Aleksandrs Starkovs

Football manager infobox


playername = Aleksandrs Starkovs
fullname =
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1955|7|26
cityofbirth = Madona
countryofbirth = Latvia, Soviet Union
currentclub = | Latvia
position = Striker (retired)
years = 1973–1975 1975–1977 1977–1978 1978–1989
clubs = RPI Madona FK Daugava Rīga FC Dinamo Moscow FK Daugava Rīga
caps(goals) = 303 {110}
managerclubs = FK Daugava Rīga (assistant) Latvia U21 Skonto FC Latvia (assistant) Latvia Spartak Moscow Skonto FC (sporting director) Latvia
manageryears = 1990-1993 1992-1994 1993-2004 1995-2001 2001-2004 2004-2006 2006-2007 2007-

Aleksandrs Starkovs or Aleksandr Starkov (born July 26, 1955 in Madona, Latvia) is a Latvian-Russian football coach and a former footballer. As a manager Starkovs used to coach Skonto FC and Spartak Moscow.

Playing biography

Starkovs started playing football in Madona where he played for the local Olimpija Madona playing for which he was selected the best forward of the 1969 Latvia "Leather ball" tournament. In 1975 Starkovs joined FK Daugava Rīga. In 1978 Starkovs went to FC Dynamo Moscow but it wasn't the right team for him, so soon Starkovs was back in Riga. However his best years were still to come - in 1980s Starkovs was one of the best snipers of the Soviet first league, scoring over a hundred goals for Daugava.

In November 2003, to celebrate UEFA's Jubilee, he was selected as the Golden Player of Latvia by the Latvian Football Federation as their most outstanding player of the past 50 years. [http://www.uefa.com/uefa/news/Kind=256/newsId=130150.html]

Coaching career

As a team manager Starkovs made his name with Skonto FC which he brought to innumerable Latvian championships. He also worked with Latvia national under-21 football team and in 2001 he was appointed the general manager of Latvian national team. He took over the Latvian national team after its disastrous performance in 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifiers and lead the team to its biggest success ever, qualifying for Euro 2004 with a victory over World Cup bronze medalist Turkey.After his success as the national team coach, he joined Spartak Moscow winning the silver medal of the Russian league in 2005, but in April 2006 he was forced to quit due to total obstruction from the team's fans and a conflict with former team captain Dmitri Alenichev.

Starkovs returned to Riga and in 2007 took over the Latvian national team which was struggling under Jurijs Andrejevs.

References

* [http://rus.spartak.com/usr/news/item.asp?id=53151 Spartak terminates Starkovs' contract]
* [http://www.uefa.com/uefa/history/associationweeks/association=56558/newsId=181431.html UEFA.com - Latvia's Golden Player]