Media
- Wednesday March 4th, 2009 @ 20:22
Freimanis: My Latvia Dream
IT'S NOW 24 years since a League of Ireland player last played in a competitive game for our national team -- but St Patrick's Athletic's new recruit Gints Freimanis hopes that he'll be able to play in the World Cup qualifiers and play in the League of Ireland at the same time.
Since Pat Byrne of Shamrock Rovers lined out for Ireland in a World Cup defeat to Denmark in 1985, not once has a home-based player worn the green shirt outside of friendly matches, but Irish-based footballers have managed it for other countries, most recently the former Bohemians man Mindaugas Kalonas, who played and scored for Lithuania in some of their World Cup qualifiers last year.
Irish football has witnessed a minor invasion of footballers from Latvia over the winter, with two signing for Cork City (Robert Mezeckis and Guntars Silagailis) and another, midfielder Freimanis, linking up with St Pats in a story which says a lot about the Celtic Tiger, as Freimanis' older brother came to Ireland ahead of his footballing sibling to work on the building sites and is currently settled with a family in Longford.
Of the trio, only Mezeckis has been capped at senior level by Latvia and while the manager of the Ireland team persists in giving the domestic game here the cold shoulder (Giovanni Trapattoni has yet to attend a single club game in this country), the new face at Richmond Park hopes that Latvia coach Aleksandrs Starkovs at least checks out his form with the Saints as he tries to improve the form of Latvia in the qualifiers, where they have amassed four points from four games in a weak group that features Greece, Israel and Switzerland (the Latvia squad also features former Bohemians man Andrejs Perepotkins).
"I want to play for the national team and I hope that if I play well here in Ireland and score some goals, people at home will notice me and I might get the chance to play for Latvia," Freimanis told the Herald.
"Most of the players who compete for my position in the Latvian squad are playing with Latvian clubs and I think I can be as good as, if not better, than them.
"I have some work to do if I want to get into the national team squad, I have not played football for six months. But if I get my fitness up to a good level, play well for St Pats and score some goals, I might be able to get into the Latvia squad.
"I have not played for the national team before, I was in what we call the candidate squad for young players but did not get picked, and I hope I can play for my country while I am here in Ireland.
"There has been some interest in the three Latvian players from the media back home, the national papers and the newspaper in my home town of Saldus, it's a big story at home."
Lithuanians (Kalonas), Poles (Bialek), Romanians (Georghescu) and Danes (Jorgensen) all played in the League of Ireland last season, while players from Hungary, Moldova and the Czech Republic lined out for Irish clubs the previous year, but of that group of players from the old Communist bloc countries, Kalonas (5 goals in 11 league games for Bohs in their double-winning season) has made the biggest splash. Now Freimanis hopes he can have an impact similar to his former team-mate Kalonas, as the pair eventually earned their moves to Ireland by impressing against Irish opposition in European competition last summer.
Kalonas and Freimanis lined out for Latvian side FK Riga when they knocked Bohs out of the Intertoto Cup on away goals, as Riga (who won the home leg 1-0) were one of only three clubs to defeat Bohs in all competitions last season.
Cork City were alerted to Freimanis' talents after that defeat of Bohs and he spent some time training with Alan Mathews' side, but the cash-strapped club were in no position to offer a contract.
Unsuccessful spells with lower-league Spanish sides followed (second division Real Betis said he was too old for their reserve team and not good enough for the first team), so the chance came to try out for Pats and Freimanis, advised by his Longford-based brother, took up the opportunity.
"After I played for FK Riga against Bohemians I went to Cork City and I almost signed for them but there were a few problems.
"Cork City had problems with money and I had difficulties with my home club back in Latvia," he says.
"Then I went to Spain and I hoped I might stay there. They asked me to go for a week, then another week, but they didn't give me a contract in the end. I liked it in Spain, the weather is better than in Ireland or Latvia, maybe I'll go to La Liga some day.
"It was easy to settle here in Ireland as so many Latvians were here already. My brother was here and one of my best friends plays for a junior club, Soviet Union, here in Dublin.
"I have great support from all of the Latvian community in Ireland, hopefully some of them will come along to the stadium and start supporting St Pats," he added.
"And I am very happy to be a footballer here and not in Latvia. You have economic problems here in Ireland but the economy in Latvia is terrible now, it's hard times for everyone so I know I am lucky to be here.
"The money is good here, but money is not important to me, I just want to play, score goals and win games."
Freimanis was doing well during his trial for St Pats but he secured a contract with a good display and a goal in a friendly against Chelsea's reserve team.
"That was a great moment for me, it meant a lot for me to score that goal, I think the last goal I scored before that was seven months ago, so I was relieved.
"I am only at 85pc now in terms of my fitness, I know I can get better but I am able to play for the team when the league starts on Friday, if the manager needs me."
Pats boss Jeff Kenna may have intended to ease Freimanis into the team but with so many senior pros out injured or suspended for Friday's clash with Galway United, Kenna may need to call on the Latvian import.
Mark Quigley, Brendan Clarke, Bobby Ryan and Stephen Maher are out injured, Jamie Harris, Gary Dempsey and David Partridge are suspended while Jason Gavin is a major doubt.
"I think we'll have 13 senior players for Friday, which is not ideal," said Kenna. "Some of the young lads, like Anthony Costigan and Stephen Fitzpatrick, have been training with us over the pre-season and they may be promoted to the squad."
