Pāvels Šteinbors (born 21 September 1985) 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 a

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 ...

for Latvian club RFS and the Latvia national team.

Club career

As a youth player, Šteinbors was a member of the

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 ...

youth academy. He was taken to the first team in 2001. Even though he stayed in the club until 2004, due to high competition for the first keeper's place alongside then Latvian international

Andrejs Piedels Andrejs Piedels (born 17 September 1970) is a former Latvian football goalkeeper. Career He played for Pārdaugava, Daugava, Amstrig, DAG, Skonto FC, FK Jūrmala, FK Daugava Riga and Olimps/RFS. He collected 14 caps for the Latvia natio ...

, Šteinbors was unable to get a place in the starting line-up. In January 2004, Šteinbors joined another

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 ...

club FK Jūrmala, where he could finally settle down. He showed some high-class performances and was regarded as one of the most talented Latvian youngsters. In December 2007 Šteinbors went on trial with the

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship, known simply as the Championship and for sponsorship purposes as Sky Betting & Gaming, Sky Bet Championship, is a professional association football league in England and Wales. Contested by 24 clubs, i ...

side

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

, impressing the coaching staff. On 16 January 2008, the German 2. Bundesliga club

FC Augsburg Fußball-Club Augsburg 1907 e. V., commonly known as FC Augsburg (), is a Football in Germany, German professional football club based in Augsburg, Bavaria. FC Augsburg play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. T ...

reported that Šteinbors was on trial with them in their training camp in

Faro, Portugal Faro ( , ), officially the City of Faro (), is a Concelho, municipality, the southernmost city and capital of the district of Faro District, the same name, in the Algarve region of southern Portugal. With an estimated population of 67,566 inhabi ...

. However, on 31 January 2008, Šteinbors signed a loan deal with Blackpool until the end of the 2007–08 season with an option to extend it for another year. The loan was then extended and Šteinbors joined his countryman and current Latvian international

Kaspars Gorkšs Kaspars Gorkšs (born 6 November 1981) is a Latvian former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Defender (association football), defender. Gorkšs was also the captain of the Latvia national football team, Latvia nationa ...

Bloomfield Road Bloomfield Road is a association football, football stadium in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, which has been the home of Blackpool F.C., Blackpool Football Club since 1901. It is the third stadium in the club's existence, the previous two be ...

. During his loan spell, Šteinbors regularly played in the reserve team, but didn't make an appearance for the first team. After the end of the loan contract, he returned to the

, moving to

FK Liepājas Metalurgs FK Liepājas Metalurgs () was a Latvian football club in the city of Liepāja that played in the Virslīga. They played at the Daugava Stadium (capacity 5,083). In 2005 Liepājas Metalurgs became the first team other than Skonto Riga to win t ...

in 2009. During the

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

and

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

seasons, he was the back-up keeper for the team behind experienced Viktors Spole. In 2011, Šteinbors claimed the first keeper's place, showing great performance and being included in the ''sportacents.com'' team of the season. All in all he played 53 league matches for Metalurgs. On 15 July 2012, Šteinbors moved to the South African

Premier Soccer League The Premier Soccer League (PSL) is the administrative body for professional soccer leagues and cups in South Africa. It is based in Johannesburg, and was founded in 1996 following an agreement between the National Soccer League and the remnant ...

club

Golden Arrows Lamontville Golden Arrows F.C. are a South African soccer club based in Durban that plays in the Premiership. History It was founded in 1943 in the streets of Lamontville, a township in Durban. The club played in the defunct National Profes ...

for the 2012–13 season. He started the season as the club's first keeper, but lost his place in the line-up in midseason, with the team struggling to show good results. In July 2013, Šteinbors moved 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 ...

, signing a two-year contract with

Górnik Zabrze Górnik Zabrze Spółka Akcyjna, commonly referred to as Górnik Zabrze S.A. or simply Górnik Zabrze (), is a Polish association football, football club from Zabrze. Górnik is one of the most successful Polish football clubs in history, winning ...

after a successful trial period. He made his debut for the club on 17 August 2013 in a

Polish Cup The Polish Cup in Association football, football ( ) is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout football competition for Polish football club (association football), football clubs, held continuously since 1950, and is the second most i ...

match against

GKS Bełchatów GKS Bełchatów is a Polish professional football club based in Bełchatów. The club currently competes in group I of the III liga. History GKS Bełchatów entered Poland's Klasa A in 1977 under the name of Węgiel Brunatny Bełchatów, and ...

, playing 90 minutes and keeping a clean-sheet.

International career

In 2003, Šteinbors played for Latvia U19s, and in 2005, he was called up to the under-21 side. Šteinbors made his debut for the senior Latvia national team on 13 November 2015 in a 0–1 friendly loss to

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

Honours

Skonto Riga *

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

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 ...

: 2001, 2002 Liepājas Metalurgs * Latvian Higher League:

Arka Gdynia *

: 2016–17 *

Polish Super Cup The Polish Super Cup (, ) is an annually held match between the champions of the Ekstraklasa and the Polish Cup winners or, if the Ekstraklasa champions also win the Polish Cup, the Cup's runners-up. As of 2024, the Polish Super Cup has been ...

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 ...

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 ...

FK RFS * Latvian Higher League:

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

Individual *

Latvian Footballer of the Year Latvian Footballer of the Year is an association football award for Latvia. It is held by the Latvian Football Federation. Since 2005, there has also been an award for the top female player. Women's winners Men's winners See also *List ...

: 2019, 2020

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Steinbors, Pavels 1985 births Living people Footballers from Riga Latvian men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Latvia men's international footballers Skonto FC players FK Daugava (2003) players FK Liepājas Metalurgs players Blackpool F.C. players Lamontville Golden Arrows F.C. players Górnik Zabrze players Arka Gdynia players Jagiellonia Białystok players Nea Salamis Famagusta FC players FK RFS players Latvian Higher League players South African Premier Division players Ekstraklasa players Cypriot First Division players Latvian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Latvian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's soccer players in South Africa Expatriate men's footballers in Poland Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Poland Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus