on May 18 2020, Lepmets unexpectedly announced his decision to retire from professional football, after which Kotenko was placed in charge of first team goalkeeping duties.

International career

He played for

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 ...

27 times between 2004–2013. His last call-up was in October 2020.

Honours

Club

;Levadia *

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

, 2006,

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 Benazir Bhutto ...

* Estonian Cup: 2003–04, 2004–05, 2006–07 * Estonian Supercup: 2001 ;Shakhtyor Soligorsk * Belarusian Cup: 2013–14

References

External links

* * * *
Interview for russian sports site
(Russian) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kotenko, Artur 1981 births Living people Footballers from Tallinn FCI Levadia Tallinn players FC Lantana Tallinn players Pärnu JK Vaprus players Estonian footballers Estonia international footballers Estonian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Finland Estonian expatriate sportspeople in Finland Expatriate footballers in Norway Estonian expatriate sportspeople in Norway Meistriliiga players Eliteserien players Veikkausliiga players Cypriot First Division players Viking FK players Expatriate footballers in Cyprus Estonian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus AEP Paphos FC players Estonian expatriate sportspeople in Azerbaijan Expatriate footballers in Azerbaijan Ravan Baku FC players Expatriate footballers in Belarus Estonian expatriate sportspeople in Belarus FC Dnepr Mogilev players KSK Vigri Tallinn players Sandnes Ulf players FF Jaro players FC Shakhtyor Soligorsk players JK Narva Trans players FC Puuma Tallinn players Association football goalkeepers