Valērijs Šabala (born 12 October 1994) is 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 ...

, who plays for

B36 Tórshavn B36 Tórshavn ( fo, Bóltfelagið 1936 Tórshavn) is a Faroe Islands, Faroese semi professional Association football, football club based in the capital of Tórshavn, playing in the Faroe Islands Premier League, the top tier of Faroese football. ...

of the

Faroe Islands Premier League The Faroe Islands Premier League (also known as ''Betri deildin menn'' for sponsorship reasons) is the top level of football in the Faroe Islands. It was founded in 1942 as Meistaradeildin, and it is played in current format since 2005, when Prem ...

Club career

Early career

As a youth player Šabala was a member of

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 ...

academy. With the club winning the 2008

Latvian First League The Latvian First League ( lv, Latvijas Pirmā līga, 1. līga) is the second tier of football in Latvia and is organised by the Latvian Football Federation. History The league was founded together with other Latvian football competitions in 19 ...

and being promoted to the

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 ...

for the 2009 season, Šabala was one of the youngsters to be included in the first team squad by the manager Vladimirs Beļajevs. Šabala made his debut on 15 October 2009, having just turned 15, when he came on as a substitute in the 46th minute in an 8–0 loss against the defending champions

FK Ventspils FK Ventspils is a Latvian football club, based at Ventspils Olimpiskais Stadions in Ventspils city and is one of the most popular football clubs in the country. The club played in the Latvian Virsliga since 1997. It was abolished in 2020, but has ...

. Three days later he appeared in the match against FC Tranzit, coming on as a substitute in the 88th minute. Daugava Rīga were relegated to the Latvian First League and Šabala joined the Latvian Higher League newcomers

JFK Olimps 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. ...

in January 2010. Šabala scored his first Latvian Higher League goal on 23 April 2010 in a match against

Skonto Riga 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 Lat ...

. At the time he was 15 years and 193 days old, which made him the youngest ever goalscorer in the history of Latvian championship and all the top tier European football leagues. His record was broken on 10 June 2014, when

midfielder Jānis Grīnbergs scored a penalty against Daugava Daugavpils being just 15 years and 102 days old. All in all that season Šabala played 21 league matches and scored 6 goals.

Skonto Riga

In February 2011 Šabala joined that time Latvian Higher League champions

. In his debut season with the club he was rarely used in the first eleven and often came on as a substitute, scoring 2 goals in 22 matches. Šabala scored his first league goal for Skonto on 25 September 2011 against his former club JFK Olimps. Despite the limited playing time, he was named ''Young player of the year'' and received the Ilmārs Liepiņš prize. Throughout the season Šabala went on short term trials with Arsenal,

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...

and

Udinese Calcio Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sports club, and on 5 July 1911 as a foo ...

. In January 2012 Šabala went on trial with the

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

Dynamo Kyiv Football Club Dynamo Kyiv (, ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Dynamo Sports Society, the club as a separate business entity was officia ...

alongside his international teammate Vitālijs Jagodinskis, but eventually returned to Skonto with only the latter one signing a contract. On 30 June 2012 Šabala scored his first hat-trick in a league match against FS Metta/LU being just 17 years 8 months and 18 days old. On 10 July he was named the best Latvian Higher League player in June. In September Šabala 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

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 ...

and played in their friendly match against Lokomotiv-2 Moscow. In November information appeared in the media that CSKA Moscow were ready to offer Skonto 3.5 million euros for the player, but eventually the move did not occur. Šabala finished the 2012 season as the 5th top scorer of the league with 11 goals. In December he received the Ilmārs Liepiņš prize as the ''Young player of the year'' for the second season in a row. In the 2013 season Šabala scored 15 league goals, coming one goal short to his teammate

Artūrs Karašausks Artūrs Karašausks (born 29 January 1992 in Riga) is a Latvian footballer, who plays for Ypsonas Krasava on Cyprus. Club career Early career As a youth player Karašausks was a member of the JFC Skonto academy. He was signed by the Latvian ...

and Daugava Daugavpils player

Andrejs Kovaļovs Andrejs Kovaļovs (born 23 March 1989 in Daugavpils) is a Latvian footballer who most recently played for BFC Daugavpils and also represents the Latvia national football team. Club career Kovaļovs started playing football in 1997, at the age ...

