Ēriks Pētersons (1909–1987) was a

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

and

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player. Between 1929 and 1939 he played 63 international matches and scored 21 goals for Latvian national team. He also played in the

Latvian national ice hockey team The Latvian men's national ice hockey team represents Latvia in international ice hockey. The team is ranked 10th in the world by International Ice Hockey Federation, IIHF as of 2023. The team is controlled by the Latvian Ice Hockey Federation. ...

, where he appeared in eight matches. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Pētersons moved to United States.

Biography

Ēriks Pētersons was first noticed in 1928 when he moved from a third league team directly to the strongest football club in Latvia,

Rīgas FK The Riga Football Club (''Rīgas futbola klubs'' or ''Rīgas Futbolklubs'', RFK or Rīgas FK) was a Latvian football club which was founded on December 14, 1923 in Riga. It was the strongest and most popular Latvian football club in the 1920s an ...

. He started as a center forward but soon changed his position on the field to central midfield in which he still retained his goal scoring abilities. All his career Pētersons played for a single club, RFK. He was the most capped Latvia international footballer before

, participating in 63 of the total 99 matches Latvia played in this time period. He was also the country's best international goalscorer of the 20th century. In 2007, Māris Verpakovskis overtook him in the all-time Latvia scoring list. His last football match in Latvia was in the 1939–1940 season against Olimpija Liepāja as he did not play either during the first Soviet, or the German occupation of Latvia. After the war, Pētersons moved to the United States where he played for the Swedish football club Chicago Viking. In 2006 Pētersons was selected as one of the 11 greatest Latvian footballers of the 20th century and is considered by many the all-time best Latvian footballer.

International Goals

:''Scores and results list Latvia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Pētersons goal.''

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Petersons, Eriks 1909 births 1987 deaths Footballers from Riga Latvian men's footballers Latvian ice hockey players Latvia men's international footballers Chicago Vikings players Men's association football midfielders Latvian emigrants to the United States Latvian World War II refugees Ice hockey people from Riga