Vīts Rimkus (born 21 June 1973) is a Latvian former professional

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 lea ...

who played as a striker.

Club career

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 ...

, Vīts Rimkus started his career in 1993 with Pārdaugava Rīga, scoring twice in 14 league appearances. After a promising start youngster was transferred to DAG Rīga in 1994. He played 15 league games for the team and scored three goals that season. He kept changing clubs and the next season was spent with another club from

, Amstrig Rīga. The 1995 season turned out to be a loud start of his career as he managed to net eight times in 26 matches. Several offers to go abroad appeared and the player chose to move to Switzerland, signing a contract with

FC Winterthur FC Winterthur is a Swiss football club based in Winterthur, Canton of Zürich. They play in the Swiss Super League, the first tier of Swiss football, and appeared regularly in the Nationalliga A during the 20th century. Their home is the Stad ...

. Scoring eight goals in ten matches that season, he moved to Germany in 1996, signing for 1. FC Nürnberg. Despite the loud boom in Switzerland, Rimkus could not prove himself in Nürnberg, so he was given away to another German club,

Erzgebirge Aue Fußball Club Erzgebirge Aue e.V., commonly known as simply FC Erzgebirge Aue or Erzgebirge Aue (), is a German football club based in Aue-Bad Schlema, Saxony. The former East German side was a founding member of the 3. Liga in 2008–09, ...

. Ten matches with no goals made him return to Latvia then. In 1998, he was signed by

Skonto Riga Skonto FC was a Latvian professional 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 often provided the cor ...

. After a really successful season the player was given away to FK Valmiera, where he played for two years, showing great performance. In 2001

FK Ventspils FK Ventspils was a Latvian professional football club based at Ventspils Olimpiskais Stadions in Ventspils. It was one of the most prominent football clubs in the country. The club played in the Latvian Virslīga since 1997. It folded in July ...

signed Rimkus for free and had him playing there until 2004. Scoring 70 goals in 100 matches, he attracted attention from many Russian clubs and was signed by

FC Rostov FC Rostov () is a Russian professionalism in association football, professional football club based in Rostov-on-Don. The club competes in the Russian Premier League, playing their home matches at the Rostov Arena. History Soviet era (1930-199 ...

in 2005. Staying goalless in nine games he was soon released and he returned to FK Ventspils. In the next five seasons, as a player of FK Ventspils, Rimkus scored 66 league goals in 109 matches. In 2009, he left the club after rumors about betting on his own team results, but nothing was proved in the end, and later it turned out to be a serious conflict with the board of the club. In 2010 Rimkus moved to Lithuania, signing a one-year contract with

FK Ekranas Panevėžio Ekranas is a Lithuanian football club, from the city of Panevėžys. It won 7 top-tier champion and 5 national cup titles throughout its existence. History The club was founded in 1964 and for 24 years competed in the top tier of L ...

. He became the highest scorer of the team that season with 15 goals in 26 matches respectively, just one goal behind the top scorer of the league Povilas Lukšys. After the season Rimkus moved to Cyprus, signing a half-season contract with the

Cypriot Fourth Division The Cypriot Fourth Division () was the fourth tier Association football, football league competition in Cyprus, ran by the Cyprus Football Association. Each year, the top finishing teams of the league were promoted to the Cypriot Third Division, an ...

club Finikas Ayias Marinas Chrysochous. In July 2011 he returned to Latvia and signed a contract with 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 ...

newcomers

FC Jūrmala FC Jūrmala was a Latvian association football, football club from Jūrmala, founded in 2008. They last played in the Latvian First League. The home ground was Sloka Stadium in Jūrmala with capacity of 5,000 people. Until 2015, FC Jūrmala was o ...

. Despite joining in mid-season, with ten goals in 18 games he became the team's highest scorer in the league. In March 2012 Rimkus was signed by the Latvian Higher League newcomers Spartaks Jūrmala, but after just playing one match he was released. In January 2013 Rimkus joined the

Latvian First League The Latvian First League () is the second tier of football in Latvia and is organised by the Latvian Football Federation. Since 2021, its full name is Nākotnes Līga (''Future League''). History The league was founded together with other Latv ...

club FB Gulbene. With 20 goals in 23 matches during the 2013 season Rimkus became his club's second best top scorer. Despite Rimkus scoring a goal in the promotion/relegation play-offs, his team lost to FS METTA/Latvijas Universitāte 5–2 on aggregate and failed to secure a place in the Latvian Higher League for the 2014 season. Prior to the 2014 Latvian First League season Rimlus moved to AFA Olaine. Aged 40, he scored four goals in the first three league appearances for the club, but then left the team turning to playing indoor football. Before the start of the

2016 Latvian First League The 2016 Latvian First League (referred to as the komanda.lv Pirmā līga for sponsorship reasons) started on 2 April 2016 and ended on 11 November 2016. League table External links The First League on the Latvian Football Federation website< ...

season Rimkus returned to association football at the age of 42, joining

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 ...

. Throughout the season Rimkus participated in 19 league matches, scoring 13 goals.

International career

Rimkus has played 73 international matches and scored 11 goals for the Latvia national team. He debuted in 1995, and played at

Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. Th ...

Personal life

Rimkus is of Lithuanian descent.

Honours

* CIS Cup top goalscorer: 2009 (shared)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rimkus, Vits 1973 births Living people Footballers from Riga Latvian men's footballers Men's association football forwards Latvia men's international footballers UEFA Euro 2004 players Latvian Higher League players Russian Premier League players FC Winterthur players 1. FC Nürnberg players FC Erzgebirge Aue players Skonto FC players FK Ventspils players FC Rostov players FK Ekranas players FC Jūrmala players FK Spartaks Jūrmala players FB Gulbene players AFA Olaine players Latvian expatriate men's footballers Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Lithuania Expatriate men's footballers in Lithuania