Arsenal goalkeeper Karl Hein has won Estonia’s men’s footballer of the year award for 2025, receiving the accolade over the weekend.
Arsenal goalkeeper Karl Hein is currently on loan with Werder Bremen, but he travelled back to his home country of Estonia over the weekend to receive the men’s footballer of the year award.
The award was determined via a survey conducted by the Estonian Football Journalists’ Club and the Estonian Football Association, with the two organisations having 41 votes each and each of those voters providing a top three.
Hein won in a landslide with 214 points and 61 first-place votes.
“I’m certainly very satisfied with the year, especially with the first half of it,” Hein said. “I played in almost all the matches. There was a small injury break in between, but even so I racked up plenty of games.
“Defending the Estonia national team goal is a big responsibility, but I gladly take on that responsibility to help the team. I hope to start achieving big things with the national side in the future as well. For me, this is the greatest honor.”
Hein certainly had an encouraging start to 2025, making 14 appearances for Real Valladolid despite suffering a month-long shoulder injury in March.
Then Hein’s nine appearances in Estonia’s 10 games in 2025 will have held a lot of significance for the voters, likely earning him the award.
Though the award does come during a bit of a down period for the Arsenal 23-year-old. Hein has only played twice for Werder Bremen so far, keeping one clean sheet, and his last game was on October 4th.
There was very little criticism attached to either of Hein’s displays for his loan club, but he finds himself behind the highly-rated Mio Backhaus and unable to break in.
It’s a situation Arsenal might want to look at in January, as the current trajectory of Hein’s minutes will make it a lot less likely he wins Estonia’s footballer of the year award in 2026.