Saulius Mikoliūnas (born 2 May 1984) is a Lithuanian 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 ...

who plays as a

right winger 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 ...

for

A Lyga The A Lyga is the top division of professional football in Lithuania. The A Lyga is an abbreviation of Aukščiausia lyga meaning Highest League. It is organized by Lithuanian Football Federation LFF ( lt, Lietuvos Futbolo Federacija). The Aukš� ...

club Žalgiris and the Lithuania national team. He has previously played for

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' ...

club Heart of Midlothian and

Ukrainian Premier League The Ukrainian Premier League ( uk, "Українська Прем'єр-ліга", ''Ukrayinska Premier Liha'') or UPL is the highest division of Ukrainian annual football championship. As the Vyshcha Liha ( uk, Вища ліга, ''Top League'') ...

club

Arsenal Kyiv Football Club Arsenal Kyiv () is a Ukrainian football club based in Kyiv. In 2019, the club's professional team was dissolved, but its junior teams continue to compete in city competitions. The club claims to be a successor of Kyiv Arsenal fa ...

. With 101

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

, Mikoliūnas is also the Lithuania national team's most-capped player.

Club career

In January 2005, Mikoliūnas moved to Scottish club Heart of Midlothian on loan from

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 ...

. He was a regular in the first team for the hearts, however inconsistency always dogged his Hearts career. He silenced many critics with the winner at Tynecastle versus city rivals Hibernian on 26 December 2006. Mikoliūnas announced on 2 December 2008 that he wanted to leave the Edinburgh club after the 2008–09 season, to take up a new football challenge after spending four years at the club. On 27 April 2009, it was confirmed with immediate effect that the midfielder and his Lithuanian colleague

Deividas Česnauskis Deividas Česnauskis (born 30 June 1981) is a Lithuanian former professional footballer who played as a winger. He made 63 FIFA-official appearances for the Lithuanian national team scoring four goals. Club career Early career Česnauskis was ...

had left Hearts. The following month, Mikoliūnas stated he was to sign for

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club (; cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Cymdeithas Dinas Abertawe) is a professional football club based in Swansea, Wales that plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Swansea have played their ho ...

on a free transfer during the summer transfer window, but the move broke down after Swansea manager

Roberto Martínez Roberto Martínez Montoliu (born 13 July 1973) is a Spanish football coach and former professional player, currently as head coach of the Portugal national team. Martínez played as a defensive midfielder and began his career at Real Zaragoza ...

moved to

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

. Eventually, Mikoliūnas signed a three-year contract with Ukrainian side

. In January 2013, Mikoliūnas moved to

Ukrainian First League The Persha Liha ( uk, Перша ліга) or Ukrainian First League is a professional football league in Ukraine and the second tier of national football competitions pyramid. Members of the league also participate in the Ukrainian Cup. It is th ...

side

FC Sevastopol FC Sevastopol ( uk, ФК «Севастополь») was a Ukrainian football club based in Sevastopol. The club was a spiritual descendant of the Soviet clubs from Sevastopol such as Chaika Sevastopol. After the completion of 2013–14 Ukrainia ...

. At the end of the season, his team achieved promotion to the

. In August 2014, he signed for Belarusian club Shakhtyor Soligorsk. In December 2015, Lithuanian club

Žalgiris Vilnius Žalgiris is a translation of the German word ''Grünwald'' (green forest) and also the Polish word ''Grunwald'' and can refer to: * Battle of Žalgiris, Lithuanian name for the Battle of Grunwald, a decisive battle in 1410 * BC Žalgiris, a basket ...

announced that Mikoliūnas will move to the club for the 2016 season. Since then, he has appeared in more than 150 games for Žalgiris, won the A Lyga title three times, and lifted the Lithuanian cup four times with his team. On 9 May 2019, Mikoliūnas received a UEFA B coaching license.

International career

Mikoliūnas made his debut for the Lithuania national team in 2004 in a friendly match against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, and scored his first international goal in 2007 against

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. He followed that up a year later with a second goal 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 9 October 2014, in a

UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from September 2014 to November 2015 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams joining the automatically qualified host team France in the UEFA Euro 2 ...

match, he scored the most recent goal of his five international goals, against Estonia in a 1–0 home victory. After appearing in a Nations League match against

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

on 4 September 2020, Mikoliūnas attained his 85th cap for his country and thus became the most capped player for Lithuania, surpassing previous record holder

Andrius Skerla Andrius Skerla (born 29 April 1977) is a Lithuanian former professional footballer who played as a defender. He began his career in Lithuania with Žalgiris Vilnius, where his performances drew the attention of Dutch club PSV. After making on ...

. On 25 September 2022, he became the first Lithuanian player to reach 100 caps for the national team after playing in the Nations League match against

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

Position

Mikoliūnas is a right-sided winger who sometimes plays in the

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 ...

position.

Career statistics

:''Scores and results list Lithuania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Mikoliūnas goal.''

Honours

FBK Kaunas * Lithuanian A Lyga: 2004 * Lithuanian Cup: 2004 * Lithuanian Super Cup: 2004 Hearts FC *

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Lithuanian A Lyga: 2016, 2020, 2021 * Lithuanian Cup: 2016, 2018, 2021, 2022 * Lithuanian Super Cup: 2016, 2017, 2020

References

External links

* *
Hearts Appearances
at londonhearts.com * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mikoliunas, Saulius 1984 births Living people Lithuanian footballers Association football midfielders Association football wingers Lithuania international footballers Lithuanian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Scotland Expatriate footballers in Ukraine Expatriate footballers in Belarus Lithuanian expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Lithuanian expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine Lithuanian expatriate sportspeople in Belarus A Lyga players Scottish Premier League players Ukrainian Premier League players Belarusian Premier League players FC Vilnius players FK Ekranas players FBK Kaunas footballers Heart of Midlothian F.C. players FC Arsenal Kyiv players FC Sevastopol players FC Shakhtyor Soligorsk players FK Žalgiris players FIFA Men's Century Club