Alfons Novickis (1906 - 3 November 1931 in

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

) was a

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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 lea ...

Biography

Novickis rose to fame as a great footballing talent at the aged of 15 when he worked as a paper-boy at a publishing company. His first senior football club was LNJS Riga, where he played in 1926. In 1928 Novickis played with RFK and then joined Riga Vanderer, 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 () 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 ...

between 1929 and 1931. Just as quickly as Novickis' star had risen in Latvian football, he fell. After a 0–6 loss to

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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 ) is the governing body of football in Latvia with its headquarters located in the Rimi Sports Centre in Riga. Its activities include the organizing of the Latvian football championship ( Optibet Virslī ...

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 1931 deaths Latvian men's footballers Latvia men's international footballers Footballers from Riga Men's association football midfielders Suicides by firearm in Latvia