Celtnieks Rīga was a Latvia

Latvia

Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

n football

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 club that won the Latvian Cup 3 times.

History

Celtnieks made its debut in the Latvian league in 1978. In the 1980s it was one of the strongest clubs in the Latvian league as it finished second in the league in four seasons and for three years in a row (1984–1986) it won the Latvian Cup. Especially remarkable was the 1986 cup victory when in the final game Celtnieks simply devastated its opponent team Gauja Valmiera

Gauja Valmiera

Gauja Valmiera was a Latvian football from Valmiera that played in the top Latvian league from 1979 to 1993.It was named after the river Gauja. In the 1990s another Valmiera football club - FK Valmiera - was renamed to Gauja.-History:...

 by winning with 6:0. Jurijs Jakovļevs from Celtnieks was the best goalscorer of the Latvian league in 1984, 1986 and 1987. In this time Celtnieks was coached by former Daugava Rīga professional Viktors Ņesterenko

Viktors Nesterenko

Viktors Ņesterenko is a Latvian football coach and former footballer.-Playing biography:Ņesterenko was born in Ukraine and played football there with the reserves of FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk. At the age of Ņesterenko was invited to move to Riga, Latvia, for studies. In 1971, Ņesterenko joined...

 who in addition to his coaching work also played with Celtnieks. In addition to Jakovļevs club leaders in those years included Družiņins, Trambovičs, Aleksandrs Kokarevs

Aleksandrs Kokarevs

Aleksandrs Kokarevs is a former Latvian football player and manager.Kokarevs played for Daugava Rīga the biggest part of his career. His best seasons were in 1977 and 1981 . From 1978 to 1980 he played with Dinamo Leningrad...

, Davidovs, Samoiļenko, Čebanovs and Simoņenkovs.

After the 1987 season Ņesterenko left Celtnieks for RAF Jelgava and thus started the clubs downfall. By 1991 little was left of its former glory and after finishing in the 17th place from 20 clubs in the 1991 season Celtnieks didn't get a chance to play in Virslīga

Virsliga

-Past Virslīga winners:-Top scorers:-Riga football league winners:* 1910 Union Riga* 1911 British FC Riga* 1912 Union Riga* 1913 British FC Riga* 1914 British FC Riga* 1915 British FC Riga-Champions of Latvia before Virslīga:* 1922 Ķeizarmežs...

 in the first season of the independent Latvian league. The club was renamed to SM-ECK, it finished 6th in 1. liga

1. Liga

1. Liga is the third-highest ice hockey league in Switzerland, behind Nationalliga A and Nationalliga B. Thirty-six teams compete in three divisions – East Switzerland, Central Switzerland and West Switzerland.-East Switzerland:*EHC Arosa*GDT Bellinzona...

 in 1992 and became defunct after the season.

Notable former players

• Viktors Ņesterenko
  Viktors Nesterenko
  Viktors Ņesterenko is a Latvian football coach and former footballer.-Playing biography:Ņesterenko was born in Ukraine and played football there with the reserves of FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk. At the age of Ņesterenko was invited to move to Riga, Latvia, for studies. In 1971, Ņesterenko joined...
  
  
• Jurijs Jakovļevs
• Aleksandrs Dorofejevs
• Aleksandrs Kokarevs
  Aleksandrs Kokarevs
  Aleksandrs Kokarevs is a former Latvian football player and manager.Kokarevs played for Daugava Rīga the biggest part of his career. His best seasons were in 1977 and 1981 . From 1978 to 1980 he played with Dinamo Leningrad...
  
  
• Jurijs Andrejevs
  Jurijs Andrejevs
  Jurijs Andrejevs is a former footballer who is currently the sporting director of Liepājas Metalurgs.Previously he was the manager of the team but was released in 2008 after an unsuccessful season....