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Europe's most capped Latvian footballer Astafjevs to end his career at the end of the season

BC, Riga, 04.11.2010.Print version

Europe's most capped footballer, Latvian midfielder Vitalijs Astafjevs, will end his playing career at the end of this season, the Latvian sports portal ''insport.lv'' informed.

 

This means that Astafjevs has two more games left in his playing career – the final game of the Latvian Football League (LFL) season against Riga ''Jauniba'', as well as the national team's November friendly against China, writes LETA.

 

The November 17 match against China will be the 167th game that Astafjevs has played for the national team, and he will become the fifth most capped footballer ever to play.

 

As reported, this past weekend, Astafjevs' football club Riga ''Skonto'' won the LFL title, which was the first title for ''Skonto'' since 2004.

 

In his long playing career, Astafjevs has won the Latvian League seven times, and was named Latvia's Footballer of the Year in 2007.

 

Astafjevs has also played for such football clubs as Vienna ''Austria'', Bristol ''Rovers'' and Russian football giants Kazan ''Rubin''.

 

In his 166 games for the national team, Astafjevs has scored 16 goals.

 

The record as most capped footballer ever was set in 2006 by Saudi Arabia's Mohamed Abdullaziz Al-Deayea, who played in 181 games for the Saudi national team.





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