Jānis Ikaunieks (born 16 February 1995) is a Latvian 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 ...

who plays as an

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for

Rīgas FS Rīgas Futbola skola (Latvian for ''Riga Football School'', also Rīgas FS or RFS) is a Latvian women's football club from Riga. The women play in the top level Latvian Women's League and won the championship in 2013 and 2014. They won their thi ...

and the Latvia national team.

Club career

Liepājas Metalurgs

Ikaunieks was born in

Kuldīga Kuldīga () () is a town in the Courland region of Latvia, in the western part of the country. It is the center of Kuldīga Municipality with a population of approximately 13,500. Kuldīga was first mentioned in 1242. It joined the Hanseatic L ...

. As a youth player, he played for the youth teams of Liepājas Metalurgs. Ikaunieks scored 11 goals in 20 matches in the 2012 First League season contributing to Liepājas Metalurgs II winning the championship. Having been promoted to the first team in 2013, Ikaunieks debuted on 7 April in the Higher League in a 2–1 defeat against FK Daugava. Throughout his professional debut season, he played 19 league matches and scored three goals. The club was dissolved at the end of season due to financial difficulties, thus Ikaunieks and other players transferred to its successor, the newly-established

FK Liepāja FK Liepāja is a Latvian professional football club established in 2014. The club is based at the Daugava Stadium in Liepāja. FK Liepāja plays in the Latvian Higher League. In their first season they finished 4th in the 2014 Latvian Higher ...

FK Liepāja

Starting the season as a nominal substitute, Ikaunieks was promoted to the first team and was named Higher League player of the month in May. On 11 June 2014, Ikaunieks scored four goals in a 7–0 victory over

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 ...

. Overall, he scored 23 goals in 32 league matches and became the second top scorer of the league behind Vladislavs Gutkovskis from Skonto. In August 2014, Ikaunieks went on trial with the Croatian

Prva HNL The Hrvatska nogometna liga (; ), abbreviated as HNL and also known for sponsorship reasons as the SuperSport HNL, is a professional association football league in Croatia and the highest level of the Croatian football league system. Establish ...

champions

Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb (), commonly referred to as simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo play their home matches at Stadion Maksimir. They are the most successful club in Cr ...

. In September, he was named player of the month for the second time in the season. One month later in October, explicit interest in the player was reported from

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * Ajax (play), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...

Metz Metz ( , , , then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle (river), Moselle and the Seille (Moselle), Seille rivers. Metz is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments ...

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V. (), commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German professional sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's Association football, football team is currently part of Germany's f ...

and

Udinese Calcio Udinese Calcio (; "Udinese Football") is a professional association football, football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. The team currently competes in the Serie A, the first tier of Italian football league system, Italian fo ...

. On 5 December 2014, Ikaunieks was named the best midfielder of the season and was simultaneously voted as the best player of the 2014 Higher League.

Metz

On 23 December 2014,

chairman Bernard Serin confirmed that Ikaunieks would join the

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

team on a four-year contract. The transfer on an undisclosed fee was officially affirmed on 7 January 2015. Ikaunieks debuted for Metz' first team on 20 January 2015, coming on as a substitute in the

Coupe de France The Coupe de France (), also known in English language, English as the French Cup or less commonly as the France Cup, is the premier Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in French football organised by the French Football Fed ...

1/16 finals match victory over

US Avranches L’Union Sportive Avranches Mont Saint Michel, shortly known as US Avranches is a French Association football, football club based in Avranches, in the Departments of France, department of Manche, and founded in 1897. Since 2014, it plays in th ...

. He made his Ligue 1 debut in a goalless draw against

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million Superleague Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

team AEL on a six-month loan. He debuted in a 2–1 victory over

Veria Veria (; ), officially transliterated Veroia, historically also spelled Beroea or Berea, is a city in Central Macedonia, in the geographic region of Macedonia, northern Greece, capital of the regional unit of Imathia. It is located north-nor ...

on 14 January 2017. On 18 January, against Veria once again, he scored his only goal for AEL in a match that ended 1–1. Reportedly, there was no buy option in the loan agreement and thus he returned to Metz at the end of the season.

FK Liepāja (loan)

On 15 June 2017, it was announced that Ikaunieks had returned to

while on loan from Metz. He made his first match on 18 June, in a 1–0 victory over

Ventspils Ventspils () is a state city in northwestern Latvia in the historical Courland region of Latvia, and is the sixth largest city in the country. At the beginning of 2020, Ventspils had a population of 33,906. It is situated on the Venta River and ...

