Imants Bleidelis (born 16 August 1975) is a Latvian former professional football

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 ...

. He made 106 appearances for the Latvia national team.

Club career

Born in Riga, Latvian SSR,

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, Bleidelis started his career at Skonto in 1992. In 1994, he played for Inter Skonto, and then between 1994 and 1999 he played 128 games scoring 24 games for Skonto. Skonto then sold him to English club,

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

who were then in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

, for £650,000, where he joined fellow countryman

Marians Pahars Marians Pahars (born 5 August 1976) is a Latvian professional football manager and a former player. As a player, he spent the majority of his career operating as a striker for English club Southampton, where he played in the Premier League an ...

. Bleidelis signed a three-and-a-half-year contract. He played only two league games in three seasons, and after being allowed to go on trial in Denmark with Superliga club,

Viborg FF Viborg Fodsports Forening ("Viborg Footsport Association"), or Viborg F.F. and VFF for short, is a Danish professional football club based in Viborg. The club was founded in 1896 and waited more than a century before winning its only national ...

January 2003 Southampton released him on 26 January, and two days later he signed a two-year contract with Viborg, where he scored six goals in 55 appearances. He left Viborg in winter 2004 after turning down a new contract. Despite offers from two Latvian clubs, Skonto and

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 ...

in 2005 he moved to Austria to play for Austrian Bundesliga club

Grazer AK Grazer AK, founded 18 August 1902 as Grazer Athletiksport Klub (in Austria the abbreviation GAK is more common), is an Austrian sports club, from the city of Graz in the federal state of Styria (''Steiermark''). The football section used to be on ...

where he signed a two-year contract. He made his debut for the club on 17 February 2005 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 solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

against English club

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

. He moved back to Latvia in 2006 with

FK Jūrmala FK or fk may refer to: In arts and entertainment: * Flyer Killer, fictional automated robots in the ''Terminator'' film franchise. * Fox Kids, a former American children's television programming block. * Funky Kong, a video game character. Place: ...

. In 2007, he moved to

FHK Liepājas Metalurgs FHK may refer to: * Feeding Hong Kong, food bank in Hong Kong * Fredericia HK, Danish handball club * " Free Hong Kong", slogan for Hong Kong democracy movement * Kempten University of Applied Sciences (formerly Fachhochschule Kempten) * Technic ...

. Bleidelis had his contract with

FK Liepājas Metalurgs FK Liepājas Metalurgs ( lv, Futbola klubs "Liepājas metalurgs") was a Latvian football club in the city of Liepāja and playing in the Virslīga. They played at the Daugava Stadium (capacity 5,083). In 2005 Liepājas Metalurgs became the fir ...

terminated on 7 July 2008 along with another Latvian international,

Andrejs Rubins Andrejs Rubins (26 November 1978 – 1 August 2022) was a Latvian professional footballer who played as a left midfielder. He was a member of the Latvia national team. Rubins worked as a football manager. Club career Born in Riga, Rubins start ...

International career

Bleidelis played over 106 international matches and scored ten goals for the Latvia national team. He made his debut on 19 May 1995 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 ...

in the Baltic Cup. He played at the

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 football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. The ...

finals and his 100th appearance came on 2 June 2007 against

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations ( UEFA). The competition is conte ...

qualifier.

Honours

Skonto *

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 ...

(6): 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 * Latvian Football Cup: 1992, 1995, 1997, 1998 Metalurgs * Virsliga runners-up: 2007 *

Baltic League The Baltic League (officially known as the Triobet Baltic League) was a Baltic men's football club tournament held four times between the top club sides from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Launched in 2007 inspired by the now defunct Scandinavi ...

: 2007 * Baltic Football: 2002

References

External links

*
Profile at the Latvian Football Federation

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bleidelis, Imants 1975 births Living people Footballers from Riga Association football midfielders Latvian footballers Latvia international footballers Skonto FC players Latvian Higher League players Premier League players Southampton F.C. players Viborg FF players UEFA Euro 2004 players Grazer AK players Austrian Football Bundesliga players FIFA Men's Century Club Latvian expatriate footballers Latvian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in England Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Austria Expatriate footballers in Austria

Club career

International career

Honours

See also

References

External links