FC Kuressaare

FC Kuressaare is a Estonian football club based in Kuressaare, Saaremaa island. It is the only island-based top-tier club in the Baltics. The club was founded on 14 March 1997. Its predecessor were the youth club BB Sport which had started promoting the football in that region under the leadership of Johannes Kaju. Kuressaare joined the Estonian football pyramid in 1997, when the club, uniting best football players from the island entered the lowest tier of Estonian football.

The first club president and manager was current Estonian Football Association president Aivar Pohlak, who also made appearances for the club in the first club’s season. The current club president is local Kuressaare native Priit Penu, who can be seen in the stands, attending every home game. The story goes that he was approached by Aivar Pohlak in 1999 and asked whether he would like to help in developing football in Saaremaa, to which he agreed.

Making their top tier debut in 2000, Kuressaare proved to be the ultimate yo-yo team right up to the 2009 season getting promoted and relegated for the eight consecutive seasons. After ending this streak and playing for five straight seasons in the top-flight, the club was relegated to the Esiliiga in 2013 and even to the Esiliiga B (3rd tier) after the 2015 season.

The return to Premium liiga was quick via back to back promotions. They have now resided in the top flight for the last seven seasons. Kuressaare achieved a further developmental milestone when, in 2020, Marco Lukka became the first ever fully professional football player of the club thanks to the newly introduced solidarity mechanisms.

After surviving Premium liiga relegation battle in 2025, the club took a major step towards long-term development by, for this first time in their history, becoming fully professional at the beginning of 2026.