Algimantas Liubinskas (born 4 November 1951 in

Kybartai Kybartai is a town in Marijampolė County, Vilkaviškis District Municipality in south-western Lithuania. It is located west of Vilkaviškis and is on the border of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia. History Kybartai was founded during the reign of ...

) is a former head coach of the

Lithuania national football team The Lithuania national football team () represents Lithuania in men's international Association football, football, and is controlled by the Lithuanian Football Federation, the governing body for football in Lithuania. They played their first m ...

Football

At 31 years old, Liubinskas became the youngest ever coach of the Soviet Supreme League team

Žalgiris Vilnius Žalgiris is the Lithuanian-language calque of the Polish placename ''Grunwald'', notable for the Battle of Grunwald (). Žalgiris may also refer to: Kaunas, Lithuania * BC Žalgiris, basketball club from Kaunas founded in 1944 * Žalgiris Kaunas, ...

(which he coached from April 1983 to April 1985). In 1991, Algimantas Liubinskas was named the head coach of the Lithuanian national team, restored after independence. Despite wins against

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

and

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States w ...

qualifiers, Liubinskas was fired in 1995 after an argument with the

Lithuanian Football Federation The Lithuanian Football Federation (LFF; ) is the governing body of football in Lithuania. The Federation is responsible for football development in the country and for the national teams, including the Lithuania national football team. It is bas ...

. His next job saw him move back into club football as he won the 1996/97 Lithuanian title with FK Kareda Šiauliai, but subsequent spells at FK Panerys Vilnius, Ekranas Panevėžys, and Polish side Jagiellonia Bialystok were less successful. He returned to coaching in 2002, as Lithuania's Under-21 coach, and was handed the senior team job the following year. In this position, he replaced

Benjaminas Zelkevičius Benjaminas Zelkevičius (born 6 February 1944) is a Lithuanian football coach and a former player who is technical director at FM Ateitis. He has been manager of the Lithuania national team on three separate occasions: from 1990 to 1991, 1995 ...

, who had been Liubinskas' replacement in 1995. Liubinskas lasted five years as head manager before he resigned in 2008. Famous results during his second tenure include a 1–1 draw against

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...

, a 1–0 victory over

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Kaunas Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...

, and a 1–1 draw in

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

against

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. All three fixtures occurred during European Championship qualifiers. Prior to his coaching career, Liubinskas played 62 games for

from 1973 until 1974. In December 2009 Liubinskas signed a deal to coach with

FC Lviv FC Lviv () is a Ukrainian professional football club from the city of Lviv. The history of the club is very controversial and was interrupted on numerous occasions. The first club under such name entered professional competitions back in 199 ...

Ukrainian First League The Persha Liha ( ) or Ukrainian First League is a Ukrainian football league system, level of national football competitions (second tier) in Ukraine governed by the Professional Football League of Ukraine, Professional Football League at the disc ...

for the remainder of the 2009–10 season, but on 19 April 2010 he was sacked.

Honours

National Team * Baltic Cup **

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

Politics

On 4 August 2008, Liubinskas quit his role as national team coach in order concentrate on campaigning for a seat in the

Seimas The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania (), or simply the Seimas ( ; ), is the unicameralism, unicameral legislative body of the Lithuania, Republic of Lithuania. The Seimas constitutes the legislative branch of Government of Lithuania, govern ...

as a member of the

Order and Justice Order and Justice (, TT), formerly the Liberal Democratic Party (''Liberalų Demokratų Partija'', LDP) was a right-wing national-conservative political party in Lithuania that self-identified as " left-of-centre", at least on economic matters. It ...

party.

References

External links

Liubinskas on UEFA.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Liubinskas, Algimantas 1951 births Living people Soviet men's footballers Lithuanian men's footballers FK Žalgiris players Soviet football managers Soviet expatriate football managers Lithuanian football managers Lithuanian expatriate football managers Jagiellonia Białystok managers Expatriate football managers in Bangladesh Lithuania national football team managers FK Žalgiris managers Abahani Limited Dhaka managers FK Kareda Kaunas managers FK Panerys Vilnius managers FC Kaisar Kyzylorda managers Lithuanian expatriate sportspeople in Poland Expatriate football managers in Poland People from Kybartai Men's association football defenders Lithuanian expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine Expatriate football managers in Ukraine