Vladimirs Babičevs (born 22 April 1968) is 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 ...

manager and a former footballer. Currently, he is the manager of the

Latvia national under-19 football team The Latvia national under-19 football team is the national under-19 football team of Latvia and is controlled by the Latvian Football Federation. The team competes in the UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship, held every year. Coa ...

. Babičevs has played 51 matches for

internationally.

Club playing career

His first club was 9. maijs where he played under

Juris Docenko The Juris (also ''Juri'', ''Yuri'') were a tribe of South American Indigenous people, formerly occupying the country between the rivers Içá (lower Putumayo) and Yapura, north-western Brazil. In ancient days they were the most powerful tribe of ...

. In 1987 Babičevs joined

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 ...

for which he played 2 matches in the second Soviet league. In 1988, he switched to

RAF Jelgava RAF Jelgava was a Latvian football club based in Jelgava. The foundation of the club is considered in 1988 and for the first two years there were two teams of RAF Jelgava which in 1990 merged into one. One of those played in the lower Soviet leag ...

. With RAF he played for four seasons in different divisions of Soviet football, and in 1992 – in Latvian

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 1992 RAF played a golden match against

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 ...

and lost 2:3. After the season, Babičevs switched to the side of the victors – Skonto. With Skonto came the most successful years of Vladimirs' career – the club was by far the strongest in

and Babičevs soon became one of the key players for Skonto. In 1994, he was the best goalscorer in the Latvian league with 14 goals and was selected the best forward in the league. In the mid-1990s Babičevs' switched to midfield and in 1997 he was selected the best midfielder in the Latvian league. In 1997 Babičevs was the only Skonto player to score against

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

qualifiers. In 1999, Babičevs got to play rather little – both because of competition and of his injuries. Before the 2000 season Babičevs together with several other Skonto players who the club didn't count with for the upcoming season left for

Policijas FK Policijas FK or FK Policija (later known as PFK Daugava) was a Latvian football club based in Riga that played in the Virslīga from 1999 to 2002. History The football club of the Latvian police forces was founded in 1994. Until 1998 it played ...

. In the middle of the season, Babičevs joined the only foreign club of his career – Torpedo-ZIL in

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but he didn't play in any matches for the club. In 2001 Babičevs joined

FK Rīga FK Rīga was a Latvian football club based in Riga. They played in the Virslīga, the top division in Latvian football. They played their home games at Latvijas Universitātes Stadions. In 1999, its first year of existence, the club won the La ...

. In 2003, he switched to another new club – FK Jūrmala.

National team playing career

Babičevs made his national team debut on 2 June 1993 as

lost 1:2 at home against

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 ...

. On 15 November 1994 he scored his first goal for Latvia as in a rather poor match it beat

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (, ; ; ), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein ( ), is a Landlocked country#Doubly landlocked, doubly landlocked Swiss Standard German, German-speaking microstate in the Central European Alps, between Austria in the east ...

1:0. In his international career Babičevs wasn't as much of a goalscorer as playing in different clubs – over 51 matches for Latvia he scored 4 goals. His last match for Latvia came in 1999 as it drew 2:2 away against

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

Coaching career

In the middle of the 2006 season, Babičevs was signed as head coach of FK Jūrmala but his contract wasn't renewed at the end of the season as the club failed to finish in the 4th place in the Latvian league. On 23 January 2008, it was announced that Babičevs, who after leaving FK Jūrmala was director of

JFK Olimps JFK Olimps was a Latvian football club, playing in the top division of Latvian football. The club was from the city of Riga. According to a study from January 2011, the club was the youngest team in Europe, with an average age of 19.02 years. ...

, was appointed an assistant coach for the club. From 2008 to 2011 he was the manager of

FK Jūrmala-VV 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 ...

once again. In September 2011 he left the club as the results were poor. In March 2012 Babičevs was appointed as the manager of

Honours

National Team * Baltic Cup :*

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 ...

Club Team * Champion of Latvia (7): :* 1993–1999 *

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 (3): :* 1995, 1997, 1998 Individual * Best Forward in Latvian League (1): :* 1994 * Best Midfielder in Latvian League (1): :* 1997 * Virsliga Top Scorer (1): :* 1994

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Babicevs, Vladimirs Latvian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Latvian football managers FK Liepājas Metalurgs players Latvian Higher League players Skonto FC players FK Rīga players FC Torpedo Moscow players Latvian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Latvia men's international footballers 1968 births Living people FK Daugava (2003) managers Soviet men's footballers Latvian people of Russian descent FC Moscow players