Former FCI Levadia Tallinn and FC Kuressaare player Karl Rudolf Õigus has announced his retirement at 26 years of age.
Õigus started his career in his home city of Tartu, playing for Tartu Santos, captaining the team in Esiliiga, before moving to FCI Levadia in the summer of 2018. After spending five years at the club, the midfielder won the Estonian championship title, the Estonian Cup and Super Cup, before moving to FC Kuressaare in 2023, where he became a staple in the squad for two years.
Õigus stated in an interview to Soccernet.ee, that he is retiring due to better work opportunities in his life:
“Let’s say, to understand my decision, you would have had to be next to me for the past ten years and kept an eye on my mindset. It’s a long process. But to conclude it shortly… I’ve always liked to develop myself outside of football.
It just so happened, that I was playing football at Kuressaare, who are one of the only teams to train on evenings. Compared to Levadia, I suddenly had the entire day to myself and thought, how can I put my spare time into good use. So I went to study at a university. By chance, the course I’m studying, ended up being something that really like. The more I studied, the more I started liking it.
Now I’m at a point, where I want to find a job in that field. I feel, that I have better chances of it happening, when I’ll sacrifice something. Currently I’m sacrificing football.”
Õigus’ all time statistics in Premium Liiga reached 137 games, scoring 11 times and assisting on 20 occasions.