Voldemārs Plade (sometimes also called Valdis Plade; 24 December 1900 – 27 January 1961)
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 ...
forward and manager, the most notable of the four Plade brothers 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 ...
. He was born 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 ...
.
Plade was one of five football playing brothers. In his youth he played with
Union Riga and
Āgenskalns sports club; but he became widely known in 1921 when playing for
Ķeizarmežs. Alongside his brothers
Kurts Plade,
Teodors Plade and
Alfrēds Plade, who all also played with Ķeizarmežs, Plade won Latvian league titles in 1922 and 1923. Unlike his brothers, Plade proved to be a long-lasting force in Latvian football and was a national team regular from 1923 to 1929, capping 16 international appearances and scoring 9 goals. In a match against
Lithuania
Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...
at the 1929
Baltic Cup, Plade scored three goals for Latvia from passes from the rising star
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 ...
. Plade represented Latvia at the
1924 Summer Olympics
The 1924 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the VIII Olympiad () and officially branded as Paris 1924, were an international multi-sport event held in Paris, France. The opening ceremony was held on 5 July, but some competitions had al ...
.
After the dissolution of Ķeizarmežs in 1925, Plade joined
RFK with which he played for two years. After two years with RFK Plade joined the newly founded
Riga Vanderer with which he occasionally played until 1935.
As early as 1933 Plade also took up coaching, working 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 ...
,
Universitātes Sports,
Riga Vanderer and
LAS Riga.
From at least 1936 he also appeared regularly as a football referee.
In 1939 Plade as a
Baltic German
Baltic Germans ( or , later ) are Germans, ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950), their resettlement in 1945 after the end ...
repatriated to
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 ...
. He visited
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 ...
in December 1942 before returning to the
Eastern Front of
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 ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Plade, Voldemars
1900 births
1961 deaths
Footballers from Riga
People from Riga county
Latvian people of Baltic German descent
Latvian men's footballers
Latvia men's international footballers
Footballers at the 1924 Summer Olympics
Olympic footballers for Latvia
Latvian football managers
Men's association football forwards