FK Daugava Rīga

Football club infobox
clubname = FSK Daugava 90


fullname = Futbola Sporta Klubs Daugava 90
nickname =
founded = 2005
ground = Riga, Latvia
capacity =
chairman =
manager = |flagicon|Latvia Vladimirs Beļajevs
league = 1. liga
season =
position =

FK Daugava 90 is a Latvian football club located in Riga and currently playing in Latvian 1. līga. Formerly under the name Daugava the team was the headliner of Latvian football where played most of the countries top players but with the collapse of the Soviet Union the team ceased to exist. It can be debated whether "FK Daugava 90" or Daugava Daugavpils could be considered successor to Daugava and Pārdaugava of 1940s-1990s.

History

"Daugava"' was founded in 1944. It had its debut in the Latvian championship in 1946 by finishing 5th among 8 teams. In 1948 Daugava joined FC Dinamo Rīga as the second team from Latvia to play in the Soviet First League. For the 1949 season thanks to a changes in the tournament system Daugava was promoted to the Soviet Top League where it managed to remain for 4 seasons until being relegated in 1952.

The following years brought more and more disappointments for Daugava with the team failing to leave an impression among Class B squads. However in 1960 the team once again had the opportunity to play against the top Soviet teams - thanks to another decision from above. The first season there was by far the best - the 12th position among 22 teams, including 2 wins against the eventual league winners - Torpedo Moscow. This season was one of the best for Georgijs Smirnovs, it also was one of the best for the Lithuanian goalkeeper Vladas Tučkus who had won the Soviet Championship in 1956 with Spartak Moscow but had trouble recapturing his previous form afterwards.

However the next 2 seasons in Class A were less successful and in 1962 Daugava was relegated back to Class B (although it was officially renamed to Class A Second Group, essentially it was the second league). In 1967 Daugava was very close to promotion to Class A - it finished second after Dynamo Kirovabad and a win with a four goal difference in the last match would have put Daugava first, however a missed penalty from Gunārs Ulmanis and a rather bleak second half of the last match didn't let that happen.

The failure to get a promotion to the top division brought changes to the Daugava team with the results getting worse from year to year and in 1971 Daugava was relegated to the Second League (third division of Soviet football) where it joined another Latvian team - Zvejnieks Liepāja. Climbing back the first league proved to be a tough task - despite being close to the top every season only in 1975 Daugava managed to get a promotion. That season saw the emergence of Sergey Shavlo who later became a key player for Spartak Moscow. However after just a year Daugava was back in the second division and remained there until 1981 when under the management of Jānis Skredelis it proved itself significantly stronger than the rest of the second division squads.

The first years back in the first division brought mixed results until in 1985 Daugava won the 1st division and was as close to returning to the top league as ever. But it wasn't enough - as the top division was shortened after the 1985 season Daugava had to participate in a playoff tournament where it finished last despite a draw and a win against CSKA Moscow. The next season Daugava was again close to promotion but lost several points because of the "draws limit" (no points were awarded for drawn games for teams which had reached the draws limit). Financial difficulties had Daugava relegated to the second division in 1989, in 1991 the team was back in the first division under the name of "Pārdaugava" and finished last there. Since it was also the end for the Soviet Union, Pārdaugava joined the Latvian Virslīga. In 1995 with the bankruptcy of its sponsors Pārdaugava ceased to exist.

Another team under the name of Daugava Rīga appeared in 1996 but it can't be really considered a successor to the "original" Daugava team as it came to existence in the form of a name change to former Torpedo Rīga, but it also went bankrupt in 2000. Later the name of Daugava emerged again in its current status as a youth squad as it doesn't have the original Daugava logo and isn't an official successor to Pārdaugava either. In 2007 FC Ditton from Daugavpils changed its name to FK Daugava Daugavpils and took up the old Daugava logo, still it could be debated which of the new Daugava's should be considered the successor to the old one.

Players

First-team squad

Notable players

* Vladas Tučkus
* Laimonis Laizāns
* Raimonds Laizāns
* Oļegs Karavajevs
* Voldemārs Sudmalis
* Alfons Jēgers
* Vilnis Straume
* Georgijs Smirnovs
* Gunārs Ulmanis
* Reinis Zālītis
* Jānis Gilis
* Roberts Skadats
* Sergey Shavlo
* Aleksandrs Starkovs
* Jevgeņijs Miļevskis
* Jurijs Ševļakovs
* Jurijs Popkovs
* Aivars Drupass