Vladimirs Bērziņš (born 16 December 1905, date of death unknown) was a

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

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 ...

midfielder and manager, one of the most capped footballers in pre-war Latvia.

Biography

Bērziņš began playing football with the mostly German sports club

Union Riga Union Riga was a football club established in Riga in 1907. It was the winner of the Riga football league in 1910. In the period of independence of Latvia between the World wars Union played in the Latvian Higher League for several years. Being ess ...

in 1925. He was selected to play 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 ...

for 26 August 1925 friendly match against

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

, but later he was removed from the list of selected players. At the end of the 1926 football season Bērziņš left Union for the three-time champion of Latvia RFK. For this side he played for the rest of his football career. With RFK he won 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 Op ...

title four times – in 1930, 1931, 1934 and 1935. In the second half of the 1930s Bērziņš played very little with RFK and retired from playing in 1939. He did however return to RFK in 1943. In total Bērziņš played 40 international matches for Latvia from 1927 to 1936, being the fourth most capped Latvian football international behind

Ēriks Pētersons Ēriks Pētersons (1909 in Riga – 1987 in United States) was Latvian footballer and hockey player. Between 1929 and 1939 he played 63 international matches and scored 21 goals for Latvia national team. He also played in Latvian national i ...

Jānis Lidmanis Jānis Lidmanis (18 January 1910 – 29 November 1986) was a Latvian footballer and basketballer. Career In the 1930s he was the captain of Latvia national football team for which he made 55 appearances (second result in the pre-war Latvian tea ...

and

Alberts Šeibelis Alberts Šeibelis (26 December 1906 – 12 April 1972) was a Latvian footballer, one of the most popular Latvian footballers in the era before World War II. In 54 matches for Latvia he scored 14 goals Biography Šeibelis was born in the provinci ...

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Bērziņš ended up in Germany where he coached the local football club in

FC Gundelfingen The FC Gundelfingen is a German association football club from Gundelfingen an der Donau, Bavaria. A longtime fourth and fifth division side, the club is one of the top sides from Schwaben and has six Schwäbischer-Pokal (Schwaben Cup) wins to ...

in 1946. Another former Latvian international

Harijs Lazdiņš Harijs Lazdiņš (25 July 1910 in Liepāja – 23 August 1988 in Kingston, Ontario) was a Latvian football goalkeeper who played for Olimpija Liepāja and Latvia national football team in 1920s-1930s. Biography Lazdiņš made his debut for ...

played in goal of the

Gundelfingen Gundelfingen im Breisgau ( Low Alemannic: ''Gundelfinge im Brisgau'') is a municipality directly north of the city Freiburg in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. Gundelfingen is one of the larger municipalities in the Breisgau-Hochschwarz ...

club.Der Neuaufbau und die Zeit der Pokaltriumphe
/ref> In later years Bērziņš settled in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

References

External links

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Profile at Playmakerstats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berzins, Vladimirs 1905 births Year of death missing Latvian men's footballers Latvian football managers Latvia men's international footballers Men's association football defenders