12 Facts About Aleksandrs Starkovs

Aleksandrs Starkovs was born on 26 July 1955 and is a Latvian football coach and a former player.

Aleksandrs Starkovs had three stints with the Latvia national team.

Aleksandrs 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 1978 Aleksandrs Starkovs went to FC Dynamo Moscow but it was not the right team for him, so soon Aleksandrs Starkovs was back in Riga.

However his best years were still to come - in 1980s Aleksandrs Starkovs was one of the best snipers of the Soviet first league, scoring over a hundred goals for Daugava.

Aleksandrs Starkovs worked with the Latvia U21 national team and in 2001 he was appointed the general manager of Latvia national team.

Aleksandrs Starkovs took over the Latvia 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.

Aleksandrs Starkovs returned to Latvia in 2007 and took over the Latvia national team, which had been struggling under Jurijs Andrejevs.

In late 2009 Aleksandrs Starkovs accepted the offer to manage Skonto FC and officially became the manager of the club in January 2010 as Paul Ashworth left.

Aleksandrs Starkovs's return was explicitly successful as he managed to win the league.

In January 2011 Aleksandrs Starkovs left Skonto FC, signing a contract in Azerbaijan with FC Baku.

Aleksandrs Starkovs is currently working at the Latvian Football Federation as the director of the National teams.