Mihails Zemļinskis ( uk, Михайло Валерійович Землинський; born 21 December 1969) is a Latvian

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

and former 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 ...

. He played as a centre-back or sweeper, making over 100 appearances for the Latvia national team.

Football career

Zemļinskis spent most of his career at

Skonto FC Skonto FC was a Latvian football club, active from 1991 until 2016. The club played at the Skonto Stadium in Riga. Skonto won the Virsliga in the first 14 seasons of the league's resumption (15 in total), and often provided the core of the Latv ...

except for short periods at

FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk Football Club Dnipro ( uk, Футбо́льний Клуб «Дніпро́», ) was a Ukrainian football club based in Dnipro. The club was owned by the Privat Group that also owns BC Dnipro and Budivelnyk Kyiv. In 2018 FC Dnipro was force ...

, at BVSC Budapest and at Hapoel Kfar Saba. He was a skilled central defender and played for the Latvia national team after country regained its independence in 1991. He played 105 matches and scored 12 goals for the national team, and took part in the 2004 European Championships in Portugal. Zemļinskis wore the number 4 jersey. He eventually became a football coach at FC Daugava. He is also a former head coach of the Latvia U21 team.

Political career

Since 2009 he has been a member of the Latvian parliament Saeima for the

social democratic party "Harmony" The Social Democratic Party "Harmony" ( lv, Sociāldemokrātiskā partija "Saskaņa"; russian: Социал-демократическая партия «Согласие», Sotsial-demokraticheskaya partiya «Soglasiye», S),The party officially ...

. According to a request made to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

, Zemļinskis was listed as a member of the Coalition pour la Vie et la Famille (CPVF) at the European level, a hodgepodge European party of conservative, extreme right, populist, eurosceptic, regionalist and neonazi members of national and regional parliaments from seven EU countries. This was at odds with his national party's associate membership of the

party of European Socialists The Party of European Socialists (PES) is a social democratic and progressive European political party. The PES comprises national-level political parties from all member states of the European Union (EU) plus Norway and the United Kingdom. ...

and its only member of European parliament being a member of the

. As of 19 April 2018, Zemļinskis was listed as a member of the

Alliance for Peace and Freedom The Alliance for Peace and Freedom (APF) is a Far-right politics, far-right European political party founded on 4 February 2015. The main member parties had been involved in the now defunct European National Front. The party wishes to establ ...

since 15 September 2015 in that European party's declaration of representatives registered with the Authority for European Political Parties and European Political Foundations.

Honours

Skonto Riga * Baltic Cup:

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

* Latvian Champion (11): 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Individual *

Latvian Footballer of the Year Latvian Footballer of the Year is an association football award for Latvia. It is held by the Latvian Football Federation. Since 2005, there has also been an award for the top female player. Winners Women * 2005: Sintija Grāviņa-Grēve * 20 ...

: 1998

References

External links

Latvian Football Federation
* 1969 births Living people Latvian people of Ukrainian descent Footballers from Riga Social Democratic Party "Harmony" politicians Deputies of the 9th Saeima Deputies of the 10th Saeima Deputies of the 11th Saeima Deputies of the 12th Saeima Latvian footballers Ukrainian footballers Association football defenders Latvia international footballers FIFA Century Club UEFA Euro 2004 players Latvian Higher League players FC Dnipro players Skonto FC players Budapesti VSC footballers Hapoel Kfar Saba F.C. players Latvian expatriate footballers Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Hungary Expatriate footballers in Hungary Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Israel Expatriate footballers in Israel Politicians from Riga {{Ukraine-footy-defender-1970s-stub

Football career

Political career

Honours

See also

References

External links