Skonto Riga

Skonto Riga is a football (soccer) club from Latvia.

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Skonto FC is a Latvian Association football club, founded in 1991. Skonto Riga plays at the Skonto Stadions in Riga. Skonto won the Virsliga in the first 14 seasons of the league's existence, and often provides the core of the Latvia national football team.

History

Skonto FC was founded in 1991. 14 years in a row it won the Virsliga title, and only in the season 2005 it finished second after FK Liepājas Metalurgs, exchanging the gold medal for the silver one. In 2006, Skonto FC finished third in a close contest between FK Liepājas Metalurgs and FK Ventspils. Skonto FC players are among sevenfold Latvian Cup winners, acquiring the Cup most recently in 2002.

Skonto FC was by no means among the favourites in the first years after its establishment, and the champion’s title had to be won in a fierce competition both with FK Olimpija from Liepāja and RAF Jelgava from Jelgava – even then an additional game was required since the regular championship in 1992 was insufficient to determine the winner of the season. In the same 1992 season, Skonto FC made its debut in the UEFA Champions League by winning the best Faroe Islands team KÍ Klaksvík. After the season, the coach replacement was made and Aleksandrs Starkovs took the post instead of Marks Zahodins.

For the following 10 years in the Domestic League none of the rivals were able to offer considerable resistance to FC Skonto. For two seasons in turn Skonto Riga did not lose a single match, surpassing the closest rivals by more than 20 points in the final standings, ensuring the regular title was awarded long before the end of the championship.

During the 1998 season, Skonto FC reached the victory with the biggest gap in goals in its history by crashing FK Valmiera with the score 15-2. During these years Skonto FC rightfully became the basic player source for the Latvia national football team. Māris Verpakovskis, Marians Pahars, Aleksandrs Koļinko, Vitālijs Astafjevs, Igors Stepanovs, Imants Bleidelis, Juris Laizāns, Mihails Zemļinskis, Valentīns Lobaņovs, Andrejs Rubins and many others grew up in Skonto FC.

Exciting battle for the Latvian championship’s title saw its manifestation again in the 2001 season when Skonto FC players had a two point deficit before the final round to the leading team FK Ventspils, and they had to face a tough game in Liepāja against FK Liepājas Metalurgs – Skonto Riga which also was cherishing hopes of becoming the champions. FK Ventspils players didn’t withstand the strain then, whereas Skonto FC showed the spirit of champions.
Over the last seasons FK Liepājas Metalurgs and FK Ventspils has been in close pursuit of Skonto FC players, their attempts in last two years proving to be successful. It has to be noted that in 2004, the head coach, Aleksandrs Starkovs – one of the essential pillars of Skonto Riga - left Skonto FC by accepting the proposal to work in FC Spartak Moscow nine-fold champion team of Russia. The leadership of Skonto Riga was entrusted to Jurijs Andrejevs, his long-term assistant, but after the loss against Rabotnicki, of the Republic of Macedonia, Skopje in the UEFA Champions League qualification tournament, he resigned from the post. Jurijs Andrejevs was replaced by Paul Ashworth, who had previously worked with FK Ventspils, FK Rīga and the Russia’s Russian Premier League club FC Rostov.

The first major victory of Skonto FC players in Euro Cups was gained in 1994, when considering the outcome of two matches they defeated the Scotland club Aberdeen, the former European Supercup winner. Not less significant for Skonto FC was 1999 when it managed to take away the first point in a fixture with prominent London Chelsea F.C., in its home field with draw 0:0. Skonto FC also played against Spain FC Barcelona and F.C. Internazionale Milano.

The defender (football) Mihails Zemļinskis has made 252 appearances, the largest number of matches played in the ranks of Skonto FC during the Virsliga. His 52 games played in Eurocups are also the highest number within the team. Mihails Miholaps has been the best scorer in Skonto FC at all of the times. He has scored 155 goals in 216 Latvia’s championships games, but 18 goals in 38 Eurocup competitions.

In the last two seasons, Skonto FC is becoming younger – experienced players are exchanged by Youth Football centre Skonto trainees - Aleksandrs Cauņa, Ivans Lukjanovs, Raivis Hščanovičs, Deniss Petrenko, Sergejs Kožans, Oļegs Laizāns and others are the names which will appear in this season's club protocols.

Honours

- Virslīga champions (14)
- - 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004

- Latvian Soviet Republic champions (1)
- - 1991

- Latvian football Cup winners (7)
- - 1992, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002

- Latvian football Cup finalists (6)
- - 1991, 1996, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2006

- Livonia Cup winners (3)
- - 2003, 2004, 2005

- Turkmenistan President's Cup finalists (2)
- - 1996, 2009

Participation in Latvian Championships

- Latvian Higher League 2008 - 3rd
- 2007 Virsliga - 4th
- 2006 Virsliga - 3rd
- Latvian Higher League 2005 - 2nd
- Latvian Higher League 2004 - Champions
- Latvian Higher League 2003 - Champions
- Latvian Higher League 2002 - Champions
- Latvian Higher League 2001 - Champions
- Latvian Higher League 2000 - Champions
- Latvian Higher League 1999 - Champions
- Latvian Higher League 1998 - Champions
- Latvian Higher League 1997 - Champions
- Latvian Higher League 1996 - Champions
- Latvian Higher League 1995 - Champions
- Latvian Higher League 1994 - Champions
- Latvian Higher League 1993 - Champions
- Latvian Higher League 1992 - Champions
- Latvian Higher League 1991 - Champions

Europe record

Players

As of 02 July 2009

Famous players

- Marians Pahars
- Māris Verpakovskis
- Aleksandrs Koliņko
- Igors Stepanovs
- Vitalijs Astafjevs
- Andrejs Rubins
- Mihails Zemlinskis
- Andrejs Štolcers
- Edgaras Jankauskas
- Audrius Kšanavičius
- Vladimir Dvalishvili

Skonto coaches

- Marks Zahodins (1991 - 1992)
- Roberto Vincente (1993) Caretaker
- Aleksandrs Starkovs (1993 - 2004)
- Jurijs Andrejevs (2004 - 2005)
- Paul Ashworth (2005 - present)

Dinaburg Daugavpils, Ditton Daugavpils, Dizvanagi, FK Jurmala, FK Riga, FK Ventpils, Futbola Klubs Vindava, Metalurgs Liepaya, Olimps, Skonto Riga