Andrius Skerla (born 29 April 1977) is a Lithuanian professional

football manager ''Football Manager'', also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008, is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game beg ...

and former

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who i ...

who played as a defender. He is the manager of

A Lyga The A Lyga is the top division of professional football in Lithuania. It is organized by Lithuanian Football Federation (LFF) (). History The first football league was established in Lithuania in 1924, and in various forms existed until 1939. ...

club Hegelmann. He began his career in Lithuania with Žalgiris Vilnius, where his performances drew the attention of Dutch club PSV. After making only 25 appearances for PSV, Skerla was signed by Dunfermline Athletic in 2000. He spent five seasons with the club playing in almost 200 matches for the Pars, including the 2004 Scottish Cup Final where he scored in the 3–1 defeat against

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

. After leaving Dunfermline in 2005, his later career saw him return east, playing for Russian side Tom Tomsk, Vėtra in Lithuania, Polish clubs Korona Kielce and Jagiellonia Białystok, before finishing his career with his home-town team, Žalgiris Vilnius. Skerla was

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

's most capped player of all time with 84 appearances, until he was surpassed by

Saulius Mikoliūnas Saulius Mikoliūnas (born 2 May 1984) is a Lithuanian former professional footballer who played as a right winger for the Lithuania national team. He has previously played for Scottish Premier League club Heart of Midlothian and Ukrainian Pre ...

in September 2020.

Club career

Early career

Born in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

, Skerla started his career at local club Žalgiris Vilnius in 1995, before Dutch club

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional association football, football department, which has pla ...

signed him in 1996. After an unsuccessful spell in the Netherlands, Skerla signed for SPL side Dunfermline Athletic.

Dunfermline Athletic

Skerla's time at Dunfermline was his most successful period of football. He was signed in 2000 by new manager Jimmy Calderwood and was immediately put into the starting line up. After a successful first season at Dunfermline he was linked with numerous clubs including

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

club Rangers, but Skerla insisted he wanted to stay at East End Park. Skerla will most probably be remembered by the Pars fans, for scoring Dunfermline's only goal in the 2004 Scottish Cup Final defeat against

Tom Tomsk

In March 2005, Skerla announced he wished to leave Dunfermline as he decided to look for new challenges. After Russian side

Rubin Kazan FC Rubin Kazan (; ) is a Russian professional football club based in the city of Kazan. They play in the Russian Premier League. Founded in 1958, Rubin played its first-ever top flight season in 2003. It has remained there through the 2021–2 ...

had a bid failed because it did not meet Dunfermline's valuation of the player, Skerla re-iterated his decision that he wanted to move and eventually he moved to Tom Tomsk for £200,000.

FK Vetra

After leaving Dunfermline for Russia, Skerla played for Lithuanian side FK Vėtra.

Korona Kielce

Later he played for

Ekstraklasa (; meaning "Extra Class" in Polish), officially known as PKO Bank Polski Ekstraklasa due to its Sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by PKO Bank Polski, is a professional association football league in Poland and the highest level of the Polish foo ...

team Korona Kielce.

Jagiellonia Białystok

Skerla played for

side Jagiellonia Białystok. Skerla scored in the 2010

Polish Cup The Polish Cup in Association football, football ( ) is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout football competition for Polish football club (association football), football clubs, held continuously since 1950, and is the second most i ...

Final for Jagiellonia, helping them to secure their first senior trophy, as well as ensure they would compete in European competition for the first time in the 2010–11 season.

International career

Skerla marked his 50th appearance for

on 7 October 2006 with a first international goal against the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ) (alt. the Faroes) are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. Located between Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the islands have a populat ...

. Skerla retired from International football on 11 October 2011 after a defeat to

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

International goal

:''Scores and results list Lithuania's goal tally first.''

Honours

Žalgiris Vilnius *

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

Lithuanian Football Cup The Lithuanian Football Federation Cup (), also known as Hegelmann LFF Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a Lithuanian football cup competition contested in a knockout tournament format. The winner of the cup gains entitlement to participate in th ...

: 1996–97, 2011–12, 2012–13 * Lithuanian Supercup: 2013 PSV Eindhoven *

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

: 1999–2000 Jagiellonia Białystok *

: 2009–10 *

Polish Super Cup The Polish Super Cup (, ) is an annually held match between the champions of the Ekstraklasa and the Polish Cup winners or, if the Ekstraklasa champions also win the Polish Cup, the Cup's runners-up. As of 2024, the Polish Super Cup has been ...

: 2010

References

External links

*
Andrius Skerla career stats
at jagiellonia.neostrada.pl * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Skerla, Andrius 1977 births Living people Men's association football defenders Lithuanian men's footballers Lithuania men's international footballers PSV Eindhoven players Dunfermline Athletic F.C. players FC Tom Tomsk players Korona Kielce players Jagiellonia Białystok players FK Žalgiris players A Lyga players Eredivisie players Scottish Premier League players Russian Premier League players Ekstraklasa players Lithuanian expatriate men's footballers Lithuanian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Lithuanian expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Lithuanian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Lithuanian expatriate sportspeople in Poland Expatriate men's footballers in Poland Lithuanian football managers A Lyga managers