- Aleksandrs Stankus
Aleksandrs Stankus (1907-1944) was a
Latvia n footballer who played forOlimpija Liepāja andLatvia national football team .Biography
Aleksandrs Stankus had two big passions in his life - football and
ballet . In both of these fields he was quite respected inLiepāja although he never was a really big star in either ballet or football. In football he made his debut with Olimpija at the age of 18 by scoring goals in international friendlies against the champions ofEast Prussia andEstonia .In the first years he played as a central midfielder but later mostly as a right wing forward. He was never as popular as his teammates in attack -
Ludvigs Dudaņecs ,Voldemārs Žins orFricis Dambrēvics although in one season he was the second best goalscorer of his club. In the first half of 1930s Stankus became a regular player with theLatvia national football team for which he made in total 17 appearances. Meanwhile in 11 seasons withOlimpija Liepāja he won 5Latvian Higher League titles (only the really big stars of Olimpija -Kārlis Tīls ,Harijs Lazdiņš andFricis Laumanis held more titles than him), he was also a three time winner of theRiga Football Cup .Stankus was one of the six Olimpija club veterans that left the club in 1936. For two more seasons he played with ASK Riga and completely retired from football in 1938. In 1944 Stankus was drafted in the
Latvian Legion . Stankus was presumably killed in battle inDžūkste in the end of 1944, although he was only declared as missing [ [http://www.kurzemes-vards.lv/?doc=45711 Ballet dancer ir midfield] (Latvian)] .References
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