Vladas Tučkus (November 21, 1932 – November 19, 1988) was a Soviet

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, 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, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

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who played for Spartak Vilnius, Spartak Moscow and FK Daugava Rīga.

Playing biography

Aged just 17 Tučkus won the Lithuanian Cup with Eļņias

Šiauliai Šiauliai ( ; ) is a city in northern Lithuania, the List of cities in Lithuania, country's fourth largest city and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, sixth largest city in the Baltic States, with a population of 112 581 in 202 ...

, a year later he won the 3rd place in the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

youth championship and after just one more year he already played 20 matches for Spartak Vilnius in the Soviet B league. In 1953 with Tučkus in goal Spartak earned a promotion to

Soviet Top League The Soviet Top League, known after 1970 as the Higher League (), served as the top division (tier) of Soviet Union football from 1936 until 1991. The league's name was a conditional designation used for brevity since being completely owned and g ...

. In 1954 Tučkus joined one of the strongest teams in Soviet football - Spartak Moscow and in the first season with Spartak won silver medals. The same result (with Tučkus playing approximately half of matches) was repeated in 1955. In 1956 Spartak and Tučkus won Soviet gold, in that season Tučkus was the undisputed number one goalkeeper in Spartak (he played in 20 matches out of total 22), he was also a candidate for the USSR national football team. 1957 was his last season with Spartak - he played in only 10 matches and Spartak finished third in the championship. Because of problems with discipline off the field Tučkus' career seemed finished and by 1960 he was living in Brocēni,

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

without a job and a perspective. But then he was offered to return to football and to play for FK Daugava Rīga which in 1960 because of a decision from above had got a place in the Soviet top league. Tučkus returned to training and soon proved that he still was a very good goalkeeper and it was largely his contribution that allowed Daugava to finish in the middle of the table in 1960. However, because of problems with discipline Tučkus had to leave Daugava in 1961. He continued playing on amateur level for Kompresors Rīga for some years. Tučkus died at the age of 55 in

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

, Latvia.Miķelis Rubenis. History of Latvian football, 2000, pp. 87–94 (in Latvian)

Achievements

**Winner: 1 (1956) **Runner-up: 2 (1954, 1955) **3rd position: 1 (1957) * Soviet First League **Runner-up: 1 (1952) *

Soviet Cup The Soviet Cup, or USSR Cup (),, , , (Moldovan Cyrillic: Купа УРСС), , , . was the premier football cup competition in the Soviet Union conducted by the Football Federation of the Soviet Union. The 1991–92 season of the tournam ...

**Runner-up: 1 (1957)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tuckus, Vladas 1932 births 1988 deaths Soviet men's footballers Lithuanian men's footballers FK Žalgiris players FC Daugava Riga players FC Spartak Moscow players Footballers from Šiauliai Lithuanian expatriate sportspeople in Latvia Men's association football goalkeepers Soviet Top League players