Raio Piiroja

Raio Piiroja ( born July 11, 1979 in Pärnu ) is an Estonian football player at the position of a defender.

Career

Piiroja started his football career in 1995 at JK Tervis Pärnu (from 1997 called the SK Balatonelle ) and played there until 1999. Between 1999 and 2004 he was at FC Flora Tallinn under contract and won here in 2001 and 2002 Estonian championship.

2003, 1.90 m wide defender was loaned for one year for Vålerenga IF in the Norwegian Tippeligaen. The rental was € 50,000. Piiroja graduated in season eleven games and scored one goal. For the season 2004 Piiroja did not return to Tallinn but remained in Norway and signed a contract with Fredrikstad FK, also in the Tippeligaen. On August 22, 2004 Piiroja made ​​his debut for Fredrikstad in the game against Odd Grenland. In 2006 he won the Norwegian Cup with Fredrikstad. In the cup final against Sandefjord Fotball he contributed two goals in a 3-0 victory.

For the 2011/12 season Piiroja moved to Vitesse Arnhem in the Dutch Eredivisie. He had to fight in the season with knee problems, and only came to two short sessions ( Substitutes in the 90th minute against SC Heerenveen and Substitutes in the 88th minute against De Graafschap ). His contract was not renewed after the season of Arnhem.

2012 Piiroja went back to Flora Tallinn. In February 2013 he signed with the Chinese second division club Chengdu Blades.

For the Estonian national football team Raio Piiroja ran more than 100 times. It was 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, named the Estonian Footballer of the Year.

Private

In the early summer of 2012 Piiroja was indicted for tax evasion in Norway. He was accused to have his salary not properly taxed.