FK Jūrnieks

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FK Jūrnieks was a Latvian football club based in Riga. It became defunct in 1997.

[edit] History

The club was founded in 1962 as KBRR. It debuted in the Latvian league with a fifth place finish, in 1963 it won the silver medals in the league, the following year the club's name was changed to KRR. Until 1967 the club finished in the upper half of the league every year.

In 1968 the club was renamed to FK Jūrnieks, the name that it had in its most glorious years. In 1970 it won the Latvian Cup for the first time by beating VEF Rīga. In 1972 in addition to the second cup victory Jūrnieks also won its first (and only) Latvian league title. In those years the club was coached by M.Titarenko.

However after 1972 Jūrnieks failed remain on of the top football clubs in the Latvian league. Never again would it win medals of any sorts in the league, in the Latvian Cup it also never reached the finals again. From 1973 to 1991 it was a middle class team that hardly could compete with clubs like Torpedo Rīga, Elektrons Rīga, Enerģija Rīga, Ķīmiķis Daugavpils and VEF Rīga. In 1991 Vjaceslavs Fanduls who also played ice hockey for Dinamo Riga played with Jūrnieks and even scored several goals.

During the Soviet years it was a common praxis for former professionals from the Soviet league to continue playing in partly amateur local competitions. The most famous FK Jūrnieks player without a doubt was Jurijs Andrejevs who later went on to become the head coach of Latvia national football team. The best goalscorers in the clubs history are Jaroslavs Petrovs and Jevgēņijs Samoiļenko both of whom scored more than 100 goals in the Latvian league.

After the 1991 season which Jūrnieks finished in the 14th position it lost its place in the top Latvian league and was renamed to Decemviri. In 1992 it won the 1. liga tournament and earned a promotion to Virslīga but it refused from playing there because of financial difficulties and disappeared for a year completely. In 1994 it was back in 1. liga again as FK Jūrnieks, in 1995 it won the 1.liga tournament and earned promotion to Virslīga. The 1996 Virslīga season gave Jūrnieks little to cheer about - 10th place from 10 clubs and relegation. In this year Andrejs Prohorenkovs made his debut with Jūrnieks. In 1997 it played again in 1. liga and after the season it went bankrupt.