Verpakovskis savours year to remember

By Aleksandrs Vasiljevs

Traditionally, December is a quiet period in Latvian football. The season is over, while players and coaches are having a well-deserved rest. But the things are quite the opposite for the country's best footballer, Maris Verpakovskis.

UEFA Cup consolation
At the beginning of the month the striker, who plays his football in the Ukraine with FC Dynamo Kyiv, was hoping to help his side progress to the UEFA Champions League knockout stages, but a 3-0 defeat away to Group B winners Bayer 04 Leverkusen ended those hopes. However, Dynamo and Verpakovskis at least have the consolation of a UEFA Cup place having finished third in the section, and now face Spanish side Villarreal CF in the competition's last 32 in February.

Award again
However, the leading goal scorer in the history of Latvia's national team had little time to bemoan Dynamo's Champions League exit as he was promptly named Latvia's Player of the Year for the second year in succession. The 25-year-old scored his country's first goal in the finals of a UEFA European Championship, against the Czech Republic at UEFA EURO 2004™, and became the first player from the Baltic state to score in the Champions League group stage when he found the net against Real Madrid CF in November.

Wedding bells
If that was not enough, Verpakovskis soon had an even bigger occasion to celebrate. On 17 December, he got married to Baiba in Liepaya – although the celebrations were relatively low key, as Verpakovskis' new bride is expecting the couple's first child, giving the striker plenty to think of other than games and goals.