Pahars as the manager of Skonto
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Personal information | |||
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Full name | Marians Pahars | ||
Date of birth | 5 August 1976 | ||
Place of birth |
Chornobai, Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine) |
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Height | 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) | ||
Playing position | Forward | ||
Club information | |||
Current team
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Latvia (manager) | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
1994 | Pārdaugava | 17 | (3) |
1995 | Skonto-Metāls | 16 | (4) |
1995–1998 | Skonto | 85 | (44) |
1999–2006 | Southampton | 137 | (43) |
2006–2007 | Anorthosis Famagusta | 19 | (4) |
2008 | Skonto | 19 | (8) |
2009–2010 | Jūrmala | 2 | (0) |
Total | 295 | (106) | |
National team | |||
1996–2007 | Latvia | 75 | (15) |
Teams managed | |||
2010–2011 | Skonto (assistant manager) | ||
2011–2012 | Skonto | ||
2013 | Latvia U-21 | ||
2013– | Latvia | ||
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
Marians Pahars (born 5 August 1976) is a Latvian former footballer, currently the manager of Latvia national football team.
He spent most of his career as a striker with Southampton in the Premier League and with Skonto in the Latvian Higher League.
His Latvian given name is Marians; however, he was generally known as Marian during his career in England.
Born in Chornobai in Ukraine of Latvian parents, Pahars grew up supporting Spartak Moscow. When he was about 8 years old, Jurijs Andrejevs, a coach from Skonto visited his school, as a result of which Pahars decided to play football. Andrejevs was to have a major influence on Pahars’ football career.
At 18 he signed for Pardaugava Riga moving on to Skonto Metāls and then into the Skonto first-team in 1995. He started playing as a midfielder, usually on the wings, before moving into a striker's role.
His best goal ratio came in 1995 when he scored 8 in 9 games, which he followed up with 12 in 28 games the following season, as he became a regular in the Latvian national team. In his prime he was dubbed the "Latvian Michael Owen".
In the 1998 season he scored 19 goals in 26 games for Skonto, and his progress was attracting attention from bigger clubs; he had trials with Salernitana (Italy), Werder Bremen (Germany), and Casino Salzburg (Austria), but he was recommended to Southampton’s manager Dave Jones by Gary Johnson - the manager of the Latvian national team.