Harijs Lazdiņš (25 July 1910 in

Liepāja Liepāja () (formerly: Libau) is a Administrative divisions of Latvia, state city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea. It is the largest city in the Courland region and the third-largest in the country after Riga and Daugavpils. It is an ...

– 23 August 1988 in

Kingston, Ontario Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the northeastern end of Lake Ontario. It is at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River, the south end of the Rideau Canal. Kingston is near the Thousand Islands, ...

) 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 ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

goalkeeper who played for Olimpija Liepāja and

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 ...

in 1920s-1930s.

Biography

Lazdiņš made his debut for the top football club in

in 1928 as Olimpija Liepāja won its second Latvian league title. In the first year Lazdiņš was mainly the backup goalkeeper behind K.Minsterjānis but in 1929 he already was the number one goalkeeper for Olimpija. Through the entire 1930s Lazdiņš played rarely was replaced in the goal of Olimpija and was considered one of the best goalkeepers in the country. He was tall and rarely made spectacular jumps but he always played without fear and as the first of Latvian goalkeepers started participating in playing outside the penalty area. Lazdiņš was the most popular footballer of Olimpija of his era. Lazdiņš made 16 appearances for Latvia national football team, after matches against Poland, Germany and Sweden international football specialists praised him as a European class goalkeeper. The brightest season in his career came in 1936 when he managed to keep his goal shut in half of the games in the Latvian

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 ...

and played 5 matches for Latvia as it won four times and played one draw. With Olimpija Lazdiņš played from 1927 to 1944.Brightest footballers from Liepāja of the 20th century
(in Latvian) After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he ended up in Germany. There he played with

TSV Schwaben Augsburg TSV Schwaben Augsburg is a German football club which is part of a larger sports association whose origins go back to the 1847 formation of the gymnastics club Turnverein Augsburg. The association's football department was formed in 1907 and af ...

in 1946 and with FC Gundelfingen under management of his former Latvia national teammate Vladimirs Bērziņš in 1947. In 1948 Lazdiņš played with RFC Liege in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. Afterwards he settled in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

and played football in

St Catharines St. Catharines is the most populous city in Canada's Niagara Region, the eighth largest urban area in the province of Ontario. As of 2021, St. Catharines has an area of and 136,803 residents. It lies in Southern Ontario, south of Toronto ac ...

References

Latvian men's footballers Latvia men's international footballers RFC Liège players 1910 births 1988 deaths Footballers from Liepāja Men's association football goalkeepers TSV Schwaben Augsburg players Latvian emigrants to Canada {{Latvia-footy-bio-stub