Vilnis Straume (20 January 1937 – 2 June 2019) was a Latvian

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 ...

player.

Biography

In 1956, Straume joined

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 ...

- the club for which he played until the end of his footballer career. However, in 1957 he had to serve in the Soviet Army and also 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 ...

with which he together with future Daugava players

Georgijs Smirnovs Georgijs Smirnovs (born 1936) is a Latvian former football player and manager. In 2006 Latvian Football Federation selected Smirnovs as one of the 11 greatest footballers in the first 100 years of football in Latvia. Biography Born in Leningrad ...

and

Georgijs Gusarenko Georgijs Gusarenko (born 1937) is a Latvian football inspector and manager and former footballer. Gusarenko made his first steps in football in the sports school Daugava in Riga. In 1959 he played in the reserves squad of FC Dynamo Moscow. Fro ...

won the Latvian Cup. Straume was a very hard working defender with one ambition - to play in the Soviet Top League. From 1960 to 1962 he achieved this ambition as Daugava competed in the Soviet Top League. From 1956 to 1966 he played in 308 matches with Daugava and scored one goal. Straume died on 2 June 2019, at the age of 82.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Straume, Vilnis 1937 births 2019 deaths Footballers from Riga Soviet men's footballers Latvian men's footballers FC Daugava Riga players Men's association football players not categorized by position Soviet Top League players