Aleksandrs Vanags (21 March 1919 – 1986), also known as Alexandre Vanags, was a Latvian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player. At international level, he represented the

Latvia national football team The Latvia national football team () represents Latvia in men's international Association football, football, and is controlled by the Latvian Football Federation, the governing body for football in Latvia. They have never qualified for the FIF ...

, after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he played football in France.

Biography

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

, Vanags made his debut with Universitātes Sports before moving to

ASK Rīga ASK Rīga is a former professional basketball club that was based in Riga, Latvia. "ASK" stood for "Armijas Sporta Klubs" (in English: Army Sports Club). History BK Rīga was then founded in 2004 as an attempt to revive the defunct club ...

. He scored 9 goals for

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

in 18 matches (from 1937 to 1939). In addition to football Vanags also played basketball for Latvia on an international level, he was silver medalist of

EuroBasket 1939 The 1939 FIBA European Championship, commonly called FIBA EuroBasket 1939, was the third FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship, held by FIBA. Eight national teams affiliated with the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) took par ...

. In 1942 during German occupation of Latvia Vanags as a player with ASK won the Latvian league title. After the Second World War Vanags settled in France where he joined

RC Strasbourg Racing Club de Strasbourg Alsace, commonly known as RC Strasbourg (, ; RCS) or simply just Racing, is a French professional association football club founded in 1906 and based in the city of Strasbourg, Alsace. It became a professional club in ...

. For two seasons he played also with

FC Nancy Football club de Nancy was a French association football team playing in the city of Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle. The team was founded in 1901 and dissolved in 1968. They won Ligue 2 once. Honours * Coupe de France The Coupe de France (), ...

but then returned to Strasbourg. In 140 matches with RC Strasbourg Vanags scored 10 goals. In 1951 Vanags won the

Coupe de France The Coupe de France (), also known in English language, English as the French Cup or less commonly as the France Cup, is the premier Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in French football organised by the French Football Fed ...

with RC Strasbourg.Vanags' profile on the RC Strasbourg website
/ref> Later Vanags took up coaching football and basketball.

References

External links

* 1919 births 1986 deaths Footballers from Riga Men's association football midfielders Ligue 1 players RC Strasbourg Alsace players FC Nancy players Latvian men's footballers Latvian men's basketball players Latvia men's international footballers Basketball players from Riga Latvian expatriate basketball people in France Latvian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in France {{Latvia-footy-bio-stub