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| Career | |
| Position: | Coach |
| Clubs: | RPI (1973-75), Daugava Riga (1975-77), Dynamo Moscou (1977-78), Daugava Riga (1978-89) |
301 matches, 110 goals with Daugava Riga
Clubs: Pardaugava (1991), Daugava-Kompar (1992), Skonto Riga (depuis 1993)
Winner (1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003)
Winner (1995, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002)
Latvian coach of the year (2002, 2003)
Latvia under-21 team: (1992-94)
Latvia assistant coach: (1995 - May 2001)
Coach of Latvia: (since May 2001)
29 matches, 13 wins, 5 draws, 11 defeats, 36 goals scored, 33 conceded
Biography
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| Latvia's players hold up their coach Aleksandrs Starkovs after they qualified against Turkey 15 November 2003, at Inonu stadium in Istanbul. AFP PHOTO/Mustafa Ozer |
Since the launch of the Latvian Championship in 1991 Skonto Riga have won every edition. The cheif architect of this phenomenon has been their coach Aleksandrs Starkovs, who also runs affairs at the thoroughly unexpected Euro 2004 finalist Latvia.
Starkovs has played this double role of club and national coach since May 2001 and is subsequently enjoying double success, dominating the domestic game and qualifying the tiny Baltic state for their first ever appearance at a major tournament.
He took over as Latvia coach shortly after the 2002 World Cup qualifying had started stepping in for the Londoner Gary Johnson, fired after a miserable home draw against San Marino.
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| Euro 2004 Group D coaches (From L to R) Latvian Aleksandrs Starkovs, Dutch Dick Advocaat, Czech Karel Bruckner and German Rudi Voller pose with the European trophy after the draw ceremony of the Euro 2004 football Championship final, 30 November 2003 in Lisbon.The continental competition will be hosted by Portugal from 12 June to 05 July 2004. AFP PHOTO LLUIS GENE |
His influence was far from being immediately apparent as they went on to lose their next three ties too.
Euro 2004 qualifying was far more interesting with a 2-0 home loss to Poland forgotten with away wins at eventual group winners Sweden and revenge over third placed Poland to reach the play-offs as group runners-up.
Latvia then shocked the football world when in the first leg they beat 2002 World Cup semi-finalists Turkey 1-0 in Riga. At 2-0 down in Istanbul three days later it looked like the adventure was all over, but they rallied to earn a historic 2-2 draw and book their ticket to Portugal.
Starkovs has instilled a winning mentality in a side that once took to the park hoping to avoid defeat. He has built a group of realistic athletes and added cherries to that cake in the form of individual talents such as strikers Maris Verpakovskis and Marians Pahars.
He himself was a striker and spent virtually his whole playing career at Daugava Riga, from 1975 to 1989 other than a single season with Dynamo Moscow in 1977-1978.
The Muscovites recruited him after a particularily fine season in which he had scored 26 goals to lead the Latvian capital clubs' charge to promotion to the Soviet top-flight.
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| Portrait taken 17 November 2003 of Aleksandrs Starkovs, coach of Latvian National soccer team, in the ''Skonto'' stadium in Riga .AFP PHOTO/ILMARS ZNOTINS |
In all he scored 110 goals at Riga in 301 matches, ending his playing days in 1989.
He moved into coaching after a training course at Moscow. He was then offered a job with Skonto as assistant coach soon graduating to first team coach and never allowing any of their seven league rivals to win the championship.
He took the role of assistant national coach alongside his hot-seat predecessor Johnson in 1995, taking over the reins in 2001 to guide the nation of 2.4 million people to the finals of a major soccer tournament for the first time. They have nothing to lose in a daunting task as they have been drawn with the Czech Republic, Holland and Germany in the first round.