Andris Vaņins (born 30 April 1980) 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 le ...

who works as a goalkeeping coach for Swiss club

FC Sion Football Club de Sion, commonly known as simply FC Sion or Sion, is a Swiss football team from the city of Sion. The club was founded in 1909, and play their home matches at the Stade Tourbillon. They have won the Swiss Super League twice, and ...

. A

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 ...

, he most notably played for Sion, making over 200 league appearances. At international level, he earned 100 caps for the Latvia national team.

Club career

Ventspils

Vaņins started his professional football career in 1997, when he was only 17 years old. His first club was

FK Ventspils FK Ventspils is a Latvian football club, based at Ventspils Olimpiskais Stadions in Ventspils city and is one of the most popular football clubs in the country. The club played in the Latvian Virsliga since 1997. It was abolished in 2020, but h ...

. In 2003, he left the

Virsliga 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 ...

, signing a contract with

FC Torpedo-ZIL Moscow FC Torpedo-ZIL (Russian: Футбольный клуб Торпедо-ЗИЛ) was a Russian football club from Moscow. History The team was founded in 1997 after Torpedo Moscow, which played in the Russian Top Division, became a property of SC ...

FC Moscow

In 2003 Vaņins signed a contract with

FC Moscow :''This article refers to the Moscow government team formed in 2004. For the predecessors in the Russian Premier League, see FC Torpedo-ZIL and FC Torpedo-Metallurg.'' FC Moscow (Russian: Футбольный клуб Москва) was a Russian f ...

. He could not manage to get into the first team, mostly being used in the reserves. As playing for the reserve team did not please the Latvian international, he decided to leave.

FK Venta

In 2005, Vaņins returned to Latvia.

FK Venta FK Venta were a Latvian football club based in Ventspils. They were established in 1964 and went bankrupt in 2005. Club history The club was founded in 1964 as Naftas bāze, in its debut season in the Latvian league it finished 6th from 14 teams ...

offered him a contract, which Vaņins accepted. He did not play much there either and the club went bankrupt in the second half of the season. The first-team players, including Vaņins, were released.

Return to Ventspils

Having become a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

, Vaņins agreed to a contract with

. He became the first-choice goalkeeper at the club and played there for three and a half years. In 2006, 2007 and 2008 he was named the best goalkeeper of the season in the LMT Virslīga, as well as the

Latvian Footballer of the Year Latvian Footballer of the Year is an association football award for Latvia. It is held by the Latvian Football Federation. Since 2005, there has also been an award for the top female player. Winners Women * 2005: Sintija Grāviņa-Grēve * 20 ...

in 2008. In 2009, he started looking for a club abroad, but eventually he had to start the next season with FK Ventspils, because of unsuccessful negotiations. In February 2009 he went on trial with the

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is the top division professional association football league in Russia. It was established at the end of 2001 ...

club

Rubin Kazan FC Rubin Kazan (russian: Футбо́льный клуб Руби́н Каза́нь, ''Futbolny klub Rubin Kazan'' , Tatar: Рубин Казан) is a Russian professional football club based in the city of Kazan. They play in the second-tier ...

Sion

In the middle of FK Ventspils' season Vaņins joined

Swiss Super League The Swiss Super League (known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a Swiss professional league in the top tier of the Swiss football league system and has been played in its current format since the 2003–04 season ...

club

on a three-year contract. He went on to become first-choice goalkeeper. His debut for the club was on 19 August 2009 in a 2–0 loss against Fenerbahçe. His first clean sheet came against

FC Echallens FC Echallens is a Swiss football club from Echallens, canton Vaud. The team currently plays in Swiss 1. Liga (football), Liga 1., fourth highest tier in the Swiss Football League, Swiss football pyramid. The club was formed in 1921. Stadium FC ...

. He was named the best goalkeeper of the league after the first and the second round. In his first season at FC Sion Vaņins played in all of the games and was named the club's best player of the season. The Swiss portal ''sport.ch'' named him the best goalkeeper of the

of the 2009–10 season. After the 2010–11 season Vaņins was again named the club's best player by the team's fans, who gave him 34% votes in a survey via

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

. After the 2011 season he was also named the best goalkeeper of the season in the "Swiss Golden Player Award" ceremony. In October 2013, Vaņins' contract at the club was extended till June 2017.

FC Zürich

On 17 June 2016, Vaņins was signed by

FC Zürich Fussballclub Zürich, commonly abbreviated to FC Zürich or simply FCZ, is a Swiss football club based in Zürich. The club was founded in 1896 and has won the Swiss Super League 13 times and the Swiss Cup 10 times. The most recent titles a ...

on a three-year contract. He made his league debut for the club on 25 July 2016 in a 2–0 home victory over

FC Winterthur FC Winterthur is a Swiss football club based in Winterthur, Canton of Zürich. They play in the Swiss Super League, the first tier of Swiss football, and appeared regularly in the Nationalliga A during the 20th century. Their home is the Stad ...

playing the full 90 minutes. In July 2020 his contract was not renewed.

International career

Vaņins made his international debut for

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 ...

in 2000 in a 3–1 loss against

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

. In summer 2007, when the first-choice keeper

Aleksandrs Koliņko Aleksandrs Koliņko (born 18 June 1975) is a Latvian retired professional footballer who works as assistant manager and goalkeeping coach of Latvian Higher League club FK RFS. Club career Koliņko was born in Riga and started his career in 1994 ...

suffered a long-term injury, head coach

Aleksandrs Starkovs Aleksandrs Starkovs (born 26 July 1955) is a Latvian football coach and a former player. Most recently he coached FK Liepāja. Starkovs has managed clubs such as Spartak Moscow in Russia, FK Baku in Azerbaijan and Skonto FC in Latvia. He had th ...

faced a choice to either let Vaņins or

Deniss Romanovs Deniss Romanovs (born 2 September 1978) is a retired Latvian football goalkeeper. Club career His early career was spent with Latvian sides Skonto-Metāls, Valmiera, Ventspils and Ditton. During the 2008/09 season he joined Slavia Praha. I ...

play. Vaņins was chosen to be the replacement, and since then he has become the first-choice goalkeeper of the team. On 10 October 2019, Vaņins played his 100th match for Latvia in a 3–0 loss against

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

Post-playing career

On 31 August 2020, Vaņins retired from playing and returned to

Sion Sion may refer to * an alternative transliteration of Zion People * Sion (name) or Siôn, a Welsh and other given name and surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Shion or Sion, a Japanese given name Plac ...

as a goalkeeper coach.

Personal life

Andris Vaņins is married and has two sons.

Honours

Ventspils *

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

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 ...

: 2007 Sion *

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup tournament that has been organised annually since 1925–26 by the Swiss Football Association. Since 1999 the winner earns the chance to qualify for the UEFA Europa League or the UEFA Europa Conference L ...

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, 2014–15 FC Zürich * Swiss Cup: 2017–18 * Challenge League: 2016–17 Latvia * Baltic Cup:

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

Individual *

Best Goalkeeper: 2006, 2007, 2008 *

: 2008, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017 *

Best Goalkeeper: 2009–10, 2010–11 *

Player of the Season: 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12, 2012–13

References

External links

* *
FC Zurich Stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vanins, Andris 1980 births Living people People from Ilūkste Latvian footballers Association football goalkeepers Latvian expatriate footballers Latvia international footballers Expatriate footballers in Russia Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate footballers in Switzerland FK Ventspils players Latvian Higher League players FC Moscow players FC Sion players FC Zürich players Swiss Challenge League players Swiss Super League players FK Venta players Latvian people of Ukrainian descent Ilūkstes NSS players FIFA Century Club