Andris Vaņins (born 30 April 1980) is a Latvian former professional

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 lea ...

who works as a goalkeeping coach for Latvia national under-19 football team. A

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

, he most notably played for Sion, making over 200 league appearances. At international level, he earned 100 caps for the Latvia national team.

Club career

Ventspils

Vaņins started his professional football career in 1997, when he was only 17 years old. His first club was

FK Ventspils FK Ventspils was a Latvian professional football club based at Ventspils Olimpiskais Stadions in Ventspils. It was one of the most prominent football clubs in the country. The club played in the Latvian Virslīga since 1997. It folded in July ...

. In 2003, he left the

Virsliga Latvian Higher League or Virslīga, also known as TonyBet Virslīga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Latvia and the highest level of the Latvian football league system. Organised by the Latvian Football ...

league in Latvia, signing a contract with

FC Torpedo-ZIL Moscow FC Torpedo-ZIL (Russian: Футбольный клуб Торпедо-ЗИЛ) was a Russian football club from Moscow. History The team was founded in 1997 after Torpedo Moscow, which played in the Russian Top Division, became a property of SC ...

FC Moscow

In 2003 Vaņins signed a contract with

FC Moscow FC Moscow (Russian: Футбольный клуб Москва) was a Russian football (soccer), football club based in Moscow. History The creation of the team was first announced by the Moscow government on 1 March 2004. FC Moscow was formed on ...

. He could not manage to get into the first team, mostly being used in the reserves. As playing for the reserve team did not please the Latvian international, he decided to leave.

FK Venta

In 2005, Vaņins returned to Latvia. FK Venta offered him a contract, which Vaņins accepted. He did not play much there either and the club went bankrupt in the second half of the season. The first-team players, including Vaņins, were released.

Return to Ventspils

Having become a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

, Vaņins agreed to a contract with

. He became the first-choice goalkeeper at the club and played there for three and a half years. In 2006, 2007 and 2008 he was named the best goalkeeper of the season in the LMT Virslīga, as well as the

Latvian Footballer of the Year Latvian Footballer of the Year is an association football award for Latvia. It is held by the Latvian Football Federation. Since 2005, there has also been an award for the top female player. Women's winners Men's winners See also *List ...

in 2008. In 2009, he started looking for a club abroad, but eventually he had to start the next season with FK Ventspils, because of unsuccessful negotiations. In February 2009 he went on trial with the

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

club

Rubin Kazan FC Rubin Kazan (; ) is a Russian professional football club based in the city of Kazan. They play in the Russian Premier League. Founded in 1958, Rubin played its first-ever top flight season in 2003. It has remained there through the 2021–2 ...

Sion

In the middle of FK Ventspils' season Vaņins joined

Swiss Super League The Super League (also known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a professional association football league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss football league system. It has been played in its current fo ...

club

FC Sion Football Club Sion, commonly known as simply FC Sion or Sion, is a Swiss Association football, football club from the city of Sion, Switzerland, Sion. The club was founded in 1909 and play their home matches at the Stade Tourbillon. They have wo ...

on a three-year contract. He went on to become first-choice goalkeeper. His debut for the club was on 19 August 2009 in a 2–0 loss against Fenerbahçe. His first clean sheet came against

FC Echallens FC Echallens is a Swiss football club from Echallens, canton Vaud. The team currently plays in Liga 1., fourth highest tier in the Swiss football pyramid. The club was formed in 1921. Stadium FC Echallens play their home games at Sportplatz ...

. He was named the best goalkeeper of the league after the first and the second round. In his first season at FC Sion, Vaņins played in all of the games and was named the club's best player of the season. The Swiss portal ''sport.ch'' named him the best goalkeeper of the

of the 2009–10 season. After the 2010–11 season Vaņins was again named the club's best player by the team's fans, who gave him 34% votes in a survey via

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

. After the 2011 season he was also named the best goalkeeper of the season in the "Swiss Golden Player Award" ceremony. In October 2013, Vaņins' contract at the club was extended till June 2017.

FC Zürich

On 17 June 2016, Vaņins was signed by

FC Zürich Fussballclub Zürich, commonly abbreviated to FC Zürich or simply FCZ, is a professional football club based in Zurich, Switzerland. The club was founded in 1896 and has won the Swiss Super League thirteen times and the Swiss Cup ten times. ...

on a three-year contract. He made his league debut for the club on 25 July 2016 in a 2–0 home victory over

FC Winterthur FC Winterthur is a Swiss football club based in Winterthur, Canton of Zürich. They play in the Swiss Super League, the first tier of Swiss football, and appeared regularly in the Nationalliga A during the 20th century. Their home is the Stad ...

, playing the full 90 minutes. In July 2020 his contract was not renewed.

International career

Vaņins made his international debut for

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 ...

in 2000 in a 3–1 loss against

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

. In summer 2007, when the first-choice keeper

Aleksandrs Koliņko Aleksandrs Koliņko (born 18 June 1975) is a Latvian professional football coach and a former player. He is the manager of Latvian Higher League club Super Nova. Club career Koliņko was born in Riga and started his career in 1994, playing f ...

suffered a long-term injury, head coach

Aleksandrs Starkovs Aleksandrs Starkovs (born 26 July 1955) is a Latvian football coach and a former footballer who played as a forward. Most recently he coached FK Liepāja. Starkovs has managed clubs such as Spartak Moscow in Russia, FK Baku in Azerbaijan and ...

faced a choice to either let Vaņins or

Deniss Romanovs Deniss Romanovs (born 2 September 1978) is a retired Latvian football goalkeeper. Club career His early career was spent with Latvian sides Skonto-Metāls, Valmiera, Ventspils and Ditton. During the 2008/09 season he joined Slavia Praha. ...

play. Vaņins was chosen to be the replacement, and after that he became the first-choice goalkeeper of the team. On 10 October 2019, Vaņins played his 100th match for Latvia in a 3–0 loss against

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

Post-playing career

On 31 August 2020, Vaņins retired from playing and returned to Sion as a goalkeeper coach.

Personal life

Andris Vaņins is married and has two sons.

Honours

Ventspils *

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

Latvian Cup The Latvian Football Cup () is the main knockout cup competition in Latvian football. Since 2021, its full name is Responsible Gaming Latvian Football Cup (''Atbildīgas spēles Latvijas kauss'') due to the sponsorship by sports betting company ...

: 2007 Sion *

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup competition that has been organised annually since 1925–26 season by the Swiss Football Association. The Swiss Cup final is usually the most important game of the year with a high attendance. The co ...

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, 2014–15 FC Zürich * Swiss Cup: 2017–18 * Challenge League: 2016–17 Latvia * Baltic Cup:

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

Individual *

Best Goalkeeper: 2006, 2007, 2008 *

: 2008, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017 *

Best Goalkeeper: 2009–10, 2010–11 *

Player of the Season: 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12, 2012–13

References

External links

* *
FC Zurich Stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vanins, Andris 1980 births Living people People from Ilūkste Latvian men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Latvian expatriate men's footballers Latvia men's international footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland FK Ventspils players Latvian Higher League players FC Moscow players FC Sion players FC Zürich players Swiss Challenge League players Swiss Super League players FK Venta players Latvian people of Ukrainian descent Augšdaugavas NSS players FIFA Men's Century Club