Roberts Pakalns (7 November 1911 – 17 May 1986) was 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 ...

and football manager, a three-time champion of Latvia.

Biography

Roberts Pakalns spent almost his entire football career with

ASK Riga ASK Rīga is a former professional basketball club that was based in Riga, Latvia. "ASK" stood for "Armijas Sporta Klubs" (in English: Army Sports Club). History BK Rīga was then founded in 2004, and it got back the original name of ASK R ...

. He started regularly appearing in the senior squad in 1929 and played until the club's dissolution in 1940. During these years Pakalns won one

Latvian Higher League 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 O ...

title (in 1932)Spraigā cīņā karavīri izcīna meistarību
/ref> and won the

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 ...

in 1943. In between 1935 and 1940 Pakalns played 8 international matches for Latvia scoring one goal. When ASK Riga as a former Latvian army sports club was disbanded in 1940, Pakalns joined the newly founded RDKA Riga. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

he also played with

Spartaks Rīga Spartaks Rīga is a defunct Soviet Latvian football club. It was founded in 1945 and its manager was the popular Juris Rēdlihs (Raiskums). Team history The team played in the Soviet Latvian league from 1946 to 1954. The first seasons were diff ...

and Spars Riga. After the war Pakalns played with

FK Dinamo Rīga FK or fk may refer to: In arts and entertainment: * Flyer Killer, fictional automated robots in the ''Terminator'' film franchise. * Fox Kids, a former American children's television programming block. * Funky Kong, a video game character. Place ...

first in the Latvian higher league, then – in the Soviet league, in 1948 he played with

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 ...

. From 1949 to 1956 Pakalns was the coach of VEF Rīga which he led to the

in 1956. Pakalns also played

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

and bandy. In the former he was a five-time champion of Latvia as a member of the ASK Riga hockey squad, in the latter – a two-time champion of Latvia. Pakalns was also the first captain of the newly founded Dinamo Riga ice hockey team in 1946.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pakalns, Roberts 1911 births 1986 deaths Latvian footballers Latvia men's international footballers Latvian football managers Latvian ice hockey players FC Daugava Riga players Footballers from Riga Soviet football managers Men's association football forwards Soviet footballers