Raimonds Laizāns (born 5 August 1964) is a former

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 ...

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 ...

who played for the

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 ...

in the 1990s.

Club playing career

Raimonds Laizāns started playing football at the Daugava sports school in Riga at the age of 13. In 1980 with Progress Rīga he won the silver medals of the Latvian league and in 1983 debuted for the strongest Latvian club -

Daugava Rīga FK Daugava Rīga was a Latvian football club, based at the Daugava Stadium in Riga. They played in the Latvian Higher League. The last manager of the team was Armands Zeiberliņš. From the club's foundation in 2003 till 2009 the club was kno ...

. However his career with Daugava never really got off - Aleksandrs Kulakovs was in his prime years and the best Laizāns could hope for was being back-up to Kulakovs. From 1985 to 1987 Laizāns played with

Zvejnieks Liepāja Zvejnieks ( Old orthography: ''Sweineek(s)''; feminine: Zvejniece) is a Latvian occupational surname, derived from the Latvian word for "fisherman". Individuals with the surname include: *Kristaps Zvejnieks (born 1992), an Alpine ski racer and ...

, then went to

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

- first to

Volyn Lutsk FC Volyn Lutsk ( ) was a Ukrainian association football, football club based in Lutsk. Since its establishment in 1960, the club became the only major (professional) football club within Volyn Oblast and uncontested leader of football in the reg ...

with which he won the Ukrainian league in 1989, then - to

FC Karpaty Lviv Football Club Karpaty Lviv ( ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Lviv. In 2020–21 the club was reorganized and changed owner. During that period there existed two clubs with the same name, one at professional level competitio ...

. After the 1991/1992 season in Ukraine he returned to

and joined

Skonto FC Skonto FC was a Latvian professional Association football, 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 o ...

. In the first year Laizāns played significantly less than Oļegs Grišins but from 1993 to 1996 he was the undisputed number one goalkeeper in the club which was without a doubt the strongest in Latvia. From 1994 to 1996 Laizāns was selected the best goalkeeper in

Virslīga 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 Football F ...

. In 1997 Laizāns started experiencing a competition from the club's second goalkeeper -

Aleksandrs Koliņko Aleksandrs Koliņko (born 18 June 1975) is a Latvian professional football coach and a former player. He is the manager of Latvian Higher League club Super Nova. Club career Koliņko was born in Riga and started his career in 1994, playing f ...

(both played 12 matches in the Latvian

). And after that season Laizāns left Skonto for Fakel Voronezh in the 1st Russian league. The season was good for Laizāns - he played 39 of 42 matches with Fakel, but for the club it wasn't especially good - 10th place in the league. In 1999 Laizāns returned to Latvia again and joined Policijas FK. After one season with Policijas FK Laizāns retired from active football.

National team playing career

In the early 1990s when Latvia regained independence and its national team debuted in international matches, there were two main contenders for the number one goalkeeper spot in Latvia - Laizāns and

Oļegs Karavajevs Oļegs Karavajevs (13 February 1961 – 6 October 2020) was a Latvian professional association football, footballer who played as a goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper. He was the goalkeeper who made the most appearances for the Latvia ...

. Laizāns got the honor of playing Latvia's first official game - against

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

on 8 April 1992. Karavajevs was the one who usually played the most important matches and who played for Latvia in its most historic matches but Laizāns usually got a chance to play in friendlies and in the Baltic Cup. Laizāns' last match for Latvia came in 1998 as it lost 0:3 in a friendly game against

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

. In total he made 31 international appearances for Latvia. After retiring from active football Laizāns took over the youth squad of

, and as of January 2008 he is the chairman of JFK Olimps Rīga. Raimonds Laizāns is not a relative of another former

goalkeeper

Laimonis Laizāns Laimonis Laizāns (born 30 January 1945, died 16 November 2020) was a Soviet Latvian football goalkeeper who played for FK Daugava Rīga and Torpedo Moscow. He is considered one of the best Latvian goalkeepers of all time. Playing biography La ...

or of Latvia international footballer

Juris Laizāns Juris Laizāns (born 6 January 1979) is a Latvian former professional footballer. A midfielder, he spent a large part of his playing career abroad in Russia. He made 113 appearances for the Latvia national team scoring 15 goals. Club career Bo ...

.Miķelis Rubenis. History of football in Latvia, 1999 (in Latvian).

Honours

* Champion of Latvia **6 (1992–1997) *

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 ...

winner **2 (1995, 1997) * Best Goalkeeper in the Latvian League (3): :*

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

* Champion of

**1 (1989) * Baltic Cup ** 1 (

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Laizans, Raimonds 1964 births Living people Latvian men's footballers Latvia men's international footballers Latvian expatriate men's footballers FC Daugava Riga players FC Karpaty Lviv players Skonto FC players FC Fakel Voronezh players Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate men's footballers in Ukraine Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine Ukrainian Premier League players Footballers from Riga Men's association football goalkeepers Soviet men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Russia FK Liepājas Metalurgs players FC Volyn Lutsk players JFK Olimps players