Germans Māliņš (born 12 October 1987) is 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 ...

n 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 ...

, currently playing for JDFS Alberts.

Club career

Skonto Riga

Born 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 ...

, as a youth player Māliņš played for his local club FK Auda, before moving to JFC Skonto in 2001. He spent 5 years in the academy, being taken to the club's first team in 2006 as the third choice keeper. In the beginning of 2007 he was given out on loan to Olimps in order to gain experience. During the loan spell Māliņš made his debut in the

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 ...

and became the club's first choice keeper. He returned to Skonto for the 2008 season, serving as the back-up keeper for Pāvels Doroševs. Māliņš started the 2009 season as the first-choice keeper, but after the arrival of Aleksandrs Vlasovs from SK Blāzma was once again put on the bench. From 2010 to 2011 he was mainly used as the reserve keeper, with Kaspars Ikstens in the goal. On 27 April 2011, during a league match against Daugava Daugavpils, Ikstens was seriously injured and was out for the rest of the season, with Māliņš immediately filling his place. On 18 June 2011 he helped his team become the champions of the

Baltic League The Baltic League (officially known as the Triobet Baltic League) was a Baltic men's football club tournament held four times between the top club sides from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Launched in 2007 inspired by the now defunct Scandinavi ...

, beating FK Ventspils in penalties. On 13 August 2011 Māliņš secured his club a late 1-1 draw in a league match against

FC Jūrmala FC Jūrmala was a Latvian association football, football club from Jūrmala, founded in 2008. They last played in the Latvian First League. The home ground was Sloka Stadium in Jūrmala with capacity of 5,000 people. Until 2015, FC Jūrmala was o ...

, scoring a goal with a header after a corner kick in the 94th minute. After several outstanding performances he was named the keeper of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

by Latvian Football Federation. In 2012 Māliņš appeared in 39 matches as the team's captain, helping Skonto finish the championship as the runners-up and win the

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 ...

. He was named the goalkeeper of the

for the second year in a row.

BATE Borisov

In February 2013 Māliņš went on trial with the

Belarusian Premier League The Belarusian Premier League (, ''Vyšejšaja Liha'' or ''Vysheyshaya Liga''; ; "Top League"), also called the BETERA Premier League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Belarus and the highest level of the B ...

champions BATE Borisov and signed a one-year contract with them in March 2013. Since then he was mainly used as the back-up keeper for Andrey Harbunow. Māliņš made his debut for the club on 3 August 2013 in a 5-1 league match victory over Naftan Novopolotsk, playing all 90 minutes and conceding a goal from the penalty spot. In 2013, he helped BATE win the Belarus Premier League. On 29 December 2013 it was announced that Māliņš had extended his contract with BATE.

FK Jelgava

Māliņš joined

FK Jelgava FK Jelgava is a Latvian football club that is based in Jelgava. The club plays its home-matches at the Zemgales Olimpiskais Sporta Centrs stadium with capacity of 1,560 people. In 2021, the club dissolved its professional team, which was abso ...

on 1 January 2019.

JDFS Alberts

After a spell in Sweden, Māliņš joined JDFS Alberts in 2021.

International career

Māliņš has represented Latvia at U17 and U19 levels. He was called up to the

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 ...

for a friendly match against

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

on 11 February 2009, but did not join the squad due to his father's death. His second call-up came 2 years later, as he was an unused substitute in a friendly match against

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

on 10 August 2011. Māliņš has yet to make his first full international appearance for Latvia, as he is currently the third-choice keeper for the team.

Honours

Skonto Riga * Latvian Higher League: 2010 * Baltic League: 2011 * Latvian Cup: 2012 BATE Borisov * Belarus Premier League: 2013, 2014 * Belarus Super Cup: 2014 Latvia * Baltic Cup: 2012 Individual * Latvian Higher League keeper of the season: 2011, 2012

References

External links

*
Profile at BATE website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Malins, Germans 1987 births Living people Footballers from Riga Latvian men's footballers 21st-century Latvian sportsmen Men's association football goalkeepers Latvian expatriate men's footballers Skonto FC players JFK Olimps players FC BATE Borisov players FK RFS players Riga FC players FS Jelgava players Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Belarus Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Expatriate men's footballers in Belarus Expatriate men's footballers in Sweden