Jānis Anatolijs Bebris (28 July 1917 – 2 May 1969) 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 ...

and

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

player. He was the main

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

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 ...

in the closing years of the 1930s, and represented

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 ...

at the

1936 Winter Olympics The 1936 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IV Olympic Winter Games (german: IV. Olympische Winterspiele) and commonly known as Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936 ( bar, Garmasch-Partakurch 1936), were a winter multi-sport event held from 6 to 16 ...

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Bebris played in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

and France.

Biography

Bebris started playing football at the age of 16. Because of his then fragile body, he was immediately assigned the post of the goalkeeper. Playing with

Union Riga Union Riga was a football club established in Riga in 1907. It was the winner of the Riga football league in 1910. In the period of independence of Latvia between the World wars Union played in the Latvian Higher League for several years. Being ess ...

Bebris soon attracted the attention of the national football team management, soon he moved to a stronger

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 ...

club -

Rīgas Vilki Riga Vanderer (sometimes written as Wanderer, in later years – Rīgas Vilki, also – RV) was a Latvian football club that was founded in 1927, disbanded in 1940, restored a year later and disbanded again in 1944. History Founding The deci ...

. Bebris made his début for Latvia at the age of 18 when Latvia played

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 ...

in the Baltic Cup. In the following years Bebris alongside of

Harijs Lazdiņš Harijs Lazdiņš (25 July 1910 in Liepāja – 23 August 1988 in Kingston, Ontario) was a Latvian football goalkeeper who played for Olimpija Liepāja and Latvia national football team in 1920s-1930s. Biography Lazdiņš made his debut for ...

from

Olimpija Liepāja Olimpija Liepāja was a Latvian football club. It was based in Liepāja Liepāja (; liv, Līepõ; see #Names and toponymy, other names) is a state city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea. It is the largest-city in the Kurzeme Plannin ...

was the leading goalkeeper in Latvian football. In total, he made 21 international appearance for Latvia. Bebris played with RV until the club was disbanded in 1940. In 1941, he played with RDKA Riga. During the Second World War, Bebris was forced to join the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

; then after being captured by the Germans, he was forced to side with them. [Skate] Alfons Berzins (7 - 2 - 1916 // 16 - 12 - : msg#00096
/ref> After the war, Bebris landed in West Germany, where he played with TSV Schwaben Augsburg for two seasons in Oberliga Süd (1945-63), Oberliga Süd, making 53 appearances for the club in league matches. In 1948, Bebris was transferred to France where he joined RC Strasbourg. In the years 1948 to 1949, he played 17 league matches as Strasbourg finished in a respectable 6th position in Division 1. In the next season he played just a single match as the club finished 17th and avoided relegation only thanks to liquidation of the professional club of SR Colmar. After the unsuccessful season Bebris retired from playing. He died in 1969.

References

External links

Profile at RC Strasbourg website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bebris, Janis 1917 births 1969 deaths Association football goalkeepers Expatriate footballers in France Ice hockey players at the 1936 Winter Olympics Latvia international footballers Latvian expatriate footballers Latvian footballers Ligue 1 players Olympic ice hockey players of Latvia RC Strasbourg Alsace players TSV Schwaben Augsburg players Latvian emigrants to Germany