Alfons Novickis (1906 - 3 November 1931 in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the B ...

) was a

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

Biography

Novickis rose to fame as a great footballing talent aged just 15 when he worked as a paper-boy at a publishing company. His first senior football club was LNJS Riga for which he played in 1926. In 1928 Novickis played with RFK and then joined

Riga Vanderer Riga Vanderer (sometimes written as Wanderer, in later years – Rīgas Vilki, also – RV) was a Latvian football club that was founded in 1927, disbanded in 1940, restored a year later and disbanded again in 1944. History Founding The decis ...

, the club for which he played the best and last years of his career. On 27 July 1929 Novickis made his international debut for Latvia. In total Novickis played 9 international matches for

Latvia national football team The Latvia national football team ( lv, Latvijas futbola izlase) represents Latvia in international football and is controlled by the Latvian Football Federation, the governing body for football in Latvia. They have never qualified for the FI ...

between 1929 and 1931. Just as quickly as Novickis' star had risen in Latvian football, he fell down. After a 0–6 loss to Sweden in a friendly match on 26 July 1931 Novickis along with several other Latvian internationals made a bad public appearance under alcohol on the way back to

and as a result of it Novickis and Alberts Tauriņš were disqualified by the

Latvian Football Federation The Latvian Football Federation (LFF) ( lv, Latvijas Futbola federācija) is the governing body of football in Latvia with its headquarters located in the capital Rimi Sports Centre in Riga. Its activities include the organizing of the Latvian ...

for a year. In the autumn of 1931 Novickis joined the army and on 3 November he committed suicide by shooting himself. It was later speculated that Novickis had killed himself because of some unknown disease and alcohol.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Novickis, Alfons 1906 births 1931 suicides Latvian footballers Latvia international footballers Footballers from Riga Association football midfielders Suicides by firearm Suicides in Latvia