Reinis Zālītis (19 September 1943 – 15 October 2005) 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 ...

n football defender, famous for playing for

Daugava Rīga FK Daugava Rīga was a Latvian football club, based at the Daugava Stadium in Riga. They played in the Latvian Higher League. The last manager of the team was Armands Zeiberliņš. From the club's foundation in 2003 till 2009 the club was kno ...

. Zālītis first began to play football in the sports school of Daugava

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 ...

in the early 1950s. His first coach was the renowned Latvian football player, . In 1961, he played for the Latvia youth team; in 1962 for RVR Rīga; in 1963 for RER Rīga. For both of the latter seasons, he was also a member of the reserves squad of

. In 1964, he became a full-time regular with Daugava and remained as such until 1975 (with a break in 1974), capping more than 300 main squad appearances. From 1974 to 1976, he also was involved in coaching the Daugava squad. In later years, he played with

Torpedo Riga A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, s ...

. Because of his big height and good playing with the head, Zālītis often played in the opponent's penalty area for free kicks and corner kicks. With Daugava Zālītis, he made more than 300 main squad appearances until 1973.Miķelis Rubenis – History of football in Latvia, 2000

References

1943 births 2005 deaths Latvian men's footballers FC Daugava Riga players Men's association football defenders Soviet men's footballers {{latvia-footy-bio-stub