Voldemārs Sudmalis (1922–1990) was a Latvian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

defender, one of the most popular post-war footballers from

Liepāja Liepāja () (formerly: Libau) is a Administrative divisions of Latvia, state city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea. It is the largest city in the Courland region and the third-largest in the country after Riga and Daugavpils. It is an ...

. Sudmalis is considered the most skillful footballer in the history of

, he had good speed, tactical strength and played well with the head.

Biography

Sudmalis started his career in Liepāja where he played with

Olimpija Liepāja Olimpija Liepāja was a Latvian football club. It was based in Liepāja and founded in 1922. It won the Latvian Top League on seven occasions between 1927 and 1939, becoming the first non-Riga team to win the title. Otto Fischer moved in 1936 ...

from 1942 to 1944. After

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 ...

when Olimpija was reformed as Daugava Liepāja Sudmalis at first stayed with the club but in 1946 he was called up to

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 ...

to join

FK Dinamo Rīga FK or fk may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Flyer Killer, fictional automated robots in the ''Terminator'' film franchise * Fox Kids, a former American children's television programming block * Funky Kong, a video game character Place * F ...

which played in the Soviet league. From 1946 to 1948 he played with Dinamo in the first Soviet league but in 1949 as it was merged with

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 ...

and promoted to the

Soviet Top League The Soviet Top League, known after 1970 as the Higher League (), served as the top division (tier) of Soviet Union football from 1936 until 1991. The league's name was a conditional designation used for brevity since being completely owned and g ...

Sudmalis became a footballer for Daugava.Sudmalis stats with Riga clubs
Over four seasons Sudmalis played 87 matches in the top Soviet league with Daugava and scored 1 goal. After the 1952 Daugava got relegated to the 1st Soviet league again, after one more season (with 9 appearances for Daugava) Sudmalis returned to

where he joined Liepājas Metalurgs (former Daugava Liepāja). Sudmalis played with Sarkanais Metalurgs until 1959 when the club earned promotion to the second Soviet league, over these years winning the Latvian league title five times and 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 ...

two times. After retiring from football Sudmalis worked in the Sarkanais Metalurgs

metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the ...

factory. He died at the age of 68 in the autumn of 1990.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sudmalis, Voldemars 1922 births 1990 deaths Men's association football defenders Latvian men's footballers Soviet men's footballers FC Daugava Riga players