, who both became the top scorers of the league with 16 goals each. On 18 July Šabala helped Skonto beat the Czech club

Slovan Liberec FC Slovan Liberec (), commonly referred to as Slovan Liberec or simply Slovan, is a Czech football club based in the city of Liberec. The club is one of the most successful in the Czech Republic, having won three league titles and the domesti ...

2–1 at home in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

2nd round qualification match, scoring the first goal. He was included in the LFF and ''sportacentrs.com'' Latvian Higher League Team of the Tournament and named the best forward of the season. Skonto confirmed having received concrete offers for the player from the Turkish

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), officially known as Spor Toto Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish professional league for association football clubs. It is the top-flight of the Turkish football league system and is run by the ...

club

Trabzonspor Trabzonspor Kulübü is a Turkish sports club located in the city of Trabzon. Formed in 1967 through a merger of several local clubs, the men's football team has won seven Süper Lig championships. Trabzonspor also have a women's football team, ...

, Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

club

Hellas Verona Hellas Verona Football Club, commonly referred to as Hellas Verona or simply Verona, is a professional Italian football club based in Verona, Italy, that currently plays in Serie A. The team won the Serie A Championship in 1984–85. His ...

and

Belgian Pro League The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 tea ...

club Club Brugge.

Club Brugge

On 29 January 2014 Šabala joined the

club Club Brugge, signing a contract till 30 June 2018. In order to get immediate playing time he was loaned back to Skonto till 1 July 2014. During the loan spell Šabala appeared in 9 league matches and scored 5 goals. Having spent the pre-season preparation period with Club Brugge, Šabala was given out on another loan to the

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division ( el, Πρωτάθλημα Α΄ Κατηγορίας) is the top tier football league competition in Cyprus, run by the Cyprus Football Association. Since February 2016, it is sponsored by Cyta and is thus officially ...

club

Anorthosis Famagusta Anorthosis Famagusta ( el, Ανόρθωση Αμμοχώστου, translit=Anorthosi Ammochostou), commonly known as Anorthosis in English or Anorthosi in Greek, is a Cypriot football club, part of the Anorthosis Famagusta multi-sport club fo ...

on 22 August 2014.

Podbeskidzie Bielsko-Biała

After loan stints in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Latvia, on August 4, 2017 Šabala signed a two-year contract with

I liga I liga ( pl, Pierwsza liga, ), currently named Fortuna I liga due to its sponsorship by Fortuna, is the men's second professional association football division of the Polish football league system, below the Ekstraklasa and above the II liga v ...

side

Podbeskidzie Bielsko-Biała TS Podbeskidzie Bielsko-Biała () is a football club based in Bielsko-Biała, Poland. They currently compete in the I liga, the second tier of Polish football. History The club was essentially founded on 11 July 1997, although it can trace i ...

. He became the top scorer of the 2018–19 I liga season, scoring 12 goals.

International career

Šabala was a member of all international youth teams and made his debut for the

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 ...

on 24 May 2013 in a friendly match against

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...

. In the next match he scored his first goals for the national team, scoring twice in a friendly against

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

, becoming the youngest ever international goal scorer for Latvia. His first official qualifier match was the 2014 World Cup qualifying match against

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

International goals

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

Career statistics

Club

V. Šabala
Soccerway profile]

Honours

Club

;Skonto FC *

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 ...

(1): 2011–2012 *

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 ...

(1):

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

International

* Baltic Cup (1):

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

Individual

young player of the year (2): 2011,

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

best forward (1):

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

* Polish

top-scorer (1): 2018–19

Notes

References

Příbram sprawdza Valērijsa Šabalę
�� Příbram sprawdza Valērijsa Šabalę, 20 January 2016

External links