Kristaps Zommers (born 7 January 1997) 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 ...

who plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring 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 intercepting o ...

for

SK Super Nova SK Super Nova is a Latvian association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular ...

Club career

As a youth player, Zommers joined the youth academy of

Aarhus Gymnastikforening Aarhus Gymnastikforening (; commonly known as AGF ), is a professional sports club based in Aarhus, Jutland, Denmark. Founded in 1880, it is one of the oldest clubs in the country and gymnastics and fencing are featured as its main sports. Howeve ...

in Denmark. He started his career with

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...

. In the 2015-16 Serie D, Kristaps made 25 appearances and kept 17 clean sheets. Local journalists were deterred by the fact that he cannot speak

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

fluently so his interviews were conducted in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

. In an interview with the

show ''Sports Bar'', he said, "In football, you know, things may not always go smoothly; it only affects work and will continue to give my best in training. I am convinced, that our quality, in the long run, will come out." On 17 January 2019, he was released from his Parma contract by mutual consent. In 2020, he signed for

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It ...

. Zommers returned to Latvia and signed with

Valmieras FK Valmiera Football Club or shortly Valmiera FC is a Latvian football club, playing in the Virslīga, the highest division of Latvian football. The club is based in the city of Valmiera. By winning the 2017 Latvian First League, the team was pro ...

on 10 September 2020. In 2022, he signed for Super Nova.

International

Zommers made his Latvia U-21 debut versus

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

in the Baltic Cup and is deemed the highest prospect in Latvian goalkeeping.

References

Living people 1997 births Footballers from Riga Latvian footballers Latvia youth international footballers Latvia under-21 international footballers Latvian expatriate footballers Association football goalkeepers Parma Calcio 1913 players Pordenone Calcio players Cosenza Calcio players FK Liepāja players Imolese Calcio 1919 players Nara Club players Valmieras FK players Serie C players Latvian Higher League players Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Expatriate footballers in Japan Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Italy {{Latvia-footy-bio-stub