Alfons Novickis was a Latvia

Latvia

Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

n footballer

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

.

Biography

Novickis rose to fame as a great footballing talent aged just 15 when he worked as a paper-boy at a publishing company. His first senior football club was LNJS Riga for which he played in 1926. In 1928 Novickis played with RFK

Rigas FK

Riga FK was a Latvian football club which was founded December 14, 1923. It was the strongest and most popular Latvian football club in 1920s and 1930s, it was also the base team for Latvia national football team in its early years...

 and then joined Riga Vanderer

Riga Vanderer

Riga Vanderer was a Latvian football club that was founded in 1927, disbanded in 1940, restored a year later and disbanded again in 1944.-Founding:...

, the club for which he played the best and last years of his career. On July 27, 1929 Novickis made his international debut for Latvia. In total Novickis played 9 international matches for Latvia national football team

Latvia national football team

The Latvian national football team is controlled by the Latvian Football Federation, the governing body for football in Latvia and represents the country in international football competitions, such as the World Cup and the European Championships. So far, they have never qualified for a FIFA World...

 between 1929 and 1931.

Just as quickly as Novickis' star had risen in Latvian football, he fell down. After a 0-6 loss to Sweden

Sweden national football team

The Swedish national football team represents Sweden in association football and is controlled by the Swedish Football Association, the governing body for Football in Sweden. Sweden's home ground is Råsunda Stadium in Stockholms län and their head coach is Erik Hamrén. Sweden made their first...

 in a friendly match on 26 July 1931 Novickis along with several other Latvian internationals made a bad public appearance under alcohol on the way back to Riga

Riga

Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...

 and as a result of it Novickis and Alberts Tauriņš were disqualified by the Latvian Football Federation

Latvian Football Federation

The Latvian Football Federation is the governing body of football in Latvia based in the capital, Riga. It organises the Latvian football championship , Latvian Football Cup and the Latvia national football team. LFF became a member of FIFA in 1922, but following Latvia's annexation by the Soviet...

for a year.

In the autumn of 1931 Novickis joined the army and on November 3 he committed suicide by shooting himself. It was later speculated that Novickis had killed himself because of some unknown disease and alcohol.