Alfrēds Verners (1912 – 31 December 1973) was a Latvian

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 le ...

and

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

player who played ten matches for

Latvia national football team The Latvia national football team ( lv, Latvijas futbola izlase) represents Latvia in international football and is controlled by the Latvian Football Federation, the governing body for football in Latvia. They have never qualified for the FIF ...

in the 1920s.

Biography

Verners began playing both football and ice hockey with

Union Riga Union Riga was a football club established in Riga in 1907. It was the winner of the Riga football league in 1910. In the period of independence of Latvia between the World wars Union played in the Latvian Higher League for several years. Being ess ...

(as it was a common practice among sportspeople in Latvia before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

to compete in different sports in summer and winter). Verners got a wider popularity as in 1930 Union returned to the

Latvian Higher League Latvian Higher League or Virslīga is a professional football league and the top tier of association football in Latvia. Organised by the Latvian Football Federation, the Higher League is contested by 10 clubs. The full name of the league is Op ...

and unexpectedly earned a respectable fourth-place finish, and won the bronze medals just a year later. In ice hockey Union was an even stronger side, winning the first two Latvian league tournaments, thus by 1933 Verners was a two-time champion of Latvia in ice hockey and a one time bronze medallist in football. On 30 June 1931, Verners made his international début for

scoring a goal and giving passes to two goals to

Ēriks Pētersons Ēriks Pētersons (1909 in Riga – 1987 in United States) was Latvian footballer and hockey player. Between 1929 and 1939 he played 63 international matches and scored 21 goals for Latvia national team. He also played in Latvian national i ...

. In total Verners made 19 appearances for Latvia until 1937 and scored five goals, he also played for the

Latvia 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 IIHF as of 2019. The team is controlled by the Latvian Ice Hockey Federation. Their best ever finish at the World Ch ...

. Verners joined

Riga Vanderer Riga Vanderer (sometimes written as Wanderer, in later years – Rīgas Vilki, also – RV) was a Latvian football club that was founded in 1927, disbanded in 1940, restored a year later and disbanded again in 1944. History Founding The decisi ...

in 1935 and won the

Latvian Cup The Latvian Football Cup () is the main Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in Latvian Football (soccer), football. Since 2021, its full name is Responsible Game Latvian Football Cup (''Atbildīgas spēles Latvijas kauss'') due ...

in 1936 and 1938.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Verners, Alfreds 1912 births 1973 deaths Latvian men's footballers Latvia men's international footballers Latvian ice hockey players Men's association football players not categorized by position