Gvidas Gineitis (born 15 April 2004) is a Lithuanian 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 ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

club

Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. T ...

and the Lithuania national team. In January 2023, he received the Best Young Lithuanian Footballer of the Year award by the

Lithuanian Football Federation The Lithuanian Football Federation (LFF) ( lt, Lietuvos futbolo federacija) is the governing body of football in Lithuania. The Federation is responsible for football development in the country and for the national teams, including the Lithuania ...

Club career

Born in

Mažeikiai Mažeikiai (; Samogitian: ''Mažeikē''; lv, Mažeiķi) is a city in northwestern Lithuania, on the Venta River. It has a population of around 43,547, making it the eighth largest city in Lithuania. The city is the administrative center of M ...

, Gineitis is a youth product of NFA Kaunas, where he made his senior debut on 22 September 2018, coming on as a substitute in the second half of a 2–1

I Lyga The I Lyga, LFF I Lyga, Pirma Lyga, is the second tier of professional Lithuanian football championship. Format Organized by the Lithuanian Football Federation (LFF), I Lyga is contested by 14-16 teams, with the top team gaining promotion to ...

defeat to Žalgiris B. In 2019, he then joined fellow second-tier side Atmosfera, where he scored his first senior goal on 24 April 2019, in a 9–8 LFF Cup loss on penalties against

Kėdainiai Kėdainiai () is one of the oldest cities in Lithuania. It is located north of Kaunas on the banks of the Nevėžis River. First mentioned in the 1372 Livonian Chronicle of Hermann de Wartberge, its population is 23,667. Its old town dates to ...

(the match had ended in a 3–3 draw after 120 minutes). In the summer of 2020, Gineitis joined

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had been ...

side

SPAL Società Polisportiva Ars et Labor, commonly known as S.P.A.L. (), is a professional football club based in Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The team plays in Serie B, the second tier of the Italian football league system. Founded in 1907, sinc ...

, where he played for the under-17, under-18 and under-19 teams of the Italian club. On 31 January 2022, the deadline day for the winter

transfer window A transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other playing staff into their playing staff. Such a transfer is completed by registering the player into the new club through FIFA. "Transfer wi ...

, Gineitis joined

side

on a permanent transfer, as part of a deal that also involved Demba Seck and Francesco Dell'Aquila. He subsequently signed a professional contract with the club on 8 June 2022, penning a three-year deal. Following his performances for Torino's under-19 squad, the midfielder was promoted to the first team during the winter break of the 2022–23 season, under head coach

Ivan Jurić Ivan Jurić (; born 25 August 1975) is a Croatian professional football manager and former player who is the manager of club Torino. Jurić spent most of his playing career, as a midfielder, and his entire managing career in Italy. Playing ca ...

. He went on to make his Serie A debut on 10 February 2023, starting and playing 45 minutes in a 1 –0 loss to

AC Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 seaso ...

. In the occasion, he became the fourth Lithuanian player to ever feature in the Italian top tier, following the likes of

Tomas Danilevičius Tomas Danilevičius (born 18 July 1978) is a Lithuanian former professional footballer and president of the Lithuanian Football Federation. Club career Danilevičius previously played for Livorno, Arsenal (playing twice in the league, in game ...

, Marius Stankevičius and Edgaras Dubickas.

International career

Gineitis has represented Lithuania at various youth international levels, having played for the under-17, under-19 and under-21 national teams. In November 2022, he received his first call-up to the Lithuanian senior national team for the 2022 Baltic Cup. He then made his senior debut for Lithuania on 16 November 2022, coming in as a substitute in the tournament's semi-final match against

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

, which ended up in a 5–6 loss on penalties. Three days later, he made his first start in the third place final against

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

, which ended in a 2–0 loss.

Style of play

Gineitis is a left-footed

, who mainly acts as a '' mezzala'' on attacking duties, but can also play in every position of the midfield, or even in the '' number 10'' role. He has been mainly regarded for his physique, his athleticism and his off-the-ball movement. Due to his characteristics, he has been compared to Tommaso Pobega.

References

External links

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Lietuvos Futbolas profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gineitis, Gvidas Living people 2004 births People from Mažeikiai Lithuanian footballers Lithuania international footballers Lithuania under-21 international footballers Lithuania youth international footballers I Lyga players Serie A players S.P.A.L. players Torino F.C. players Association football midfielders Lithuanian expatriate footballers Lithuanian expatriates in Italy Expatriate footballers in Italy