Riga Vanderer (sometimes written as Wanderer, in later years – Rīgas Vilki, also – RV) 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 ...
n
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 ...
club that was founded in 1927, disbanded in 1940, restored a year later and disbanded again in 1944.
consul general
A consul is an official representative of a government who resides in a foreign country to assist and protect citizens of the consul's country, and to promote and facilitate commercial and diplomatic relations between the two countries.
A consu ...
of
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
in Latvia after a conflict of interests involving the Latvia national team sportsman in football and
bandy
Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two team sport, teams wearing Ice skates#Bandy skates, ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal.
The playin ...
Arvīds Jurgens
Karlis Arvīds Jurgens (27 May 1905 in Riga, Russian Empire – 17 December 1955 in Montreal, Quebec) was a Latvian footballer, ice hockey, basketball and bandy player who played for Latvia national teams in all four of these sports. He was ...
. October 21, 1927 is considered to be the foundation date of the club. The newly founded sports club at first promised to work mostly in raising its own young footballers. However, almost the entire first selection squad of Vanderer in the early years was made up of already known and experienced footballers from other Riga sports clubs. As the majority of the Vanderer footballers in its first squad came from RFK, there started a deep rivalry between these two clubs and several of their matches ended in violence.
The first match
Riga Vanderer played its first ever game against Sport Tallinn on May 13, 1928. The following players represented Vander in its first ever official match were:
Arvīds Jurgens
Karlis Arvīds Jurgens (27 May 1905 in Riga, Russian Empire – 17 December 1955 in Montreal, Quebec) was a Latvian footballer, ice hockey, basketball and bandy player who played for Latvia national teams in all four of these sports. He was ...
Ādolfs Sīmanis
Ādolfs Sīmanis (11 March 1909 – 10 September 1979) was a Latvian football defender, with the longest career as a player with Riga Vanderer.
Biography
Sīmanis came from the Latvian countryside and when he joined the newly founder Riga Va ...
, Blūmentāls,
Česlavs Stančiks
Česlavs Stančiks (26 September 1896 – 18 July 1980)Harijs Fogelis
Harijs Fogelis was a Latvian footballer who played as a forward.
Biography
Fogelis' first season in senior football came in 1925 when he played with LSB Riga as it finished third in the top Riga football league. After two years with LSB Fogelis ...
,
Aleksandrs Ābrams
Aleksandrs Ābrams (30 January 1904 – 3 February 1958) was a Latvian football forward who used to play with Rīgas FK, the most successful Latvian football club of the 1920s and 1930s.
Club playing career
The first club that Ābrams played wit ...
,
Emīls Urbāns
Emīls Urbāns was a Latvian footballer, a three-time champion of Latvia.
Before World War I Urbāns played in a youth football club called Jakor Riga together with other future Latvia national football team footballers Kārlis Bone, Alberts ...
Tallinn
Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...
club won the match 3–0.
Road to the higher league
As a new club despite it having several national team footballers in the squad Vanderers had to start from the very bottom – that is the level B
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 ...
tournament. In the B class tournament there proved to be no competition for the experienced Vanderers team which won all 8 matches in 1928 A the B class champion Vanderers had to play against the weakest A class side – Amatieris ("''Amateur''") which also was no competitor for Vanderers and was beat 7–1. A year later Vanderer (with two further former
Rīgas FK
The Riga Football Club (''Rīgas futbola klubs'' or ''Rīgas Futbolklubs'', RFK or Rīgas FK) was a Latvian football club which was founded on December 14, 1923 in Riga. It was the strongest and most popular Latvian football club in the 1920s an ...
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 ...
was extended, it earned a place there without additional play-off matches.
The higher league years
There was no question whether Vanderer was ready to play in the higher league, as it had enough experienced footballers in the squad, however its top-flight début was even more impressive than most expected – Vanderer finished third in the league, mostly thanks to the tight defensive triangle – Jurgens, Sīmanis and
(the latter had joined Vanderer from LSB Riga).
