Emīls Urbāns was a

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 ...

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 ...

, a three-time champion of Latvia. Before

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

Urbāns played in a youth football club called Jakor Riga together with other future

Latvia national football team The Latvia national football team () represents Latvia in men's international Association football, football, and is controlled by the Latvian Football Federation, the governing body for football in Latvia. They have never qualified for the FIF ...

footballers Kārlis Bone, Alberts Šeibelis and others. His best years in football came in the mid-1920s when he played with RFK (from 1924 to 1927) and with Riga Vanderer (from 1928). When playing with RFK Urbāns won three

Latvian Higher League 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 Footbal ...

titles and two Riga Football Cups. In 1927 he was first capped for the national football team and in his second match for Latvia he scored his first goal. In total he played 9 matches for Latvia between 1927 and 1928 and scored two goals. In later years as a member of the Riga Vanderer sports club Urbāns appeared in less and less matches and he last played for Vanderer in 1935, although he remained a member of Riga Vanderer club after he finished playing. In addition to his football career Urbāns was a gifted

bandy Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two team sport, teams wearing Ice skates#Bandy skates, ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal. The playin ...

player and even played for Latvia national bandy team in its first international match.

Honours

: 1924, 1925, 1926 (RFK) * Riga Football Cup: 1924, 1925 (RFK)

References

Latvian men's footballers Latvia men's international footballers Latvian bandy players Men's association football players not categorized by position Year of birth missing {{Bandy-bio-stub