Poom casts a long shadow

MART POOM will be looking down on Ireland’s international footballers when they train in his hometown of Tallinn tonight.

The first thing Giovanni Trapattoni’s squad will see when they run onto the pitch at the Le Coq Arena for their traditional pre-match training session this evening is a giant photo of Estonia’s most famous footballer.

Poom’s face beams out from a giant billboard promoting one of the Baltic States leading banks at a time when big business here wants to embrace football on the back of Estonia’s Euro 2012 progress.