Voldemārs Žins

Voldemārs Žins (1905 - ?) was a Latvian footballer who played for Olimpija Liepāja and Latvia national football team.

Biography

Žins began playing football with LNJS Liepāja in the early 1920s but he be became really popular in Liepāja after he moved to Olimpija Liepāja in 1925. Olimpija was rapidly becoming one of the best football clubs in Latvia then with footballers like Rūdolfs Kronlaks, Ludvigs Dudaņecs, Kārlis Tīls and other future national team players in their top form. In 1925 Žins scored two goals as Olimpija devastated with 7-0 Cēsu SB in the final match for the title of best provincial football club in Latvia.

Playing with Olimpija Žins won the Latvian Higher League five times and became a three-time winner of the Riga Football Cup (the predecessor to the Latvian Cup). In 1927 Žins played for the first time for the Latvia national football team and in his very first match for it his scored three goals becoming the first Latvian footballer to have scored a hattrick in an international match. In total between 1927 and 1932 Žins scored five goals in ten matches for Latvia and his goal tally was best among the Olimpija footballers in the national team [ [http://sport.metalurgs.lv/lat/football/club/about/club.html History of football in Liepāja] ] .

After winning his fifth title with Olimpija in 1936 [ [http://www.periodika.lv/Repository/getFiles.asp?Style=OliveXLib:LowLevelEntityToSaveGifMSIE_LATVIAARCHL&Type=text/html&Locale=latvian-skin-custom&Path=SSP/1936/11/02&ChunkNum=-1&ID=Ar00400 Champions of Latvia - 1936] ] Žins retired from top level football together with another glorious team veteran Rūdolfs Kronlaks [ [http://www.periodika.lv/Default/Skins/LatviaArchL/Client.asp?Skin=LatviaArchL&enter=true&AW=1220618803402&AppName=2 The sorrows of Olimpija] ] . Although Žins was never the leading goalscorer for Olimpija (in his later years he usually scored around five goals in a season) he was always an integral part of the Olimpija attack.

Žins came out of retirement in 1941 when he played with the Tosmare football club.

References