Oļegs Laizāns (born 28 March 1987) is a Latvian former 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 ...

Club career

Early career, Skonto and loans

As a young player Oļegs Laizāns played for JFC Skonto, being taken to the first team in 2005. He played there for 5 and a half years before being loaned to the Polish

Ekstraklasa (; meaning "Extra Class" in Polish), officially known as PKO Bank Polski Ekstraklasa due to its Sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by PKO Bank Polski, is a professional association football league in Poland and the highest level of the Polish foo ...

club

Lechia Gdańsk Lechia Gdańsk () is a Polish football (soccer), football club based in Gdańsk. As of the 2025–26 Ekstraklasa, 2025–26 season, they compete in the Ekstraklasa. The club was founded in 1945 by people Polish population transfers (1944–1946 ...

and

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 ...

team FB Gulbene-2005 in 2010. While on loan Laizāns played 8 matches and scored 1 goal in Poland, whilst in Latvia he played 7 games and scored 4 times. In 2010, he helped FB Gulbene-2005 to win the

championship and qualify for 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 ...

for the first time in the history of the club. In 2006, he was named the best young player of the year. IN total over five and a half years Laizāns played 56 matches, scoring 11 goals for

Skonto Riga Skonto FC was a Latvian professional football club, active from 1991 until 2016. The club played at the Skonto Stadium in Riga. Skonto won the Virsliga in the first 14 seasons of the league's resumption (15 in total), and often provided the cor ...

in the Latvian football championship before being released at the start of 2011. With Skonto he reached the second place in the league in 2005 and was runner-up for the

Latvian 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 ...

in 2006 but didn't win any major trophies.

FK Ventspils

At the start of 2011, after some ups-and-downs in the football career, Oļegs was signed by another

club

FK Ventspils FK Ventspils was a Latvian professional football club based at Ventspils Olimpiskais Stadions in Ventspils. It was one of the most prominent football clubs in the country. The club played in the Latvian Virslīga since 1997. It folded in July ...

, who were completing their squad for the upcoming season. Right after joining Laizāns proved his ability, becoming a first eleven player. All in all he played 30 matches that season and scored 3 goals, also being elected the captain of the team. This year turned out to be really lucky, as he not only managed to become the champion of the league but also won the

. After a very good season he was included in both - LFF and ''sportacentrs.com'' championship all-star teams and was also named the biggest surprise of the season by fans via ''sportacentrs.com''.

ŁKS Łódź

On 16 February 2012 Laizāns joined the Polish

club

ŁKS Łódź ŁKS Łódź (''Łódzki Klub Sportowy Łódź''; ) is a Polish sports club based in Łódź. They are best known for their football club but are represented in many sports such as basketball, volleyball, boxing, and in the past ice hockey, ...

. He made his debut 2 days later in a league match against

Polonia Warsaw Polonia Warsaw (, ), founded on 19 November 1911, is the oldest existing sports club in Warsaw, the capital of Poland, best known for its Association football, football and basketball teams. It also has track and field, Swimming (sport), swimm ...

, playing 90 minutes and collecting a yellow card in a 0–2 loss. All in all he played 9 league matches for LKS, leaving the team after its relegation to the

I liga I liga (, ), currently named Betclic I liga due to its sponsorship by Betclic, is the men's second professional association football division of the Polish football league system, below the Ekstraklasa and above the II liga via promotion/rel ...

in July 2012.

Yenisey Krasnoyarsk

Laizāns joined the

Russian National Football League The Russian First League (, Pervaya liga), formerly called Russian First Division () and Russian Football National League (FNL) () is the second level of the Russian football league system. The Russian Professional Football League (PFL) used t ...

club Yenisey Krasnoyarsk on 7 July 2012. In his first season with the club Laizāns scored 2 goals in 23 league matches.

International career

Laizāns has 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 all youth level national teams and received his first call-up for the senior

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

in 2011 for a friendly match against

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

on 10 August. He made a total of 54 appearances for Latvia, scoring no goals yet.

Honours

Ventspils *

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

Riga * Latvian Higher League:

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 ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Laizans, Olegs 1987 births Living people Footballers from Riga Men's association football midfielders Latvian men's footballers Latvia men's youth international footballers Latvia men's under-21 international footballers Latvia men's international footballers Skonto FC players Lechia Gdańsk players FB Gulbene players FK Ventspils players ŁKS Łódź players FC Yenisey Krasnoyarsk players Riga FC players FK Auda players FK Spartaks Jūrmala players SK Super Nova players Latvian Higher League players Ekstraklasa players Russian First League players Latvian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Poland Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Poland Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Russia