Ilmārs Verpakovskis (15 October 1958 – 6 February 2022) was a Latvian

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 played 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 ...

. He spent the bulk of his career with the Latvian club

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 ...

, and was the father of the Latvia national team's all-time top scorer,

Māris Verpakovskis Māris Verpakovskis (born 15 October 1979), is a Latvian retired professional footballer who played as a striker. He represented the Latvia national team at UEFA Euro 2004 and is the only Latvian player to score at the end stage of a major int ...

International career

Verpakovskis made three appearances for the Latvia national team from 1991–1992. His first two appearances were in the unofficial 1991 Baltic Cup. His final appearance was in Latvia's first ever

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

recognized match, a 2–0 friendly loss to

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

on 8 April 1992.

Personal life and death

Verpakovskis was the father of

, who became a renowned Latvian footballer. Verpakovskis managed his son in his brief stint as player-manager for

in 1994. The Verpakovskis were the only father-son pair to both play for the

Latvia national football team The Latvia national football team ( lv, Latvijas futbola izlase) represents Latvia in international football and is controlled by the Latvian Football Federation, the governing body for football in Latvia. They have never qualified for the FIF ...

. He died on 6 February 2022, at the age of 63.Ilmārs Verpakovskis (1958–2022)

References

External links

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Lietuvos Futbolas Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Verpakovskis, Ilmars 1958 births 2022 deaths Footballers from Riga Soviet men's footballers Latvian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Latvia men's international footballers FK Liepājas Metalurgs players Latvian Higher League players Latvian football managers FK Liepājas Metalurgs managers