Celtnieks Rīga was a Latvian football club that won the

Latvian Cup The Latvian Football Cup () is the main knockout cup competition in Latvian football. Since 2021, its full name is Responsible Game Latvian Football Cup (''Atbildīgas spēles Latvijas kauss'') due to the sponsorship by sports betting company Wil ...

3 times.

History

Celtnieks made its debut in the Latvian league in 1978. In the 1980s it was one of the strongest clubs in the Latvian league as it had finished second in the league in four seasons and for three years in a row (1984–1986) it then won the

. Especially remarkable was the 1986 cup victory when in the final game Celtnieks simply devastated its opponent team

Gauja Valmiera Gauja Valmiera was a Latvian football club from Valmiera that played in the top Latvian league from 1979 to 1993. It was named after the river Gauja. In the 1990s another Valmiera football club – FK Valmiera – was renamed to Gauja ...

by winning with 6:0 under the leadership of managers such as Aldis Polis. Jurijs Jakovļevs from Celtnieks was the best goalscorer of the Latvian league in 1984, 1986 and 1987. In this time Celtnieks was coached by former

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 ...

professional

Viktors Ņesterenko Viktors Ņesterenko (born 3 May 1954) is a Latvian football coach and former player. Career Playing career Ņesterenko was born in Ukraine and played football there with the reserves of FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk. In 1971 Ņesterenko was invited ...

who in addition to his coaching work also played with Celtnieks. In addition to Jakovļevs club leaders in those years included Družiņins, Trambovičs, Aleksandrs Kokarevs, Davidovs, Samoiļenko, Čebanovs and Simoņenkovs. After the 1987 season Ņesterenko left Celtnieks for

RAF Jelgava RAF Jelgava was a Latvian football (soccer), football club based in Jelgava.The foundation of the club is considered in 1988 and for the first two years there were two teams of RAF Jelgava which in 1990 merged into one. One of those played in the ...

and thus started the clubs downfall. By 1991 little was left of its former glory and after finishing in the 17th place from the 20 clubs in the 1991 season Celtnieks didn't get a chance to play in

Virslīga 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 ...

in the first season of the independent Latvian league. The club was renamed to SM-ECK, it finished 6th in 1. līga in 1992 and became defunct after the season.

Honours

winners : 3 (1984, 1985, 1986) Defunct football clubs in Latvia Association football clubs disestablished in 1992 1992 disestablishments in Latvia {{Latvia-footyclub-stub