The 1931 season was less successful but in 1932 Vanderers got the closest to winning the gold of the Latvian league in its history. Despite having lost
Arvīds Jurgens
Karlis Arvīds Jurgens (27 May 1905 in Riga, Russian Empire – 17 December 1955 in Montreal, Quebec) was a Latvian footballer, ice hockey, basketball and bandy player who played for Latvia national teams in all four of these sports. He was ...
to its main rivals
ASK Riga
ASK Rīga is a former professional basketball club that was based in Riga, Latvia. "ASK" stood for "Armijas Sporta Klubs" (in English: Army Sports Club).
History
BK Rīga was then founded in 2004 as an attempt to revive the defunct club ...
(but at the same time it had gained national team forward
Alberts Šeibelis
Alberts Šeibelis (26 December 1906 – 12 April 1972) was a Latvian footballer, one of the most popular Latvian footballers in the era before World War II. In 54 matches for Latvia he scored 14 goals
Biography
Šeibelis was born in the provinci ...
from RFK) that year Vanderer finished with the same number of points as ASK. Therefore, a golden match was necessary, and in it ASK proved to be the stronger side by winning 3–1.
Vanderer could not better its 1932 result over the years, yet it repeated the second-place finish in 1934, but the margin between Vanderer and the title winners RFK was big. The next years showed a decline in the league performance for Vanderer that didn't earn any more league medals after 1934. The performance was much better in the cup tournaments. Vanderer reached its first
Riga Football Cup
Riga Football Cup () was a knockout tournament held in Latvian football from 1910 to 1913 and then from 1925 to 1936. Clubs from cities other than Riga were allowed to participate in the tournament from 1925. In 1937 it was replaced by the Latvia ...
final in 1933 where it was beaten by
ASK Riga
ASK Rīga is a former professional basketball club that was based in Riga, Latvia. "ASK" stood for "Armijas Sporta Klubs" (in English: Army Sports Club).
History
BK Rīga was then founded in 2004 as an attempt to revive the defunct club ...
, but the next year it won its first cupVanderers – Ķuze 3:0 /ref> and a second victory in the tournament came in 1936 when it was already renamed as the Latvian Cup. However the most important cup victory for Riga Vanderer is considered the one it achieved in 1938 when 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 ...
was already a very prestigious tournament in which participated all the best Latvian football clubs. In the autumn of 1938 the club changed its name from the foreign-sounding Vanderer to the Latvian Rīgas Vilki ("''Riga Wolves''"), in short – RV.
The main problem for RV for several years in the 1930s was lack of a reliable first choice goalkeeper after Jurgens had left it. Degners, Zakss, Strautmanis, Katlaps, Jūlijs Lindenbergs (a former national team goalkeeper) were tried but none of them proved to be good enough. That changed in 1936 when
Jānis Bebris
Jānis Anatolijs Bebris (28 July 1917 – 2 May 1969) was a Latvian footballer and ice hockey player. He was the main goalkeeper of Latvia national football team in the closing years of the 1930s, and represented Latvia at the 1936 Winter Olympi ...
from
Union Riga
Union Riga was a football club established in Riga in 1907 and the second oldest club of the country after the Riga ''British Football Club''. It was the winner of the Riga football league in 1910. In the period of independence of Latvia between ...
joined the club, thus filling the weakest position in the Vanderer squad. The best goalscorers for RV in the second half of the 1930s were Hugo Vītols and
Alfrēds Verners
Alfrēds Verners (1 January 1912, Riga – 31 December 1973, USA) was a Latvian footballer and ice hockey player who played 19 matches for the Latvian national football team in the 1920s and 1930s.
Biography
Verners began playing both football ...
Alberts Šeibelis
Alberts Šeibelis (26 December 1906 – 12 April 1972) was a Latvian footballer, one of the most popular Latvian footballers in the era before World War II. In 54 matches for Latvia he scored 14 goals
Biography
Šeibelis was born in the provinci ...
