Becoming a father and a goal at Stamford Bridge: Markus Poom's ...

Last week, Markus Poom’s wife Rebeca delivered their first child, a baby girl called Matilde.

And seven days later, on the pitch the Shamrock Rovers midfielder delivered himself, as his equaliser at Stamford Bridge gave the class of 2024 their ‘White Hart Lane’ moment, one which sent the 3,000 Hoops fans into dreamland in the Shed End.

Although the result was one to forget, as Stephen Bradley’s men fell to a 5-1 defeat to two-time European champions Chelsea, the occasion was one to savour.

For the Estonian international, whose future is still to be decided as he now returns to parent club Flora Tallinn, it will be hard to top the Christmas of 2024. For his family, the pictures of him celebrating his famous goal by rocking his arms in tribute to his newborn will be a memory for life.

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“It’s been a mad week, honestly,” said the 25-year-old from Stamford Bridge, as Rovers finished tenth in the 36-team league table with a February play-off for the last 16 already secured.

“After the last game against Borac (December 12), I got a call from my wife that she was going into labour. So I bought the first plane ticket to Estonia that I could and yeah, we had a little baby girl.

“After Borac I actually had doping control. Then I got my phone and I saw the missed calls so I knew it was happening. The due date was actually in January so she came almost a month early. But look, you can’t really choose when they come. I’m just really happy, it’s one of the best weeks of my life.

“It’s just amazing how life can be very calm and then in the space of a week… you have to be mentally strong to go through anything. As footballers we have to make a lot of sacrifices and this is a prime example of one of them. I had to sacrifice a lot to be here. So to get to score at Stamford Bridge is worth it.

“She was living in Dublin but she was in Estonia (for the birth). I didn’t make the birth but I made it just in time the next day around lunch time.

“I made the plane as quick as I could, the baby was born as I was in the air so I had two hours of the unknown, wondering. I could write a movie about it one day, honestly!

“Then flew back to Dublin and I did one or two training sessions with the lads, a lot of sleepless nights, but it was well worth it.

“I’m very happy to my wife that she let me go (to Chelsea), we discussed it. If it was any other game I probably would have told the manager that I couldn’t play, but this was kind of once in a lifetime and it paid off. To score here is unbelievable.”

As Chelsea cruised to a sixth successive victory in the final game of the League phase and topped the group, there will be regret from a Rovers perspective on how they gifted them opening two goals after costly errors at the back.

But Poom feels the more the Hoops test themselves against high calibre opposition, the more it will benefit them in the long term.

“We lost by four goals, but if you look at the goals it was a bit of sloppy play on our part. The scoreline could have been a lot better,” added the midfielder, who has been capped 29 times by Estonia.

“You knew you were up against a really tough opponent and the occasion itself… yeah we gave a lot of goals away, the errors at this level, they just punish you so quickly. You can’t make two big errors.

“We did have a lot of positives, we showed we can score and we showed we can create chances so the more we get these types of games, we can improve and go to the next level in our development.”

Poom is one of the players whose future is still yet to be decided following the end of the League phase. As he returns to his parent club now, discussions will be held with Rovers about his next step.

“We’ll see. I’m scheduled to have talks with the club now and we’ll talk about my future, but right now, I’ve no answer for that."