Simas Skinderis (born 17 February 1981) is a retired

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 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'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

er. He has played as goalkeeper in clubs in Lithuania,

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 ...

and

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

. He ended his career in 2017 while playing for

Nevėžis The Nevėžis () is the sixth longest river in Lithuania and one of the main tributaries of the Nemunas. Its length is , and it flows only within the geographical confines of Lithuania.LFF I Lyga The I Lyga, LFF I Lyga, Pirma Lyga, is the second tier of professional Lithuanian football championship. Format Organized by the Lithuanian Football Federation (LFF), I Lyga is contested by 14-16 teams, with the top team gaining promotion to ...

. Skinderis has since resided in Belarus since 2009 and is a coach for a private football academy. In a January 2021 interview with Russian news portal

Tribuna ''Tribuna'' (russian: Трибуна) is a weekly Russian newspaper that focuses largely on industry and the energy sector. History Tribunas published its first publication in July 1969. Until 1990, the newspaper titled the ''Sotsialisticheska ...

, Skinderis expressed support for the regime of

Alexander Lukashenko Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko (as transliterated from Russian language, Russian; also transliterated from Belarusian language, Belarusian as Alyaksand(a)r Ryhoravich Lukashenka;, ; rus, Александр Григорьевич Лука� ...

and made controversial statements about the protest movement of 2020-2021, saying that "

Belarusians , native_name_lang = be , pop = 9.5–10 million , image = , caption = , popplace = 7.99 million , region1 = , pop1 = 600,000–768,000 , region2 = , pop2 ...

have a slightly ''

kolkhoz A kolkhoz ( rus, колхо́з, a=ru-kolkhoz.ogg, p=kɐlˈxos) was a form of collective farm in the Soviet Union. Kolkhozes existed along with state farms or sovkhoz., a contraction of советское хозяйство, soviet ownership or ...

''-like mentality and you have to treat them more harshly" and that "order needs to be preserved and no gay-parades should be started etc". His remarks were criticized by sports journalist Alexander Ivulin.

References

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* 1981 births Living people Lithuanian men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Sportspeople from Panevėžys FK Ekranas players FK Dainava Alytus players FK Inkaras Kaunas players FK Atlantas players FK Šilutė players FC Torpedo Minsk players FC Naftan Novopolotsk players FC Akzhayik players FC Minsk players FC Belshina Bobruisk players FC Slavia Mozyr players FC Gorodeya players FK Nevėžis players A Lyga players Belarusian Premier League players Lithuanian expatriate men's footballers Lithuanian expatriate sportspeople in Belarus Expatriate men's footballers in Belarus Lithuanian expatriate sportspeople in Kazakhstan Expatriate men's footballers in Kazakhstan {{Lithuania-footy-bio-stub