Valerijs Sabala

Valerijs Sabala (born 12 October 1994) is a Latvian football striker, who plays for GKS Belchatow and the Latvian national football team.

Club Career

Early career

As a youth player Sabala was a member of Daugava Riga academy. With the club winning the 2008 Latvian First League and being promoted to the Latvian Higher League for the 2009 season, Sabala was one of the youngsters to be included in the first team squad by the manager Vladimirs Belajevs. Sabala made his debut on 15 October 2009, having just turned 15, when he came on as a substitute in the 46th minute in an 8–0 loss against the defending champions FK Ventspils. Three days later he appeared in the match against FC Tranzit, coming on as a substitute in the 88th minute. Daugava Riga were relegated to the Latvian First League and Sabala joined the Latvian Higher League newcomers JFK Olimps in January 2010. Sabala scored his first Latvian Higher League goal on 23 April 2010 in a match against Skonto Riga. At the time he was 15 years and 193 days old, which made him the youngest ever goalscorer in the history of Latvian championship and all the top tier European football leagues. His record was broken on 10 June 2014, when Skonto Riga midfielder Janis Grinbergs scored a penalty against Daugava Daugavpils being just 15 years and 102 days old. All in all that season Sabala played 21 league matches and scored 6 goals.

Skonto Riga

In February 2011 Sabala joined that time Latvian Higher League champions Skonto Riga. In his debut season with the club he was rarely used in the first eleven and often came on as a substitute, scoring 2 goals in 22 matches. Sabala scored his first league goal for Skonto on 25 September 2011 against his former club JFK Olimps. Despite the limited playing time, he was named Young player of the year and received the Ilmars Liepins prize. Throughout the season Sabala went on short term trials with Arsenal, Watford and Udinese Calcio.

In January 2012 Sabala

This page also has a version in other languages :  Валерий Шабала (russian)