Oskars Kļava (born 8 August 1983) is a Latvian football coach and a former defender. He is the manager of Spartaks Jūrmala.

Career

Club

Kļava was born in

Liepāja Liepāja (; liv, Līepõ; see other names) is a state city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea. It is the largest-city in the Kurzeme Region and the third-largest city in the country after Riga and Daugavpils. It is an important ice-f ...

. As a youth player he played for his local club Liepājas Metalurgs, making his first-team debut in 2002. That year he also made his Euro competitions' debut and was sent off against the

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n club

FC Kärnten FC Kärnten was an Austrian association football club based in Klagenfurt, Carinthia. It was founded in 1920 under the name of KSK Klagenfurt. History Austria Klagenfurt Austria Klagenfurt played successfully in the ''Kärntner Liga'' and in ...

in a

2002–03 UEFA Cup The 2002–03 UEFA Cup was the 32nd edition of the UEFA Europa League, UEFA Cup, the second-tier European club association football, football tournament organised by UEFA. The 2003 UEFA Cup Final, final was played between Portuguese side FC Porto ...

qualifying round match, which Kärnten won 2–0 on 15 August 2002. With the number of appearances growing each season, Kļava played in Liepāja for 9 seasons. He became a first eleven player in 2005. In January 2008 Kļava went on trial with Football League One side

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

in England. He left Metalurgs in 2010, having played 189 league matches, scoring 7 goals. In June 2010 Kļava went on trial with 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 ...

club

Anzhi Makhachkala Football Club Anzhi Makhachkala (russian: link=no, Футбо́льный клуб «Анжи́» Махачкала́, ), known simply as FC Anji, was a Russian professional football club based in the Dagestani capital of Makhachkala. Founded ...

and signed a three-year contract with them in August the same year. He was given the nr. 83 jersey at the club and, despite his surname being ''Kļava'', he had his name ''Oskars'' written on it. He made his Premier League debut in the 17th round match against

CSKA Moscow CSKA Moscow (russian: ЦСКА Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. It was created in 1911 in the Russian Empire on base of OLLS (Skiing Society, founded 1901). Later, during the Soviet era, it was a central piece of the big So ...

, coming on as a substitute on 15 August 2010. In his first season in

Makhachkala Makhachkala ( rus, Махачкала, , məxətɕkɐˈla, links=yes),; av, Махӏачхъала, Maħaçqala; ce, ХӀинжа-ГӀала, Hinƶa-Ġala; az, Маһачгала, Mahaçqala; nog, Махачкала; lbe, Махачкъала; ...

Kļava appeared in 11 Premier League matches, as well as 12 reserve team games, scoring 1 goal. He lost his place in the starting line-up after the arrival of the Brazilian legend

Roberto Carlos Roberto Carlos da Silva Rocha (born 10 April 1973), commonly known as Roberto Carlos, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who now works as a football ambassador. He started his career in Brazil as a forward but spent most of his car ...

. In August 2011 Kļava was given to the Russian First Division club FK Khimki on a half-year loan. Having played 11 matches there, he returned to Anzhi at the end of 2011. Before the start of the 2012 season Kļava rejoined his home-town club Liepājas Metalurgs playing in the Latvian Higher League. He scored 2 goals in 14 league matches. In July 2012 Kļava signed a contract with the Azerbaijan Premier League club AZAL. In his first two seasons with the club Kļava appeared in 57 league matches and scored 2 goals.

International

Kļava was a member of Latvian U-21 team. He made his international debut for the senior side in 2005 in a 1–1 draw against

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

under that time national team's manager

Jurijs Andrejevs Jurijs Andrejevs (born 16 January 1957 in Riga, Latvia, USSR) is a former footballer who is currently the sporting director of Latvian Football Federation. Previously he was the manager of the team but was released in 2008 after an unsuccess ...

, who had picked him up for a tournament in

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

. Kļava scored his first international goal in October 2007 against

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

Career statistics

Club

International

:Source:

International goals

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

Honours

Club

Virsliga 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 ...

: 2005, 2009; runner-up 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008 *

Latvian Cup The Latvian Football Cup () is the main knockout cup competition in Latvian football. Since 2021, its full name is Responsible Game Latvian Football Cup (''Atbildīgas spēles Latvijas kauss'') due to the sponsorship by sports betting company Wil ...

2006 *

Baltic League The Baltic League (officially known as the Triobet Baltic League) was a Baltic men's football club tournament held four times between the top club sides from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Launched in 2007 inspired by the now defunct Scandinavi ...

: 2007

International

* Baltic Cup: 2008, 2012

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Klava, Oskars 1983 births Living people Sportspeople from Liepāja Association football defenders Latvian footballers FK Liepājas Metalurgs players Latvia international footballers Latvian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Russia Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Latvian Higher League players Russian Premier League players Azerbaijan Premier League players FC Anzhi Makhachkala players FC Khimki players AZAL PFK players FK Liepāja players Expatriate footballers in Azerbaijan Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Azerbaijan Latvian football managers