. He only managed to make a total of seven matches, six in the league and in the cup final in which Liepāja lifted the trophy against

Riga FC Riga Football Club, commonly referred to as Riga FC, is a Latvian Association football, football club, founded in 2014. The club is based at the Skonto Stadium in Riga. Since 2016 Latvian Higher League, 2016, the club has been playing in the Latv ...

, due to being out for two months after suffering from a metatarsal fracture. After the conclusion of his loan deal, Ikaunieks joined Liepāja on a permanent basis. Ikaunieks instantly became an important asset in the 2018 Higher League season, scoring nine goals in 17 matches as well as being involved in the assistance of three goals. Once again being unlucky with injuries, he suffered from a shoulder injury at the end of August and was out for about three months. Upon returning for the 2019 Higher League season, Ikaunieks scored seven goals in 24 matches, as well as scoring one goal in a

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

qualifying match against Dinamo Minsk.

Strømsgodset

On 11 February 2020, Ikaunieks signed for Norwegian

Eliteserien Eliteserien () is a professional association football league in Norway and the highest level of the Norwegian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Norwegian First Division ...

team

Strømsgodset Strømsgodset is a former municipality in Vestfold county (from 1964 Buskerud county) in Norway which is today a part of the city of Drammen. History Strømsgodset was originally a small rural annex to the city parish of Bragernes (Drammen). ...

. He debuted on 17 June against

IK Start Idrettsklubben Start (or simply IK Start) is a Norwegian Association football, football club from the city of Kristiansand that currently plays in the Norwegian First Division, the second tier of the Norwegian football league system. The club was ...

in a 2–2 draw. On 1 August, having spent only a few months with the team and having only played six matches, Ikaunieks and

agreed on mutual termination of the contract.

Later career

On 6 August 2020, Ikaunieks returned to Latvia and signed for Higher League club

. He made his debut on 8 August against his old club

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 ...

in a 3–0 victory. On 12 August, Ikaunieks scored his first goal in a 4–0 victory over

Jelgava Jelgava () is a state city in central Latvia. It is located about southwest of Riga. It is the largest town in the Semigallia region of Latvia. Jelgava was the capital of the united Duchy of Courland and Semigallia (1578–1795) and was the ad ...

. On 22 February 2021, Ikaunieks signed a two-year contract with Finnish

Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga () is a professional association football league in Finland and the highest level of the Finnish football league system. The league comprises the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agenc ...

team

KuPS Kuopion Palloseura, commonly referred to as KuPS, is a Finnish professional football club based in Kuopio. KuPS competes in Veikkausliiga, the top flight of Finnish football. The team plays its home matches at Kuopio Football Stadium. KuPS ha ...

International career

Ikaunieks was a member of Latvian youth national football teams that ranged from U18, U19, until U21. He debuted for the Latvian senior squad on 13 October 2014, playing the entire 90 minutes in a 1–1

UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from September 2014 to November 2015 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams joining the automatically qualified host team France in the UEFA Euro 2 ...

draw against

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. It was later calculated that Ikaunieks had repeated the record of

Māris Verpakovskis Māris Verpakovskis (born 15 October 1979), is a Latvian retired professional footballer who played as a striker. He played for the Latvia national team at UEFA Euro 2004 and is the only Latvian player to score at the end stage of a major inte ...

who debuted in 1999, being exactly 19 years, 7 months and 25 days old. On 29 March 2016, Ikaunieks scored his first two goals for his country in a 5–0 friendly victory over

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

Personal life

His elder brother Dāvis is also a professional footballer who plays for the same team.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Latvia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Ikaunieks' goal.''

Honours

Liepājas Metalurgs II *

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 ...

: 2012 FK Liepāja *

Latvian Football 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 W ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

Latvia * Baltic Cup:

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

* Baltic Cup runner-up:

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Individual * Latvian Higher League Player of the Year: 2014 * Latvian Higher League Midfielder of the Year: 2014 *

Team of the Year:

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ikaunieks, Janis 1995 births Living people People from Kuldīga Latvian men's footballers 21st-century Latvian sportsmen Latvia men's international footballers Men's association football midfielders FK Liepājas Metalurgs players FK Liepāja players FC Metz players Athlitiki Enosi Larissa F.C. players Strømsgodset Toppfotball players FK RFS players Kuopion Palloseura players Eliteserien players Latvian Higher League players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Championnat National 2 players Super League Greece players Latvian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in France Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Norway Expatriate men's footballers in Finland Latvian expatriate sportspeople in France Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Norway Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Finland