Leonas Juozapaitis (18 January 1901 – 13 August 1980) was a

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 ...

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 competed in the

1924 Summer Olympics The 1924 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1924), officially the Games of the VIII Olympiad (french: Jeux de la VIIIe olympiade) and also known as Paris 1924, were an international multi-sport event held in Paris, France. The op ...

. Juozapaitis was 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

LFLS Kaunas LFLS Kaunas, or Lietuvos Fizinio Lavinimosi Sąjunga Kaunas, was a Lithuanian football club based in Kaunas in the years between World War I and World War II during Lithuania's first period of modern independence. The club was founded in 1919 an ...

when he got called up to represent Lithuania in their first ever international in 1923 against Estonia, the next year he played at the 1924 Summer Olympics in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, France, where they lost in the first round against Switzerland 0-9, his next two international matches also ended in defeat. He was also a keen athlete and was the Lithuanian 2 km champion in 1922 and in the same year he played in the first Lithuanian basketball match.

References

1901 births 1980 deaths Footballers from Vilnius People from Vilensky Uyezd Lithuanian footballers Lithuania international footballers Footballers at the 1924 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Lithuania Association football midfielders {{Lithuania-footy-bio-stub