Aleksandrs Starkovs

Aleksandrs Starkovs
Personal information
Full name	Aleksandrs Petrovich Starkovs
Date of birth	26 July 1955 (age 69)
Place of birth	Madona, Soviet Union ; (now Republic of Latvia)
Position(s)	Striker (retired)
Team information
Current team	Latvia (manager)
Senior career*
Years	Team
1973–1975	RPI Madona
1975–1977	FK Daugava Rīga
1977–1978	FC Dinamo Moscow
1978–1989	FK Daugava Rīga
Managerial career
1990–1993	FK Daugava Rīga (assistant)
1992–1994	Latvia U-21
1993–2004	Skonto FC
1995–2001	Latvia (assistant)
2001–2004	Latvia
2004–2006	Spartak Moscow
2006–2007	Skonto FC (sporting director)
2007–	Latvia
2010–2011	Skonto FC
2011–2012	FC Baku
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Aleksandrs Petrovičs Starkovs (born 26 July 1955 in Madona, Latvia) is a Latvian football coach and a former footballer. Starkovs is currently in his second spell as manager of the Latvian national team, having previously managed clubs such as Spartak Moscow in Russia, FK Baku in Azerbaijan and Skonto FC in Latvia.

Playing biography

Starkovs started playing football in Madona where he played for the local Olimpija Madona playing for which he was selected the best forward of the 1969 Latvia Leather ball tournament. In 1975 Starkovs joined FK Daugava Rīga. In 1978 Starkovs went to FC Dynamo Moscow but it wasn't the right team for him, so soon Starkovs was back in Riga. However his best years were still to come - in 1980s Starkovs was one of the best snipers of the Soviet first league, scoring over a hundred goals for Daugava.

In November 2003, to celebrate UEFA's Jubilee, he was selected as the Golden Player of Latvia by the Latvian Football Federation as their most outstanding player of the past 50 years. [1]

Coaching career

As a team manager Starkovs made his name with Skonto FC which he brought to innumerable Latvian championships. He also worked with Latvia national under-21 football team and in 2001 he was appointed the general manager of Latvian national team. He took over the Latvian national team after its disastrous performance in 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifiers and lead the team to its biggest success ever, qualifying for Euro 2004 with a victory over World Cup bronze medalist Turkey.

After his success as the national team coach, he joined Spartak Moscow winning the silver medal of the Russian league in 2005, but in April 2006 he was forced to quit due to total obstruction from the team's fans and a conflict with former team captain Dmitri Alenichev.

Starkovs returned to Riga and in 2007 took over the Latvian national team which was struggling under Jurijs Andrejevs.

In 2009 he accepted the offer to coach Skonto FC and in January 2010 became the manager of the team as Paul Ashworth - the previous manager - left. His return was very successful and he managed to win the league with Skonto FC. In January 2011 he left Skonto FC, signing a contract in Azerbaijan with FC Baku. After signing the contract it was stated that he would continue managing Latvia as he did before.

References

Template:FK Baku squad

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