Aleksandrs Koliņko

Koliņko was born in Riga and started his career in 1994, playing for the Skonto Riga reserve team Interskonto, which was renamed Skonto-Metāls in 1995. After two seasons in the reserve team Koliņko broke through to the Skonto Riga first team in 1996. In 1997, Koliņko participated in the UEFA Champions League qualification match against Barcelona, but eventually he became a first eleven player just in 1999, after the retirement of Oļegs Karavajevs. Koliņko made his name in the football world during a spell at English club Crystal Palace, where his appearances were limited due to his inconsistent form. He joined the club in 2000 alongside his international teammate Andrejs Rubins. He could make brilliant saves one moment, but terrible blunders the next. Reportedly, he was disciplined by the club after, while on the substitutes' bench, he was accused of laughing at a goal his own team had conceded and punched in the face by manager Trevor Francis. Francis was later fined by the club and the Football Association for his actions. In 2003, Koliņko was released by Crystal Palace and he joined the Russian Premier League club Rostov. Playing there for two seasons, Koliņko showed good performance and transferred to Rubin Kazan in January 2005. At that time, he was certainly one of the best goalkeepers in the Russian Premier League. In 2006, Koliņko was named Latvian Footballer of the Year. He was dismissed from Kazan for an unexplained reason before the 2008 season, playing there for…

Koliņko earned 94 caps for the Latvia national team, having made his international debut against Estonia on 9 July 1997 at the age of 22. He became the first-choice keeper in 1999 after the retirement of Oļegs Karavajevs. Koliņko was Latvia's first-choice keeper for almost ten years. He was the starting goalkeeper for Latvia at Euro 2004, playing 90 minutes in all matches and keeping a clean sheet against Germany in the second match of the group stages. From 2011 to 2013 Koliņko was temporarily excluded from the national squad with Andris Vaņins filling the first keeper's spot and Deniss Romanovs, Pāvels Doroševs or Germans Māliņš serving as the back-up choice. On 10 September 2013, at the age of 38, Koliņko made his national team comeback, playing a full match away in the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Greece. He made a handful of great saves, conceding one goal to the locals. Koļinko played his second international match since returning to the national team on 15 October 2013, helping Latvia secure a point in the last match of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, playing a 2–2 draw against Slovakia. All in all, Koliņko played 94 international matches for Latvia over the period from 1997 to 2015. He played his last international match on 31 March 2015, as Latvia drew 1–1 against Ukraine in a friendly match.

In July 2015, Koliņko was appointed as the manager of Spartaks Jūrmala after the departure of Roman Pylypchuk. Failing to impress, he was replaced by Oleg Kubarev in December 2015. Koliņko remained at the club, working as the assistant manager and goalkeeping coach of the first team. In 2017, Koliņko became the goalkeeping coach of the Belarusian Premier League club Shakhtyor Soligorsk. Before the start of the 2018 Latvian Higher League season he returned to Latvia, becoming the goalkeeping coach and assistant manager of RFS.

Player

Skonto Riga

Latvian Higher League: 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Latvian Cup: 1997, 1998, 2000 FK Ventspils

Baltic League: 2009–10 Individual

Latvian Higher League best goalkeeper: 1997, 1999, 2000 Latvian Footballer of the Year: 2006, 2014

Manager

Spartaks Jūrmala

Latvian Higher League: 2016