Jānis Dreimanis (born 13 October 1949,

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the B ...

) is a

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

n former football defender. In his career, he played 115 matches for Daugava Rīga, scoring four goals.

Playing career

Dreimanis' first steps in football were made with Darba Rezerves in

, where at the time worked the famous former Latvian footballer Alfons Jēgers. First senior club - Enerģija Rīga in the Latvian league, then he played for ASK Rīga for 2 years. In 1971, he joined Zvejnieks Liepāja, which played on a higher level than his previous teams - in the Soviet second league. In 1972, he got transferred to Daugava Rīga. His best season with Daugava was in 1974 when Daugava played in the second division playoffs, and Dreimanis had a strong shot and often scored goals from a far distance. He also played well with the head but lacked speed to play on a higher level. After five years with Daugava Dreimanis returned to the Latvian league where he played for

Elektrons Rīga Elektrons Rīga (also known as FK Alfa) was a Latvian football club from Riga that was one of the leading clubs in the Latvian league in the 1970s and 1980s. History Elektrons was founded somewhere in the 1960s (exact year has to be determined) ...

(later - Alfa). With Elektrons he won the

Latvian Cup The Latvian Football Cup () is the main knockout cup competition in Latvian football. Since 2021, its full name is Responsible Game Latvian Football Cup (''Atbildīgas spēles Latvijas kauss'') due to the sponsorship by sports betting company Wi ...

3 times and also won the league 3 times.

Coaching career

His first club as manager was Alfa Rīga where he previously had been a player. In 1985 with Dreimanis in command Alfa won the Latvian league title. After five years as the general manager of Alfa he worked as a coach of youth squads for Pārdaugava Rīga and Gemma Rīga. Dreimanis has worked with all Latvia national youth football teams - from U16 to U21. In 2005, he was the manager of the

Latvian Higher League Latvian Higher League or Virslīga is a professional football league and the top tier of association football in Latvia. Organised by the Latvian Football Federation, the Higher League is contested by 10 clubs. The full name of the league is O ...

team

JFK Olimps JFK Olimps was a Latvian football club, playing in the top division of Latvian football. The club was from the city of Riga. According to a study from January 2011, the club was the youngest team in Europe, with an average age of 19.02 years. ...

. On 20 December 2012 Dreimanis was appointed as the manager of the

club

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. Early years Until 2004 two Jelgava football clubs FK Viola and RAF ...

, but on 2 January 2013 he suffered an attack caused by a stroke and was hospitalized. His assistant Sergejs Golubevs was appointed as the new manager of the club.

References

External links

Latvia Under-19 profile at UEFA
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dreimanis, Janis Latvian footballers Daugava Rīga players FK Liepājas Metalurgs players 1949 births Living people Footballers from Riga Association football defenders Latvian football managers JFK Olimps managers FK Jelgava managers