Rytis Leliūga (born 4 January 1987) is a Lithuanian

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 currently plays as a

midfielder (association football) A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

FK Jelgava FK Jelgava is a Latvian football club that is based in Jelgava. The club plays its home-matches at the Zemgales Olimpiskais Sporta Centrs stadium with capacity of 1,560 people. Early years Until 2004 two Jelgava football clubs FK Viola and RAF ...

. Leliūga is from Lithuania, whose

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 exam ...

he has represented at Under-18 level. He signed professional terms with Exeter at the beginning of the 2005/06 season and is a midfielder. He was released by

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third tier of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

and signed for Norwegian club

Bryne Bryne () is a town in Time municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The city is the administrative centre of the municipality of Time and it is also one of the 50 largest towns/cities in Norway. Bryne's location in the region of Stavanger/Sand ...

. After being released by Exeter he had a trial (1. week of July 2006) at Norwegian 1. div club

Bryne FK Bryne Fotballklubb () is a professional football club in Bryne, Norway, that competes in the 1. divisjon, the second tier of Norwegian football. History Bryne has played a total of 17 seasons in the top flight of Norwegian football since thei ...

and signed a contract until the end of the season. However, in January 2007 he was persuaded to switch to

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

side

Herfølge BK Herfølge is a suburb of the town of Køge, Denmark, located about 5 kilometers south of Køge, and is a part of Køge Municipality. The suburb is connected to Køge and Næstved by the Lille Syd railway line. Residential areas Holmebæk ...

by fellow Lithuanian

Aurelijus Skarbalius Aurelijus Skarbalius (; born 12 May 1973) is a Lithuanian professional football manager and former player, who started his career as a winger, but played mostly as either left- or right-sided full-back. He is the Global Director of Capelli Spo ...

, who is the manager of the club. He left the club in 2010. In April 2012 he signed for the Norwegian club Gjøvik FF, where he played till July. In July 2012 Leliūga joined the

Latvian Higher League Latvian Higher League or Virslīga is a professional football league and the top tier of association football in Latvia. Organised by the Latvian Football Federation, the Higher League is contested by 10 clubs. The full name of the league is O ...

club Liepājas Metalurgs. In August 2012 Leliūga was named the best

player of the month. All in all he participated in 25 matches, scoring 8 goals for Metalurgs, 20 and 8 of those, respectively, were achieved in the

. On 21 December 2012 Leliūga moved to the Lithuanian

A Lyga The A Lyga is the top division of professional football in Lithuania. The A Lyga is an abbreviation of Aukščiausia lyga meaning Highest League. It is organized by Lithuanian Football Federation LFF ( lt, Lietuvos Futbolo Federacija). The Auk� ...

side Žalgiris Vilnius.

References

1987 births Living people Lithuanian men's footballers Exeter City F.C. players Herfølge Boldklub players HB Køge players FK Liepājas Metalurgs players FK Žalgiris players Lithuanian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Estonia Expatriate men's footballers in Latvia Expatriate men's footballers in Norway People from Mažeikiai Lithuanian expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Lithuanian expatriate sportspeople in England Lithuanian expatriate sportspeople in Estonia Lithuanian expatriate sportspeople in Latvia Lithuanian expatriate sportspeople in Norway FC Šiauliai players JK Sillamäe Kalev players Meistriliiga players Men's association football midfielders {{Lithuania-footy-bio-stub