As England prepare for tonight’s World Cup qualifier against Latvia at Wembley, football historian Stephen Byrne has been researching Rovers connections to that country and has come up with the following facts….
The only Latvian to play for Rovers was Vitalijs Astafjevs, born in Riga in 1971, who scored 16 goals from midfield in 87 (+21) League games 1999-2001 and set a European record for caps for an outfield player, subsequently broken, by playing 167 times for Latvia.
Thirty of his games for his country came whilst he was on Rovers’ books, which is a club record. His unprecedented record number of international caps was eventually
surpassed by Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.
Astafjevs became the 647th player to represent Rovers in league football when he made his debut, a 3-1 home win against Wrexham, on 29th March 2000 when he entered the fray as an 81st minute substitute.
Another former Rovers player, defender Garry Kenneth, played for Rovers 18 times between 2012 and 2014 and was the 835th player to make his Rovers league debut, played seven times for Skonto Riga in 2015.
Latvian opponents include Andrejs Stolcers (Yeovil Town, 2004/05 in League Two, who won 81 caps) and Kaspars Gorkss (89 caps, played for Reading in a 2013 friendly); Adam Legzdins, of Latvian descent, played for Birmingham City v Rovers, League Cup, 2005.