Verpakovskis honoured again

Consecutive seasons
Verpakovskis collected 78 per cent of the votes in a Latvia Football Federation (LFF) poll of national team coaching staff, journalists and clubs from the top two divisions. In doing so, he became the first Latvian player to win the award in consecutive seasons.

EURO 2004™ goal
Second and third in the poll were his fellow internationals Andrejs Rubins and Aleksandrs Kolinko, but both gained less than ten per cent of the votes, such was Verpakovskis's popularity. The 25-year-old scored Latvia's only goal at UEFA EURO 2004™ - in the 1-1 draw with Germany - as well as breaking into the Dynamo side and becoming the first Latvian to score in the UEFA Champions League with his goal against Real Madrid CF last month.

'Magnificent year'
Coach of the year was Aleksandrs Starkovs, who led Latvia to EURO 2004™ before taking the reins at FC Spartak Moskva. Reflecting on a memorable 12-month period, he said: "This year has been magnificent for our football. A year ago, when we won a place at the EURO and I was receiving the same award, it seemed we would never be able to do any better. But in 2004 in Portugal we got a draw with Germany and proved we can achieve even more. This means Latvian football is making progress year by year."

Domestic awards
The LFF also issued awards to the outstanding players of the Latvian domestic season. Andrejs Piedels of Skonto FC was best goalkeeper, club mate Mihails Zemlinskis took the honours as best defender, and another Skonto man, Zurab Menteshashvili, was voted best midfielder. Best striker and best foreign player was Russian forward Aleksandr Katasonov of FHK Liepajas Metalurgs, while best young player was Skonto's Aleksejs Visnjakovs.