(the latter spent a couple years with
V. Ķuze
''V.'' is a satirical postmodern novel and the debut novel of Thomas Pynchon, published on March 18, 1963. It describes the exploits of a discharged U.S. Navy sailor named Benny Profane, his reconnection in New York with a group of pseudo-bohe ...
before it was disbanded). The most long-lasting member of Vanderer was
Ādolfs Sīmanis
Ādolfs Sīmanis (11 March 1909 – 10 September 1979) was a Latvian football defender, with the longest career as a player with Riga Vanderer.
Biography
Sīmanis came from the Latvian countryside and when he joined the newly founder Riga Va ...
who played for the club from its very first days until 1940.
Soviet Union
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 ...
there were major changes in the sports club structure in Latvia and most of the former clubs were disbanded, and RV was one of those. Its footballers joined different newly founded clubs of the Soviet system: RDKA Riga (
Jānis Bebris
Jānis Anatolijs Bebris (28 July 1917 – 2 May 1969) was a Latvian footballer and ice hockey player. He was the main goalkeeper of Latvia national football team in the closing years of the 1930s, and represented Latvia at the 1936 Winter Olympi ...
),
FK Dinamo Riga FK or fk may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Flyer Killer, fictional automated robots in the ''Terminator'' film franchise
* Fox Kids, a former American children's television programming block
* Funky Kong, a video game character
Place
* F ...
(
Ādolfs Sīmanis
Ādolfs Sīmanis (11 March 1909 – 10 September 1979) was a Latvian football defender, with the longest career as a player with Riga Vanderer.
Biography
Sīmanis came from the Latvian countryside and when he joined the newly founder Riga Va ...
),
Spartaks Rīga
Spartaks Rīga is a defunct Soviet Union, Soviet Latvian football (soccer), football Football clubs in Latvia, club. It was founded in 1945 and its manager was the popular Juris Rēdlihs (Raiskums).
Team history
The team played in the Soviet Lat ...
(
Alberts Šeibelis
Alberts Šeibelis (26 December 1906 – 12 April 1972) was a Latvian footballer, one of the most popular Latvian footballers in the era before World War II. In 54 matches for Latvia he scored 14 goals
Biography
Šeibelis was born in the provinci ...
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 ...
RV was restored in 1941 by the German occupation forces and in 1942 the club competed again in the
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 ...
championship. The restored Vanderer squad contained most of its former stars including Bebris, Šeibelis, Juris Skadiņš and future
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 ...
coach Vadims Ulbergs. Only the top four teams from the Riga tournament qualified to play 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 ...
and RV was the first on the wrong side of the line. RV returned to the higher league in 1943 but it wasn't unable to compete with stronger sides any more. In 1944 when the war interrupted the football tournament RV was in the last place in the Latvian league.
When the Soviet army re-entered the territory of Latvia in 1944 RV was disbanded the second and final time.
Honours
*
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 ...
:
**Runners-up: 2 (1932, 1934)
*
Riga Football Cup
Riga Football Cup () was a knockout tournament held in Latvian football from 1910 to 1913 and then from 1925 to 1936. Clubs from cities other than Riga were allowed to participate in the tournament from 1925. In 1937 it was replaced by the Latvia ...
:
**Winners: 2 (1934, 1936)
*
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 ...
:
**Winners: 1 (1938)
Managerial history
*
Karl Kurz
Karl Kurz (born 21 November 1898; died 26 November 1933 in Basel, Switzerland) was an Austrian football player and manager.
Playing career Club
Kurz played mostly as a winger but by the end of his career he had been deployed as a central midfield ...
Voldemārs Plade
Voldemārs Plade (sometimes also called Valdis Plade; 24 December 1900 – 27 January 1961) was a Latvian football forward and manager, the most notable of the four Plade brothers who played for the Latvia national football team. He was born ...