Aleksandrs Cauņa (; born 19 January 1988) is a Latvian former professional

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 ...

who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

Career

Club

Born in

Daugavpils Daugavpils (see also other names) is a state city in southeastern Latvia, located on the banks of the Daugava River, from which the city derives its name. The parts of the city to the north of the river belong to the historical Latvian region ...

, at youth level Cauņa played for Dinaburg, being brought to Skonto Riga system at the age of 14 in 2002, where he spent three years. In 2006, he joined the

Latvian First League The Latvian First League () is the second tier of football in Latvia and is organised by the Latvian Football Federation. Since 2021, its full name is Nākotnes Līga (''Future League''). History The league was founded together with other Latv ...

side Olimps Riga, playing 10 matches and scoring 2 goals. In 2006, he re-joined Skonto Riga and got a place in the starting eleven. He was named the best youth player in Latvia despite playing only half the season in 2006. In January 2008 Cauņa was invited to join the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

club Chelsea on trial and he trained with the club's reserves. After the 2008 season, Cauņa was on trials at several Premier League clubs, including Blackburn Rovers and

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

, but any potential move eventually fell through as managers

Paul Ince Paul Emerson Carlyle Ince (; born 21 October 1967) is an English professional football manager and former player who was most recently manager of Reading. A midfielder, Ince played professionally from 1986 to 2007, starting his career with West ...

and

Roy Keane Roy Maurice Keane (born 10 August 1971) is an Irish football pundit, former coach, and former professional player. He is best known for his career in the Premier League, in particular his captaincy of Manchester United. He is the joint most ...

left the clubs. On 2 February 2009, he joined English

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

club Watford on loan until the end of the 2008–09 season, with a view to a permanent move. On 3 March he made his debut, coming on as a 74th-minute substitute for Jon Harley in the 2–1 defeat to Plymouth Argyle at Home Park. Cauņa scored his first Watford goal on his full debut for the club, firing a powerful half-volley in a 2–2 draw with

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

at Vicarage Road on 7 April 2009. He returned to Skonto at the end of the season. On 25 August 2010, he went on trial with English

side

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

, playing in their Lancashire Senior Cup tie against

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district of Lancashire, England, on Morecambe Bay, part of the Irish Sea. In 2011 the parish had a population of 34,768. Name The first use of the name was by John Whit ...

later the same day at

Bloomfield Road Bloomfield Road is a association football, football stadium in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, which has been the home of Blackpool F.C., Blackpool Football Club since 1901. It is the third stadium in the club's existence, the previous two be ...

, but did not stay with the club.

CSKA Moscow

At the start of 2011 Cauņa went on trial with the

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

side

PFC CSKA Moscow Professional Football Club CSKA (, derived from the historical name 'Центральный спортивный клуб армии', English language, English: ''Central Sports Club of the Army''), commonly referred to as CSKA Moscow or ''CSK ...

, and on 1 February 2011 he was loaned to the club for four months. He made his debut on 17 February in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

match against

PAOK PAOK (, Πανθεσσαλονίκειος Αθλητικός Όμιλος Κωνσταντινοπολιτών, ''Panthessalonikeios Athlitikós Ómilos Constantinopoliton'', ''Pan-Thessalonian Athletic Club of Constantinopolitans''), commonly ...

. On 27 June 2011, CSKA bought out his rights from Skonto and he signed a five-year contract with CSKA. On 18 October 2011, Cauņa scored his first goal in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

group stages in a 3–0 victory over

Trabzonspor Trabzonspor Kulübü is a Turkish professional sports club located in the city of Trabzon, located in Black Sea region, northeastern Turkey. Established in 1967 through the merger of several local clubs, Trabzonspor is one of the most prominent A ...

. Cauņa scored his first

goal for CSKA on 19 August 2012 in a match against Mordovia Saransk. On 26 August 2012, Cauņa scored his second RPL goal against Krylia Sovetov Samara – a powerful blast from 30 metres, that was later highly rated and put him in the team of the week. On 26 September Cauņa and CSKA matched up against

FC Tom Tomsk FC Tom Tomsk () was a Russian professional football club, based in the Siberian city of Tomsk. The team played in Trud Stadium (Tomsk) before being dissolved in 2022. History The team was previously named ''Burevestnik'' (1957), ''Tomich'' (19 ...

at the 1/16 stage of Russian Cup. CSKA came out with 1–0 win, with Cauņa being a goalscorer. He made an undeniable shot with left foot from outside the penalty area. Cauņa left

CSKA Moscow CSKA Moscow () is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. It was created in 1911 in the Russian Empire on base of OLLS (Skiing Society, founded 1901). Later, during the Soviet Union, Soviet era, it was the central part of the Armed Forces (sports ...

by mutual consent on 11 January 2017.

FK Jelgava

On 28 December 2018, it was announced that Cauna had signed with

FK Jelgava FK Jelgava is a Latvian football club that is based in Jelgava. The club plays its home-matches at the Zemgales Olimpiskais Sporta Centrs stadium with capacity of 1,560 people. In 2021, the club dissolved its professional team, which was abso ...

as a coach, but he also wanted to return on the pitch some time as a player.

International career

Cauņa was a vital member of the Latvia national team since his international debut in 2007. He scored his first two international goals in 2009 – in the

2010 FIFA World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

qualification matches against

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

(a 4–0 win) and

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

(a 2–2 draw). His third goal came on 11 August 2010 in a 4–1 friendly match defeat to

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. It was his first appearance after recovering from a serious injury and being out of football for almost six months. On 12 October he scored a last-minute bicycle kick to level against

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

in a

UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying The qualifying competition for UEFA Euro 2012 was a series of parallel association football competitions held across Europe between 2010 and 2011 to decide the qualifiers for UEFA Euro 2012. The draw for the qualifying rounds was held on 7 Febru ...

match. In 2008, he helped the team win the Baltic Cup. As of 3 November 2013 he had made 40 appearances for Latvia, scoring 11 goals.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Non-FIFA International goals

Honours

Skonto Riga * Virsliga:

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

CSKA Moscow *

: 2012–13, 2013–14, 2015–16 * Russian Cup:

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

* Russian Super Cup:

Latvia * Baltic Cup:

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

Individual *

Latvian Higher League Latvian Higher League or Virslīga, also known as TonyBet Virslīga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Latvia and the highest level of the Latvian football league system. Organised by the Latvian Footbal ...

young footballer of the season:

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

*Latvian Young Footballer of the Year: 2006, 2007, 2008 * Latvian Footballer of the Year: 2011, 2012

References

External links

Aleksandrs Cauna player profile
at CSKA Moscow official website
Aleksandrs Cauna player profile
at skontofc.lv

at watfordfc.com * * *
Aleksandrs Cauņa player profile
at lff.lv {{DEFAULTSORT:Cauna, Aleksandrs Living people 1988 births Footballers from Daugavpils Latvian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Latvia men's international footballers Latvian Higher League players English Football League players Russian Premier League players Skonto FC players Watford F.C. players PFC CSKA Moscow players JFK Olimps players FK RFS players Latvian expatriate men's footballers Latvian expatriate sportspeople in England Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Russia