- Gauja Valmiera
Gauja Valmiera was a
Latvia n football fromValmiera that played in the top Latvian league from 1979 to 1993.It was named after the riverGauja . In the 1990s another Valmiera football club -FK Valmiera - was renamed to Gauja.History
Under different names the Valmiera club was playing in the 1st Latvian league for several decades but only in the late 1970s it became known outside its region. In 1978 already by the name Gauja it made its debut in the top Latvian league. Former
Rīgas audums footballerEvgenijs Katajevs was the clubs coach. Local footballers likeValērijs Kuzņecovs ,Dainis Andersons ,Aleksandrs Madājevs andJānis Ozols were the leaders of the Valmiera club. In 1983 Andersons and Ozols joinedDaugava Rīga which played in the 1st Soviet league.After several hard seasons in the top league when sometimes Gauja was near to being relegated in 1985 it won its first medals - it finished 3rd in the league and clubs forward
Jānis Bacis was the best goalscorer in the league. In 1986 and 1988 Gauja also reached theLatvian Cup final. But the biggest success in the history of football in Valmiera came in 1990 when Gauja won the Latvian championship.Modris Zujevs was the best goalscorer in the league in 1990. By then the club was coached by Dainis Andersons who was still an active footballer with the club [ [http://www.dzirkstele.lv/archive/article.html?xml_id=57685 Interview with Katajevs] (in Latvian)] .In the newly independent Latvia Gauja started to struggle - in 1992 it finished 10th from 12, but in 1993 the club experienced a catastrophe - it lost 17 from 18 matches in the league (mostly - because of near bankruptcy). From 1994 to 1997 the club played in the second Latvian league, then - became completely defunct.
In 2003 former
FK Valmiera was renamed to Gauja thus giving a club under the formerly popular name another life inVirsliga (FK Valmiera was not a new name of the previous Gauja, as both clubs played in different Latvian leagues in mid 1990s). But after the season the club withdrew from Virsliga because of financial limitations and also took up its former name FK Valmiera.Honours
* Latvia top league winners: 1990
Notable former players
*
Dainis Andersons
*Jānis Bacis
*Modris Zujevs References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
