Igors Labuts (born 7 June 1990), 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 ...

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 currently plays as 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 ...

for the

Latvian First League The Latvian First League () is the second tier of football in Latvia and is organised by the Latvian Football Federation. Since 2021, its full name is Nākotnes Līga (''Future League''). History The league was founded together with other Latv ...

club FC New Project.

Club career

Born in

Daugavpils Daugavpils (see also other names) is a state city in southeastern Latvia, located on the banks of the Daugava River, from which the city derives its name. The parts of the city to the north of the river belong to the historical Latvian region ...

, Labuts career started in Ditton Daugavpils, being a member of the youth system since 2002. After five years, in 2007, at the age of 16, he was invited to join 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 ...

newcomers Blāzma Rēzekne. Initially, he was the club's third-choice keeper, later that season he became the second choice. Labuts made his debut for Blāzma on 8 November 2008 in a 2-2 draw against Vindava Ventspils for the

. In summer of 2009 Labuts moved abroad, joining the

League of Ireland Premier Division The League of Ireland Men's Premier Division (), also known as the SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in the Republic of Ireland and the highest level of the Republic of I ...

club Sporting Fingal. After six months, with the Irish club unable to pay the requested transfer fee for a further stay, Labuts returned to Latvia. In January 2010, he joined the Latvian First League club FB Gulbene, helping them win the league and earn a promotion to the Latvian Higher League for the 2011 season. For the next two seasons Labuts played in the top tier of Latvian football, but after Gulbene's relegation in 2012, he switched clubs and moved to the incumbent Latvian champions Daugava Daugavpils at the beginning of 2013. Serving as a back-up keeper for half a season, Labuts was loaned out to Ilūkstes NSS in July 2013 in order to retain playing practice. Before the start of the 2014 season, Labuts joined the Latvian Higher League club

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 ...

. After the club was struck by financial problems, he was let go and eventually ended up in Portugal, joining the Portuguese Segunda Liga club Atlético CP. On 9 August 2014 Labuts made his professional debut with Atlético in a Segunda Liga match against Freamunde. In September 2017 the FAI banned Labuts and teammate Dragos Sfrijan for 12 months after a UEFA investigation found "clear and overwhelming betting evidence" of fixing of Athlone's 29 April match against Longford Town in the 2017 League of Ireland First Division. The

Professional Footballers' Association of Ireland The Professional Footballers' Association of Ireland (PFAI) is the representative body for professional and semi-professional footballers in Republic of Ireland. Players from all nationalities in the League of Ireland are represented, not just Iri ...

said the decision was based on "half-baked innuendo". Labuts' appeal against his suspension was rejected in October 2018. Labuts moved to Latvia's First League to FC New Project in 2019.

International career

Labuts was a member of Latvia U-17, Latvia U-18 and Latvia U-19 football teams, but has not been called up to the senior side yet.

Honours

;FB Gulbene *

(1):

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Personal life

Aside from his own professional footballer's career Labuts also works at the Just4Keepers International Goalkeeper Academy as a youth coach for aspiring keepers in Latvia. While playing in Latvia, Labuts was also studying at the Latvian Sports Academy, acquiring a bachelor's degree in Sports Science.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Labuts, Igors 1990 births Living people Footballers from Daugavpils Latvian men's footballers Match fixers Men's association football goalkeepers SK Blāzma players Sporting Fingal F.C. players Latvian expatriate men's footballers Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Ireland Expatriate men's association footballers in the Republic of Ireland League of Ireland players FB Gulbene players FC Daugava players FC Jūrmala players FK Spartaks Jūrmala players Atlético Clube de Portugal players Liga Portugal 2 players Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Augšdaugavas NSS players