Alfrēds Verners (1 January 1912,

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 ...

– 31 December 1973, USA) was a Latvian

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 ...

and

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player who played 19 matches for the Latvian national football team in the 1920s and 1930s.

Biography

Verners began playing both football and ice hockey with Union Riga, as it was a common practice among sportspeople in Latvia before

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 ...

to compete in different sports in summer and winter. Verners got a wider popularity as in 1930 Union returned to the

Latvian Higher League Latvian Higher League or Virslīga, also known as TonyBet Virslīga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Latvia and the highest level of the Latvian football league system. Organised by the Latvian Footbal ...

and unexpectedly earned a respectable fourth-place finish, and won the bronze medals just a year later. In ice hockey, Union was even stronger, winning the first two Latvian league tournaments, thus by 1933 Verners was a two-time champion of Latvia in ice hockey and a one time bronze medallist in football. On 30 June 1931, Verners made his international début 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 ...

scoring a goal and giving passes to two goals to

Ēriks Pētersons Ēriks Pētersons (1909–1987) was a Latvian footballer and ice hockey player. Between 1929 and 1939 he played 63 international matches and scored 21 goals for Latvian national team. He also played in the Latvian national ice hockey team, whe ...

. In total, Verners made 19 appearances for Latvia until 1937 and scored five goals, he also played for the Latvia national ice hockey team. Verners joined Riga Vanderer in 1935 and won the

Latvian Cup The Latvian Football Cup () is the main knockout cup competition in Latvian football. Since 2021, its full name is Responsible Gaming Latvian Football Cup (''Atbildīgas spēles Latvijas kauss'') due to the sponsorship by sports betting company ...

in 1936 and 1938.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Verners, Alfreds 1912 births 1973 deaths Latvian men's footballers Latvia men's international footballers Latvian ice hockey players Men's association football players not categorized by position Footballers from Riga