Pēteris Lauks (10 February 1902, in

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

– 15 March 1984, in Kitchener,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

) was a

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 ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

defender, one of the most capped footballers for

Latvia national football team The Latvia national football team () represents Latvia in men's international Association football, football, and is controlled by the Latvian Football Federation, the governing body for football in Latvia. They have never qualified for the FIF ...

before

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Biography

Lauks began playing football when being a

refugee A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

near Ufa in 1916. Upon returning to Latvia he was a longtime player with Amatieris (from 1921 to 1933. His highest achievement with Amatieris was earning bronze medals in 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 ...

in 1929. Lauks was one of the most reliable defenders in Latvian football of his era and he was called up to the national team a few times in 1926 and 1927, capping three matches in total. When Lauks was already aged over thirty and his football career was presumably near its end he moved to RFK and made a sudden comeback. With RFK he won three Latvian league titles, became a two-time winner of 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 ...

and at the age of 33 returned to the national team. Lauks played in the last international match for Latvia before its loss of independence on 18 July 1940, he was aged 38 at the time. In total between 1926 and 1940 he had played in 38 matches for Latvia – only

Ēriks Pētersons Ēriks Pētersons (1909–1987) was a Latvian footballer and ice hockey player. Between 1929 and 1939 he played 63 international matches and scored 21 goals for Latvian national team. He also played in the Latvian national ice hockey team, whe ...

Jānis Lidmanis Jānis Lidmanis (18 January 1910 – 29 November 1986) was a Latvian footballer and basketballer. Career In the 1930s he was the captain of Latvia national football team for which he made 55 appearances (second result in the pre-war Latvian tea ...

, Alberts Šeibelis, Vladimirs Bērziņš and Arnolds Tauriņš had more caps for Latvia. During the first

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

occupation of Latvia Lauks played with RDKA Riga, during the Nazi occupation – with Pērkons Riga and again with RFK. After

Lauks ended up in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

where he continued playing football until the age of 46. Later he left Germany for

where he lived until his death.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lauks, Peteris 1902 births 1984 deaths Footballers from Riga People from Riga county Latvian men's footballers Latvia men's international footballers Olympic footballers for Latvia Footballers at the 1924 Summer Olympics Men's association football defenders Latvian World War II refugees Latvian emigrants to Germany German emigrants to Canada