Rakvere Jalgpalliklubi Tarvas, commonly known as Rakvere Tarvas, or simply as Tarvas, is an

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

football club In association football, a football club (or association football club, alternatively soccer club) is a sports club that acts as an entity through which association football teams organise their sporting activities. The club can exist either as ...

based in

Rakvere Rakvere is the administrative center, or county seat, of Lääne-Viru County in northern Estonia, about 100 km southeast of Tallinn and 20 km south of the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea. Rakvere boasts a distinctive architectural feature: th ...

that competes in

II liiga II liiga is the fourth level of football league competition in Estonia arranged by the Estonian Football Association. It consists of 28 teams, divided geographically into two divisions with 14 teams each in group North/East and South/West. Until ...

, the fourth tier of Estonian football. The club's home ground is Rakvere linnastaadion. The club was founded in 2004 as Virumaa JK Rakvere. From 2008 until 2010, the club was named Rakvere FC Flora, and since 2011 Rakvere JK Tarvas. The club has competed in the Estonian top division

Meistriliiga Meistriliiga (), officially known as A. Le Coq Premium Liiga for sponsorship reasons, and commonly known as the Premium Liiga, is the highest division of the Estonian Football Association annual football championship. The league was founded i ...

once, in 2016.

History

The club was founded in 2004 as Virumaa Jalgpalliklubi Rakvere (). From 2008, Rakvere became affiliated with

Flora Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...

and became Rakvere FC Flora. In 2011, the team name was changed to Tarvas (), which is the symbol of Rakvere and is derived from the historic name of the town, Tarvanpea (''Aurochs' head''). In 2012, Tarvas was promoted to

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 ...

and finished the 2012 season in third place. The club faced

JK Tallinna Kalev Jalgpalliklubi Tallinna Kalev, also known as Tallinna Kalev or simply Kalev, is an Estonia, Estonian professional Football team, football club based in Tallinn that competes in the Meistriliiga, the top flight of Estonian football league system, ...

in the promotion play-offs, but lost 1–3 on aggregate. Tarvas finished the 2013 Esiliiga season in 4th place but were beaten in the promotion play-offs by

Tartu Tammeka Tartu Jalgpallikool Tammeka, commonly known as Tartu Tammeka or simply Tammeka, is an Estonian professional football club based in Tartu that competes in Meistriliiga, the top flight of Estonian football. The club's home ground is Tamme Stadiu ...

2–6 on aggregate. In July 2014,

Valeri Bondarenko Valeri Bondarenko (born 22 April 1953) is an Estonian football coach and a former player. A midfielder, he played for Norma Tallinn from 1971 to 1979. From 1993 to 1994, he was the assistant coach of the Estonia national team. From 1998 to 19 ...

was hired as manager. Rakvere Tarvas finished the

2015 Esiliiga The 2015 Esiliiga was the 25th season of the Esiliiga, second-highest Estonian league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1992. The season started on 8 March 2015 and concluded on 8 November 2015. Flora II won the league o ...

season in 4th place and as the three higher placed teams were reserve teams and thus ineligible for promotion, Tarvas were promoted to the

for the first time in their history. In the process, they became the first club from

Lääne-Viru County Lääne-Viru County ( or ''Lääne-Virumaa'') is one of 15 counties of Estonia. It is in northern Estonia, on the south coast of the Gulf of Finland. In Estonian, ''lääne'' means western and ''ida'' means east or eastern. Lääne-Viru borders Id ...

to play in the Estonian top division. Tarvas earned just 1 point in their first 14 Meistriliiga games and on 4 June 2016, Bondarenko was sacked and replaced as manager by

Urmas Kirs Urmas Kirs (born 5 November 1966) is an Estonian Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and a retired footballer. He lastly coached the Estonian Meistriliiga club Rakvere JK Tarvas, Tarvas. He played in the positi ...

. Tarvas earned another two draws and finished the season at the bottom of the table with three points. For the following three seasons, Rakvere Tarvas competed in Esiliiga, before being relegated to

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

for 2020 and eventually dropping down to the fourth tier in 2021.

Players

Current squad

''As of 10 March 2018.

Reserves and academy

Personnel

Current technical staff

Managerial history

Internationals

Statistics

League and Cup

References

External links

Official websiteTeam info
at Estonian Football Association {{DEFAULTSORT:Tarvas Rakvere Football clubs in Estonia Association football clubs established in 2004 2004 establishments in Estonia Meistriliiga clubs