Aleksandrs Kulakovs (born 4 March 1956 in Dedinovo) is a former Latvian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

who played for the biggest part of his career for

Daugava Rīga FK Daugava Rīga was a Latvian football club, based at the Daugava Stadium in Riga. They played in the Latvian Higher League. The last manager of the team was Armands Zeiberliņš. From the club's foundation in 2003 till 2009 the club was k ...

. At the age of 15 Kulakovs was the first goalkeeper for Spartak

Lukhovitsy Lukhovitsy (russian: Лухови́цы) is a town and the administrative center of Lukhovitsky District in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located on the Oka River southeast of Moscow. Population: History It was first mentioned in 1594 as the settlem ...

. After having seen him play for the

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

team

Konstantin Beskov Konstantin Ivanovich Beskov (russian: Константи́н Ива́нович Бе́сков; 18 November 1920 – 6 May 2006) was a Soviet/Russian footballer and coach. Beskov was born in Moscow. He played for Dynamo Moscow as forward, sc ...

offered Kulakovs to move to the reserves squad for

FC Dynamo Moscow FC Dynamo Moscow (''FC Dynamo Moskva'', russian: Дина́мо Москва́ ) is a Russian football club based in Moscow. Dynamo returned to the Russian Premier League for the 2017–18 season after one season in the second-tier Russian Footb ...

. In 1974, he moved to VEF Rīga in

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

and won the Latvian championship in 1974 and 1975. In 1976, he moved to Daugava Rīga, the top club in Soviet Latvia which at the time played in the second division of Soviet football. In the first seasons he had to battle for his position on the field with

Laimonis Laizāns Laimonis Laizāns (born 30 January, 1945, died 16 November, 2020) was a former Soviet Latvian football goalkeeper who played for FK Daugava Rīga and Torpedo Moscow. He is considered one of the best Latvian goalkeepers of all time. Playing biog ...

and Rolands Žagars but soon he became the undisputed number one goalie for Daugava. From 1977 to 1989 he played in 330 for Daugava and was succeeded by

Oļegs Karavajevs Oļegs Karavajevs (13 February 1961 – 6 October 2020) was a Latvian professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He was the goalkeeper who made the most appearances for Latvia national team during the 1990s. Club career Born in Barnau ...

in the club. In 1991 with Forums Skonto Kulakovs won the Latvian league. Kulakovs also played in a one international game for

in 1992. Upon retiring from playing Kulakovs moved to coaching, he currently is the goalkeeper coach for FC Skonto and Latvian national team.

References

* 1956 births People from Lukhovitsky District Living people Latvian footballers Latvia international footballers Daugava Rīga players Association football goalkeepers {{Latvia-footy-bio-stub