JK Tallinna Kalev is an Estonian professional football club which was founded in 1911 and it is the oldest active football club in the country. 

Kalev’s origins lie with Meteor. As was common in the Baltics at the time, Jalgpalliselts Meteor (Football Association Meteor) was formed out of a Cyclist Society in 1909 by two students – Julius Reinans and Bernhard Abrams. Scottish flax merchant John Stormonth Urquhart was invited to coach the nascent club, and he was also the one responsible for the team’s first uniforms, which comprised of blue jerseys and white shorts, thus setting the colours that we still see Kalev represent to this day.

The team included several players who would become notable athletes, such as future Estonia national team players Voldemar Luik and Otto Silber and Olympic runner Johannes Villemson. On 6 June 1909, Meteor and Merkuur played the first official football match in Estonia, which Meteor won 4–2. On 27 May 1911, Meteor was disbanded and the players, both founders including, migrated to the Estonian Sports Association Kalev, consequently changing the name of the football team to “Kalev”.

After the Soviet occupation of Estonia, Kalev joined the Soviet Union football league system, competing in the second tier of Soviet football from 1947 to 1954, while Kalev’s second team played in the Estonian championship. In 1960 and 1961 Kalev represented Estonia in the top tier of Soviet Championship (Class A). The team disappeared following the reorganization of the Soviet league system in 1963 but, 40 years later, returned to the Estonian football map. JK Tallinna Kalev was founded as an independent club in 2002 by Rein-Vello Ojavere, Mati Liim, Kaido Magi and Raimo Nou. 

After four years playing in the lower Estonian football leagues, they finished 3rd in the 2006 Esiliiga season and for the first time were promoted to the Premium liiga. While Tallinn Kalev didn’t establish themselves as a proper highest league team – in 2016 while the team was playing in Esiliiga it was announced that the legendary Estonian football player Ragnar Klavan would become the president of the club, while the former Estonian National Team member Joel Lindpere will take over the sporting director role. 

The regime under Klavan has brought success to the club as in the summer of 2023 the club president Klavan joined the team, while they also added Finnish goalkeeper Oskari Forsman, who led them to their best finish ever – 3rd place in Premium liiga as they for the first time qualified for the UEFA Conference League qualifying in which they lost to Armenian side Urartru on aggregate 1-4.

In August of 2024 the JK Tallinna Kalev after a not-so-good spell in a league appointed Finnish specialist Teemu Tainio as the new manager of Kalev, he is the former teammate of the Kalev Sporting director Joel Lindpere while they both played for New York Red Bulls in the MLS.