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FK Ventspils is a Latvian Virsliga football team. The club's home ground is the 3,200 capacity Ventspils Olimpiskais Stadions in Ventspils, Latvia. In total, FK Ventspils have won two league titles and four Latvian Cups. At the end of the 2006 and 2007 seasons, they became Virsliga champions.
[edit] History
FK Ventspils was founded in 1997 with the merger of two former Ventspils clubs - FK Venta and FK Nafta. Its predecessor Venta was one of the leading clubs in the Latvian league in 1960s.
[edit] FK Venta
In 1963 Ventspils gained a place and rights to play in Latvian championship Virsliga. The next major achievement for "Venta" came in 1967, when it won the Latvian Cup. In 1969 "Venta" were champions of Latvia, in that season "Venta" got 43 points, 20 matches won, 3 drawn and 3 lost. In 1970s the team lost its positions, in 1980s lost its financial support and became defunct for some years. In 1994 Venta returned to 1. liga but after the season many players left the club as FK Nafta was formed. Until the merger Venta played in 1. liga.
[edit] FK Nafta
FK Nafta was formed in 1995, in the first season the club won its 2nd league division and earned a promotion to the 1st league. In its only season there the club finished higher than FK Venta. After the season the teams merged to form FK Ventspils
[edit] FK Ventspils
The history of the current FK Ventspils started in 1997 with the merger of Venta and Nafta. Since that time FK Ventspils has become one of the strongest Latvian clubs and it has won Virslīga in both 2006 and 2007.
Before that in 2003 FK Ventspils won the Latvian Cup for the first time . Also in 2004 and in 2005 FK Ventspils won the trophy, but only managed to finish second or third in the Latvian first division championship (Virsliga.) Finally in 2006 Roman Grigorshuk, the head coach from Ukraine, took the team to the league championship. Before him, the team was managed by Russian coach Boris Sinicin, an English coach Paul Anthony Ashworth, a Lithuanian coach Šauļus Širmalis and a local Latvian coach, Sergejs Semjonovs.
FK Ventspils has also made it's mark in UEFA Cup history. They debuted in the Intertoto cup in 1999, when they beat Norwegian club Vålerenga over two legs. After that FK Ventspils only participated in the UEFA Cup, playing against a number of major clubs such as German side VfB Stuttgart, Norwegian side Rosenborg B.K., Danish club Brøndby IF and the English club Newcastle F.C.. The draw in the away match against Newcastle (0:0) could be counted as FK Ventspils highest achievement after the LMT Virslīga 2006 championship win. FK Ventspils participated in the UEFA Champions League for the first time in 2007.
[edit] Current squad
[edit] First-team squad
As of March 20, 2008
[edit] Reserves squad
| No. |
|
Position |
Player |
|
 |
DF |
Vitālijs Stols |
|
|
DF |
Sergejs Saleiko |
|
|
DF |
Dmitrijs Kuzmins |
|
|
DF |
Visvaldis Ignatans |
|
|
GK |
Sergejs Diguļovs |
|
|
FW |
Pāvels Hohlovs |
|
|
MF |
Mihails Rjumšins |
|
|
MF |
Artūrs Zjuzins |
|
|
MF |
Mihails Rjumšins |
|
|
FW |
Deniss Babuļs |
|
|
|
Deniss Kuzmickis |
|
|
| No. |
|
Position |
Player |
|
 |
|
Vladislavs Krjučkovs |
|
|
|
Mihails Kuznecovs |
|
|
|
Rodions Eļcaninovs |
|
|
|
Vladimirs Mukins |
|
|
|
Vitalijs Barinovs |
|
|
|
Bogdans Onišuks |
|
|
|
Danila Vasiļjevs |
|
|
|
Ervins Ziemelis |
|
|
|
Daniels Calkovskis |
|
|
|
Ģirts Zalkovskis |
|
|
|
Aleksejs Tarasovs |
|
[edit] Famous players
[edit] Managers
Figures correct as of July 19, 2007.
- 1997-1998
Sergei Borovski
- 1998 Sauļus Cekanavičus
- 1999-2000 Boris Sinicin
- 2000 Sauļus Cekanavičus
- 2001-2003
Paul Ashworth
- 2003-2004
Sauļus Širmelis
- 2005 Sergejs Semjonovs
- 2005-
Roman Grigorshuk
[edit] Honours
[edit] Participation in UEFA cups
[edit] Participation in Latvian Championships
- 2007 - champions
- 2006 - champions
- 2005 - 3rd
- 2004 - 3rd
- 2003 - 3rd
- 2002 - 2nd
- 2001 - 2nd
- 2000 - 2nd
- 1999 - 3rd
- 1998 - 3rd
- 1997 - 4th
[edit] External links
