Dzintars Zirnis (born 25 April 1977 in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

) is a

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 ...

n former

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 ...

defender. He last played for Latvian First League club

FK 1625 Liepāja Futbola klubs 1625 Liepāja, previously SFK Varavīksne ( en, SFC Rainbow), was a football club based in Liepāja that last played in Latvian football's second tier, the First League. History The club was founded on December 14, 1999 as SFK V ...

. For almost his entire career, Zirnis played for FK Liepājas Metalurgs in the Latvian Higher League, making his debut in 1997 and playing there until 2013. He was also a member of Latvia national football team.

Club career

Zirnis played for FK Pārdaugava Rīga before joining FK Liepājas Metalurgs in 1997. In September 2004 he played in the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

for Metalurgs in which the club beat

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

club,

B36 Tórshavn B36 Tórshavn ( fo, Bóltfelagið 1936 Tórshavn) is a Faroe Islands, Faroese semi professional Association football, football club based in the capital of Tórshavn, playing in the Faroe Islands Premier League, the top tier of Faroese football. ...

11–2 over two legs in the first qualifying round and then beat the Swedish

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; en, the All-Swedish, also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan, en, the Football All-Swedish) is a Swedish professional league for men's association football clubs. It was founded in 1924 and is the top tier of the Swedish football lea ...

club

Östers IF Östers Idrottsförening, commonly known as Östers IF or simply Öster, is a Swedish sports club located in Växjö, specializing in Association football, football, and playing in the second tier of Swedish football, Superettan. The club has ...

in the second qualifying round. Metalurgs were beaten by the German

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

club

FC Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Schalke 04 (), Schalke 04 (), or abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional German football and multi-sports club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhi ...

in the first round, 9–1 over two legs. On 1 October 2005 Zirnis was a part of the Metalurgs team that beat FK Ventspils 5–1 to seal the club's first ever Latvian Higher League title. Zirnis ended his professional career after the

2013 Latvian Higher League The 2013 Latvian Higher League was the 22nd season of top-tier football in Latvia. FC Daugava were the defending champions. The season started on 29 March 2013. The league comprised ten teams. The champions of this season were FK Ventspils, follo ...

season, having played 403 league matches and scored 7 goals. He is one of the most capped players in the history of the Latvian top tier championship behind his ex-teammate Viktors Spole and Igors Korabļovs.

International career

Zirnis made his debut for Latvia national football team on 19 August 1997 in a 0–0 draw with

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

. In November 2003 he was a part of the Latvian team that beat

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

over two legs to qualify for the

UEFA Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial association football, football competition contested by the List of men's national associatio ...

finals, for the first time qualifying for a major international tournament. and played at the finals in 2004. Zirnis was sent off in the Baltic Cup final against

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

Kaunas Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...

on 22 May 2005. On 17 November 2007 he scored an own goal to give

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (german: link=no, Fürstentum Liechtenstein), is a German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is a semi-constitutional monarchy ...

the lead in a

UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying Group F Standings and results for Group F of the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying tournament. Spain secured qualification to the tournament proper on 17 November 2007 following a 3–0 win against Sweden, becoming the tenth team in the whole of the qualification ...

match which Latvia eventually won 4–1. Zirnis played 68 international matches for

Honours

Club * Virsliga Champion (2): 2005, 2009 * Virsliga Runner-up (6): 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011 * Latvian Cup Winner (1): 2006 * Baltic League Champion (1):

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 ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zirnis, Dzintars 1977 births Living people Footballers from Riga Latvian footballers FK Liepājas Metalurgs players Latvia men's international footballers UEFA Euro 2004 players Men's association football defenders