Ģirts Karlsons

As a youth player Karlsons played for his local club Liepājas Metalurgs, being taken to the first team in 1998, at the age of 17. He spent the next six seasons with the club, becoming the second top scorer of the Latvian Higher League in 2003 with 26 goals, completing two hat-tricks during the season. All in all he played 96 matches for his local club, scoring 40 goals. After these bright appearances he had impressed clubs abroad, and in January 2004 Karlsons went on a month-long trial with the Russian Premier League club Shinnik Yaroslavl. Afterwards he signed a three-year contract with them. However, his spell there was not as successful as expected and was very short. After just one season, during which he played only 8 league matches without scoring goals, Karlsons returned to the Latvian Higher League, signing with the newly promoted, ambitious club Venta Kuldiga in 2005. However, the club struggled financially and after just five matches had to let some of their players go, including Karlsons, who returned to his hometown club, Liepājas Metalurgs later that year. He spent the next three seasons there, once again showing great performance. He scored a hat-trick in the 2005 season, and he also scored in the Latvian Cup final on 25 September 2005, which Metalurgs lost 2–1 to Venta Kuldīga. Another hat-trick came in the 2006 season, which Karlsons finished as the second top scorer with 14 goals. In the Latvian Cup he scored a hat-trick in the 6–1 semi-final victory over…

Karlsons played for the Latvia-U21. Karlsons made his first appearance for Latvia national team on 20 December 2003 as a second-half substitute against Kuwait in Cyprus, which Latvia lost 2–0. On 28 December 2005 he scored in Latvia's 2–1 win over Oman national football team to reach the final of the King's Cup in Thailand. Latvia won the cup, beating Korea DPR 2–1 in the final on 30 December with Karlsons again scoring. Currently Karlsons has 50 international caps under his belt, having scored 9 goals. He played in an international game on 9 February 2011, a 2–1 victory in a friendly match against Bolivia, coming on as a late substitute, which would be his last match for the national team until late 2016. Karlsons was recalled to the national team in the autumn of 2016, earning his 50th cap on 7 October 2016 after coming on as a substitute in the 0:2 home loss against the Faroe Islands in a 2018 World Cup qualifier.

Liepājas Metalurgs

Virslīga: 2005, 2009; runner-up 1998, 1999, 2003, 2006, 2007 Latvian Cup: 2006 Baltic League: 2007 Inter Baku

Azerbaijan Premier League: 2010 CIS Cup: 2011 Ventspils

Virslīga: 2014 Latvia

King's Cup: 2005 Baltic Cup: 2008 Individual

CIS Cup top scorer: 2011 Latvian Higher League best forward: 2006 Baltic League top scorer: 2007