Roberts Skadats
Encyclopedia
Roberts Skadats is a former Latvian football
midfielder
and forward
who played with FK Daugava Rīga
for most of his career.
- at the age of 18 years. His first season he spent with Daugava reserves where he was team leader. Skadats was unhappy with his position in Daugava and was close to leaving the team and joining Zvejnieks Liepāja but the team manager persuaded him that he was counting on Skadats as a future main squad player. And that he indeed became - not only he played 77 matches in 1969-1970 for Daugava but also scored 15 goals (in 1969 he proved that he could become a successor to the Daugava star veteran player - Gunārs Ulmanis
and Georgijs Smirnovs
).
However 1970s were not a great decade both for Daugava (stuck in the third strongest league of Soviet football) and for Skadats. Despite his good technique he never realized his potentially fully because defenders played against him rough and that made Skadats too cautious on the field. He had to leave Daugava at the age of 28 because of a conflict with the general manager. Skadats played for ten more years in the Latvian league for Elektrons but that was a much lower level than that of Daugava. In Elektrons Skadats played together with several other former Daugava footballers - Jānis Dreimanis
, Laimonis Laizāns
and Ilmārs Liepiņš
, winning the Latvian championship and the Latvian Cup several times, in 1979 he was the best goalscorer of the Latvian league.
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...
midfielder
Midfielder
A midfielder is an association football position. Some midfielders play a more defensive role, while others blur the boundaries between midfielders and forwards. The number of midfielders a team uses during a match may vary, depending on the team's formation and each individual player's role...
and forward
Striker
Forwards, also known as strikers, are the players on a team in association football who play nearest to the opposing team's goal, and are therefore principally responsible for scoring goals...
who played with FK Daugava Rīga
FK Daugava Riga
Previously FK Daugava 90 is a Latvian football club located in Riga and currently playing in Latvian First League. Formerly under the name Daugava the team was the headliner of Latvian football where played most of the countries top players but with the collapse of the Soviet Union the team ceased...
for most of his career.
Playing biography
After completing secondary education Skadats was offered to join Daugava - the top football team in LatviaLatvia
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...
- at the age of 18 years. His first season he spent with Daugava reserves where he was team leader. Skadats was unhappy with his position in Daugava and was close to leaving the team and joining Zvejnieks Liepāja but the team manager persuaded him that he was counting on Skadats as a future main squad player. And that he indeed became - not only he played 77 matches in 1969-1970 for Daugava but also scored 15 goals (in 1969 he proved that he could become a successor to the Daugava star veteran player - Gunārs Ulmanis
Gunars Ulmanis
Gunārs Ulmanis was a Latvian football right wing midfielder, one of the most famous Latvian footballers of 1960s.-Biography:...
and Georgijs Smirnovs
Georgijs Smirnovs
Georgijs Smirnovs is a former Latvian footballer and football manager. In 2006 Latvian Football Federation selected Smirnovs as one of the 11 greatest footballers in the first 100 years of football in Latvia.-Biography:...
).
However 1970s were not a great decade both for Daugava (stuck in the third strongest league of Soviet football) and for Skadats. Despite his good technique he never realized his potentially fully because defenders played against him rough and that made Skadats too cautious on the field. He had to leave Daugava at the age of 28 because of a conflict with the general manager. Skadats played for ten more years in the Latvian league for Elektrons but that was a much lower level than that of Daugava. In Elektrons Skadats played together with several other former Daugava footballers - Jānis Dreimanis
Janis Dreimanis
Jānis Dreimanis is a Latvian football manager and a former football defender. In his career he played 115 matches for Daugava Rīga scoring 4 goals.-Playing career:...
, Laimonis Laizāns
Laimonis Laizans
Laimonis Laizāns is a former Soviet Latvian football goalkeeper who played for FK Daugava Rīga and Torpedo Moscow. He is considered one of the best Latvian goalkeepers of all time.-Playing biography:...
and Ilmārs Liepiņš
Ilmars Liepinš
Ilmārs Liepiņš was a Latvian football midfielder who played for 10 years for FK Daugava Rīga.-Biography:Ilmārs Liepiņš came from a football family - his father Ēvalds Liepiņš was a striker for "Daugava" back in 1946-1948 and his brother Juris played for ESR-Enerģija - one of the strongest times in...
, winning the Latvian championship and the Latvian Cup several times, in 1979 he was the best goalscorer of the Latvian league.