Nerijus Barasa (born 1 June 1978) is 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 ...

n 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 le ...

. He played as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

defensive 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 ...

Career

Barasa started his career with

FBK Kaunas Kauno futbolo ir beisbolo klubas, commonly known as FBK Kaunas, was a Lithuanian football club from the city of Kaunas. History Banga Kaunas (1960–1993) Originally the team was founded in 1960 as Banga Kaunas and played its first three years ...

in 1994 before joining

Atlantas Klaipėda FK Atlantas was a Lithuanian association football, football team from the port city of Klaipėda. The club's name has changed several times. It was established in 1962 as ''Granitas'', and became ''PSK Aras'' in 1993. Since 1996, when FK Siri ...

the following season. After a year in

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 ...

with

Baltika Liepāja Baltika Brewery (russian: link=no, Пивоваренная компания "Балтика") is the second largest brewing company in Europe and the leader of the Russian beer market with over 38% market share. It is headquartered in St. Pet ...

, he returned to

with his family, then

came in for him.

Kaunas Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...

beckoned for Barasa in 2001, where he spent the following five seasons; four in the

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is the top division professional association football league in Russia. It was established at the end of 2001 ...

with

FC Krylia Sovetov Samara PFC Krylia Sovetov Samara (russian: Профессиональный футбольный клуб «Крылья Советов» Самара) is a football club from Russia based in Samara. It returned to the Russian Premier League for the 20 ...

and

FC Alania Vladikavkaz FC Spartak Vladikavkaz (russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб «Спартак Владикавказ») was a Russian association football, football club based in Vladikavkaz (formerly Ordzhonikidze), North Ossetia–Alania. Founded in ...

and one in the

Russian First Division The Russian First League (russian: Первая лига, Pervaya liga), formerly called Russian First Division (russian: Первый дивизион) and Russian Football National League (FNL) (russian: Первенство Футбольн� ...

with

FC Lada Togliatti FC Lada-Tolyatti (russian: ФК "Лада-Тольятти") is a Russian football club based in Tolyatti. History The club was founded in 1970 at the VAZ automobile company under the name of ''Torpedo''. The team played in the Soviet Second Le ...

. During this period he was called up to the Lithuanian national team, earning his first cap in 2001. At the end of the 2005 season, Barasa moved to

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, signing for FBK Kaunas, then being immediately loaned to Heart of Midlothian. He joined the Tynecastle side on 13 January 2006 and spent a total of 16 months with the

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

club before moving back to Kaunas. In October 2006, Barasa was at the centre of controversy when he and compatriot

Saulius Mikoliūnas Saulius Mikoliūnas (born 2 May 1984) is a Lithuanian professional footballer who plays as a right winger for A Lyga club Žalgiris and the Lithuania national team. He has previously played for Scottish Premier League club Heart of Midlothia ...

were booed by Hearts fans for perceived poor form in a game against Rangers. This prompted Hearts' Sporting Director Alex Kozlovski to suggest that the supporters had ulterior motives for booing them, expressly their nationality. This claim was contested by fans representative groups and Kozlovski later apologised and retracted it.Kozlovski says sorry
'' Scotsman.com Sport'', 25 November 2006. Barasa missed half of the 2006–07 season due to injury and left Hearts in the summer of 2007, before also rescinding his contract with Kaunas. After that he retired in order to pursue business interests in

Samara Samara ( rus, Сама́ра, p=sɐˈmarə), known from 1935 to 1991 as Kuybyshev (; ), is the largest city and administrative centre of Samara Oblast. The city is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Samara (Volga), Samara rivers, with ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, where he lives with his wife. His last game was against

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

in the

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...

on 14 January 2007.

International goals

:''Scores and results list Lithuania's goal tally first.''

Honours

National Team * Baltic Cup **

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

References

External links

*
Hearts appearances
at londonhearts.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Barasa, Nerijus 1978 births Living people Lithuanian footballers Lithuania men's international footballers Lithuanian expatriate footballers FBK Kaunas footballers FC Spartak Vladikavkaz players PFC Krylia Sovetov Samara players Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Russian Premier League players Scottish Premier League players Expatriate footballers in Scotland Expatriate footballers in Russia FC Lada-Tolyatti players Barasa FK Kareda Kaunas players Men's association football fullbacks Men's association football midfielders