Raimonds Laizāns (born 5 August 1964, in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

) is a former

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 ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

who played for

Latvia national football team The Latvia national football team ( lv, Latvijas futbola izlase) represents Latvia in international football and is controlled by the Latvian Football Federation, the governing body for football in Latvia. They have never qualified for the FIF ...

in the 1990s.

Club playing career

Raimonds Laizāns started playing football at the Daugava sports school in Riga at the age of 13. In 1980 with

Progress Rīga Progress is the movement towards a refined, improved, or otherwise desired state. In the context of progressivism, it refers to the proposition that advancements in technology, science, and social organization have resulted, and by extension wi ...

he won the silver medals of the Latvian league and in 1983 debuted for the strongest Latvian club -

Daugava Rīga FK Daugava Rīga was a Latvian football club, based at the Daugava Stadium in Riga. They played in the Latvian Higher League. The last manager of the team was Armands Zeiberliņš. From the club's foundation in 2003 till 2009 the club was k ...

. However his career with Daugava never really got off -

Aleksandrs Kulakovs Aleksandrs Kulakovs (born 4 March 1956 in Dedinovo) is a former Latvian football goalkeeper who played for the biggest part of his career for Daugava Rīga. At the age of 15 Kulakovs was the first goalkeeper for Spartak Lukhovitsy. After hav ...

was in his prime years and the best Laizāns could hope for was being back-up to Kulakovs. From 1985 to 1987 Laizāns played with

Zvejnieks Liepāja Zvejnieks (Latvian orthography#Old orthography, Old orthography: ''Sweineek(s)''; feminine: Zvejniece) is a Latvian people, Latvian occupational surname, derived from the Latvian language, Latvian word for "fisherman". Individuals with the surname ...

, then went to the

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

- first to

Volyn Lutsk Volhynia (also spelled Volynia) ( ; uk, Воли́нь, Volyn' pl, Wołyń, russian: Волы́нь, Volýnʹ, ), is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe, between south-eastern Poland, south-western Belarus, and western Ukraine. Th ...

with which he won the Ukrainian league in 1989, then - to

FC Karpaty Lviv Football Club Karpaty Lviv ( ) is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club based in Lviv. History Early years (1963–68) The team of Karpaty was founded on 18 January, 1963 in association football, 1963. In 1961 Silmash Lvi ...

. After the 1991/1992 season in Ukraine he returned to

and joined

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 Latvia ...

. In the first year Laizāns played significantly less than Oļegs Grišins but from 1993 to 1996 he was the undisputed number one goalkeeper in the club which was without a doubt the strongest in Latvia. From 1994 to 1996 Laizāns was selected the best goalkeeper in

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 ...

. In 1997 Laizāns started experiencing a competition from the club's second goalkeeper -

Aleksandrs Koliņko Aleksandrs Koliņko (born 18 June 1975) is a Latvian retired professional footballer who works as assistant manager and goalkeeping coach of Latvian Higher League club FK RFS. Club career Koliņko was born in Riga and started his career in 1994 ...

(both played 12 matches in the Latvian

). And after that season Laizāns left Skonto for

Fakel Voronezh FC Fakel Voronezh (russian: Футбольный клуб "Факел" Воронеж) is a Soviet and Russian professional football club based in Voronezh. Founded in 1947, the club has played in the Soviet Top League and the Russian Premier Le ...

in the 1st Russian league. The season was good for Laizāns - he played 39 of 42 matches with Fakel, but for the club it wasn't especially good - 10th place in the league. In 1999 Laizāns returned to Latvia again and joined

Policijas FK Policijas FK or FK Policija (later known as PFK Daugava) was a Latvian football club based in Riga that played in the Virslīga from 1999 to 2002. History The football club of the Latvian police forces was founded in 1994. Until 1998 it played ...

. After one season with Policijas FK Laizāns retired from active football.

National team playing career

In early nineties when Latvia regained independence and its national team debuted in international matches there were two main contenders for the number one goalkeeper spot in Latvia - Laizāns and

Oļegs Karavajevs Oļegs Karavajevs (13 February 1961 – 6 October 2020) was a Latvian professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He was the goalkeeper who made the most appearances for Latvia national team during the 1990s. Club career Born in Barnau ...

. Laizāns got the honor of playing the first Latvia official game - against

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

on 8 April 1992. Karavajevs was the one who usually played the most important matches and who played for Latvia in its most historic matches but Laizāns usually got a chance to play in friendlies and in the Baltic Cup. Laizāns last match for Latvia came in 1998 as it lost 0:3 in a friendly game against

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

. In total he made 31 international appearances for Latvia. After retiring from active football Laizāns took over the youth squad of

, and as of January 2008 he is the chairman of

JFK Olimps Rīga JFK Olimps was a Latvian football club, playing in the top division of Latvian football. The club was from the city of Riga. According to a study from January 2011, the club was the youngest team in Europe, with an average age of 19.02 years. ...

. Raimonds Laizāns is not a relative of another former

goalkeeper

Laimonis Laizāns Laimonis Laizāns (born 30 January, 1945, died 16 November, 2020) was a former Soviet Latvian football goalkeeper who played for FK Daugava Rīga and Torpedo Moscow. He is considered one of the best Latvian goalkeepers of all time. Playing biog ...

and of Latvia international footballer

Juris Laizāns Juris Laizāns (born 6 January 1979) is a Latvian former professional footballer. A midfielder, he spent a large part of his playing career abroad in Russia. He made 113 appearances for the Latvia national team scoring 15 goals. Club career Bo ...

.Miķelis Rubenis. History of football in Latvia, 1999 (in Latvian).

Honours

* Champion of Latvia **6 (1992–1997) *

Latvian Cup The Latvian Football Cup () is the main Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in Latvian Football (soccer), football. Since 2021, its full name is Responsible Game Latvian Football Cup (''Atbildīgas spēles Latvijas kauss'') due ...

winner **2 (1995, 1997) * Best Goalkeeper in the Latvian League (3): :*

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

* Champion of

**1 (1989) * Baltic Cup ** 1 (

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 peace ...

)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Laizans, Raimonds 1964 births Living people Latvian men's footballers Latvia men's international footballers Latvian expatriate men's footballers FC Daugava Riga players FC Karpaty Lviv players Skonto FC players FC Fakel Voronezh players Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate men's footballers in Ukraine Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine Ukrainian Premier League players Footballers from Riga Men's association football goalkeepers Soviet men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Russia