Lithuanian Footballer of the Year is a football award.
Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. It borders Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, and the Russian semi-exclave of Kaliningrad Oblast to the southwest, with a maritime border with Sweden to the west. Lithuania covers an area of 65,300 km2 (25,200 sq mi), with a population of 2.88 million. Its capital and largest city is Vilnius; other major cities are Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai and Panevėžys. Lithuanians belong to the ethnolinguistic group of the Balts and speak Lithuanian.
Kaunas is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Trakai Palatinate since 1413. In the Russian Empire, it was the capital of the Kaunas Governorate from 1843 to 1915.
Sportin Lithuania is governed by the Physical Education and Sports Department following the country's independence from the Soviet Union in 1990. The Lithuanian government established the department to manage physical education in the schools and sports administration in the country. Over the next few years, Lithuanian sports organizations established membership in international governing bodies. Lithuania participated in the Winter Olympics in Albertville and has participated in every Winter and Summer Olympics since.
Futbolo klubas Žalgiris, commonly known as FK Žalgiris, Žalgiris Vilnius or simply Žalgiris, is a Lithuanian professional football club based in Vilnius. The club competes in the A Lyga, the top flight of Lithuanian football. The club was founded as Dinamo in 1947. The club's name commemorates the victorious Battle of Žalgiris. Žalgiris has featured many Lithuanian football legends during its history including Arminas Narbekovas, Valdas Ivanauskas, Edgaras Jankauskas and Deividas Šemberas. They have won the Lithuanian Championship 10 times, the Lithuanian Football Cup 14 times, and the Lithuanian Supercup 7 times.
The Lithuania men's national basketball team represents Lithuania in international basketball competitions. They are controlled by the Lithuanian Basketball Federation, the governing body for basketball in Lithuania. Despite Lithuania's small size, with a population of less than 3 million, the country's devotion to basketball has made them a traditional force of the sport in Europe.
Basketball Club Neptūnas, commonly known as Neptūnas or Neptūnas Klaipėda, is a Lithuanian professional basketball club based in Klaipėda, Lithuania. The club participates in the Lithuanian Basketball League. It was founded in 1962 under the name BC Maistas and in 1964, BC Maistas's name was changed to BC Neptūnas. The club carries the name of the Roman sea god Neptune. Neptūnas participated in the 2014–15 EuroLeague season and is only the third Lithuanian club to participate in the premier European basketball league, after Žalgiris and Rytas.
The rosters of the top basketball teams in each season's European-wide professional club competitions :
Group 8 consisted of six of the 50 teams entered into the European zone: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Macedonia, Republic of Ireland, and Romania. These six teams competed on a home-and-away basis for two of the 15 spots in the final tournament allocated to the European zone, with the group's winner and runner-up claiming those spots.
Basketball is the most popular sport in Lithuania. During public opinion polls in Lithuania, the Lithuanians regularly describe basketball as their priority interest sport. A research in 2015 indicated that nearly 41% of all population in Lithuania watched the EuroBasket 2015 final between Lithuania and Spain and it became the most watched event of the 21st century in Lithuania. The popularity of basketball among Lithuanians led to it being nicknamed as the "second religion" in Lithuania.