Nauris Bulvītis (born 15 March 1987) is 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 plays as a defender for

FK Spartaks Jūrmala FK Spartaks is a Latvian football club that is based in Sloka, Jūrmala. In 2012, they finished 3rd in the Latvian First League championship and after winning the play-offs against JFK Olimps were promoted to the Latvian Higher League. The club ...

Club career

Bulvītis started his professional career in 2007 with Daugava Daugavpils. Having played there for one season, he made 7 league appearances and scored no goals. In 2008, he had a one-year spell in the Lithuanian A Lyga with Šiauliai, playing 21 games and scoring once. In 2009 Bulvītis returned to his homeland, signing a contract with Tranzit. That season he played 17 matches and scored 1 goal in the Latvian Higher League, before being loaned to the Scottish First Division side

Inverness Caledonian Thistle Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club, commonly known as Caley Thistle, is a professional football club based in Inverness, Scotland. The team currently competes in the Scottish Championship, the second tier of the Scottish Professional F ...

. He signed on loan until January 2010 after a successful trial spell at the club. He was recommended to join the club by fellow Latvian and former Inverness defender Pāvels Mihadjuks. Bulvītis made his debut for ''Caley Thistle'' in a

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existen ...

match against Annan Athletic. He scored his first goal against

Stranraer Stranraer ( , in Scotland also ; gd, An t-Sròn Reamhar ), also known as The Toon, is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It is located in the historical parish of Inch in the historic county of Wigtownshire. It lies on the shores of L ...

in the League cup. FC Tranzit permitted Bulvītis to extend his loan spell at Caley until the end of the season. Bulvītis left Inverness at the end of the 2009–10 season. Bulvitis signed for the Latvian Higher League club Ventspils before the start of the Eurocups. He played 10 matches for Ventspils, scoring no goals. In January 2011 he went on trial with the Slovak Super Liga club Spartak Trnava and signed a two and a half-year contract with them. Because of a long-term injury he was released by the Slovak side in the middle of 2011. Bulvītis then returned to Latvia, joining Spartaks Jūrmala. During three seasons with the club he scored nine goals in 56 league matches. In July 2013 Bulvītis joined

Skonto Riga 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 Lat ...

on a three-year contract. He played 15 league matches and scored three goals for the club before leaving the club in January 2014 due to a long-term delay of salary payment. On 24 January 2014 Bulvītis signed a one-year contract with the

Swiss Super League The Swiss Super League (known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a Swiss professional league in the top tier of the Swiss football league system and has been played in its current format since the 2003–04 season ...

club

Aarau Aarau (, ) is a List of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital of the northern Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau. The List of towns in Switzerland, town is also the capital of the dis ...

with an option to extend it for another season. In April 2014 his contract was extended for another year. During his first season in the Swiss Super League Bulvītis played 18 matches, scoring no goals. In February 2016, Bulvītis went on trial with Kazakhstan Premier League side

Shakhter Karagandy Football Club Shakhter ( kk, "Шахтер" футбол клубы, Shakhter fýtbol klýby), commonly referred to as FC Shakhter Karagandy ( kk, Қарағанды/Qarağandı ;Russian: Караганда/Karaganda), is a professional footbal ...

. On 29 June 2016,

Plymouth Argyle Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the team are competing in League One, the third tier of English football. They have played at Home Park, ...

confirmed Bulvītis as a new signing. Bulvitis had scored all 3 of his Argyle goals in the month of August, netting his first in a 2–1 win away to Notts County, quickly followed by the only goal in a 1–0 win away to

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

, and then another goal in a 4–1

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...

game at home to Newport County. This early season run of form saw Bulvītis make an appearance as an auxiliary striker in Argyle's 1–0 defeat to

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

in an FA Cup third round replay. Bulvītis' back half of the season was plagued with injury problems as he eventually lost his centre half place to January signing

Jakub Sokolík Jakub Sokolík (born 28 August 1993) is a Czech professional footballer who plays as a defender, most recently for Torquay United. Club career Liverpool Sokolík joined the youth academy of Baník Ostrava when he was 6 years old in 1999. Durin ...

. At the end of a promotion winning 2016–17 season, Bulvītis was released by Argyle along with eight other professionals. In September 2017, Bulvītis re-signed for

Virslīga 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 ...

side Ventspils in his native Latvia, making 6 appearances between then and the end of the season in November as Ventspils came 4th in the Latvian Higher League on

goal difference Goal difference, goal differential or points difference is a form of tiebreaker used to rank sport teams which finish on equal points in a league competition. Either "goal difference" or "points difference" is used, depending on whether matches ar ...

. Finishing 4th saw Ventspils qualify for the

2018–19 UEFA Europa League The 2018–19 UEFA Europa League was the 48th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 10th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The final was played at the Olympic St ...

, with Bulvītis not featuring in their first qualifying round 8-3 aggregate win over Albanian side Luftëtari, but featuring off the bench in both legs of Ventspils' second qualifying round 3-1 aggregate defeat to French

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

side Girondins Bordeaux. On 27 December 2018, Bulvītis signed with

Rīgas FS Rīgas Futbola Skola (Latvian for ''Riga's football school'') is a Latvian women's association football, football club from Riga. The women play in the top level Latvian Women's League and won the championship in 2013 and 2014. They won their thi ...

for the 2019 season. In January 2020, Bulvītis returned to

International career

Bulvītis has been capped internationally at under-19 and under-21 levels. In 2012 Latvia national football team coach Aleksandrs Starkovs called him up for the

2012 Baltic Cup The 2012 Baltic Cup was a football competition which was held on 1–3 June 2012 in Estonia. Format For the first time, Finland took part in the competition. As a result of this, the round-robin format was changed to knock-out tournament, as ...

. Nauris played 2 matches, helping

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 ...

win the tournament. Bulvītis scored his first international goal on 6 September 2013 in a 2–1

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

qualification match victory over

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 May 2014 he helped Latvia win the Baltic Cup for the second time in a row, scoring the only goal in a 1–0 victory over

in the final of the tournament. As of March 2015 Bulvītis has played 19 international matches and scored two goals for Latvia.

International goals

Honours

;Inverness CT * Scottish First Division champions: 2009–10 ;FK Ventspils *

runners-up:

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

;Skonto Riga *

runners-up:

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

;Plymouth Argyle *

EFL League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

runners-up: 2016–17 ;Latvia National Team * Baltic Cup champions:

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

References

External links

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Nauris Bulvītis
at Rīgas FS {{DEFAULTSORT:Bulvitis, Nauris 1987 births Living people Footballers from Riga Latvian men's footballers Men's association football defenders Latvian expatriate men's footballers Latvia men's international footballers Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland FC Daugava players Expatriate men's footballers in Lithuania Inverness Caledonian Thistle F.C. players Plymouth Argyle F.C. players Scottish Football League players Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Scotland FK Ventspils players FC Spartak Trnava players FK RFS players Slovak First Football League players Expatriate men's footballers in Slovakia Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Slovakia FK Spartaks Jūrmala players Skonto FC players FC Aarau players Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Swiss Super League players