Jānis Anatolijs Bebris (28 July 1917 – 2 May 1969) was a Latvian

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 ...

and

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player. He was the main

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 ...

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 the closing years of the 1930s, and represented

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 ...

at the

1936 Winter Olympics The 1936 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936, were a winter multi-sport event held from 6 to 16 February 1936 in the market town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Nazi Ger ...

. 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 ...

, Bebris played in

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

and France.

Biography

Bebris started playing football at the age of 16. Because of his then fragile body, he was immediately assigned the post of the goalkeeper. Playing with Union Riga Bebris soon attracted the attention of the national football team management, soon he moved to a stronger

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 ...

club – Rīgas Vilki. Bebris made his début for Latvia at the age of 18 when Latvia played

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

in the Baltic Cup. In the following years Bebris alongside of Harijs Lazdiņš from Olimpija Liepāja was the leading goalkeeper in Latvian football. In total, he made 21 international appearance for Latvia. Bebris played with RV until the club was disbanded in 1940. In 1941, he played with RDKA Riga. During the Second World War, Bebris was forced to join the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

; then after being captured by the Germans, he was forced to side with them.[Skate] Alfons Berzins (7 – 2 – 1916 // 16 – 12 – : msg#00096
After the war, Bebris landed in West Germany, where he played with TSV Schwaben Augsburg for two seasons in Oberliga Süd (1945-63), Oberliga Süd, making 53 appearances for the club in league matches. In 1948, Bebris was transferred to France where he joined RC Strasbourg. In the years 1948 to 1949, he played 17 league matches as Strasbourg finished in a respectable 6th position in Division 1. In the next season he played just a single match as the club finished 17th and avoided relegation only thanks to liquidation of the professional club of

SR Colmar Stadium Racing Colmar is a football club located in Colmar, France. They play in the National 3, the fifth tier of French football. History Founded in 1919 as AS Colmar, the club is based in Colmar, Alsace, and plays its home matches at the ...

. After the unsuccessful season Bebris retired from playing. In the mid-1950s he moved to the

USA The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

where he coached football and ice hockey. He died there in 1969.

References

External links

*
Profile at RC Strasbourg website
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bebris, Janis 1917 births 1969 deaths Men's association football goalkeepers Expatriate men's footballers in France Ice hockey players at the 1936 Winter Olympics Latvia men's international footballers Latvian emigrants to Germany Latvian expatriate men's footballers Latvian men's footballers Ligue 1 players Olympic ice hockey players for Latvia RC Strasbourg Alsace players TSV Schwaben Augsburg players