Lukas Spalvis

Lukas Spalvis

Spalvis in 2017.
Personal information
Full name	Lukas Spalvis
Date of birth	(1994-07-27) 27 July 1994 (age 30)
Place of birth	Vilnius, Lithuania
Height	1.89 m (6 ft 2 in)
Position(s)	Forward
Youth career
2009–2011	SV Weil 1910 [1]
2011–2012	SC Freiburg [1]
2012–2013	AaB
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2013–2016	AaB	53	(26)
2016–2018	Sporting CP	0	(0)
2017	→ Belenenses (loan)	0	(0)
2017–2018	→ 1. FC Kaiserslautern (loan)	24	(5)
2017–2018	→ 1. FC Kaiserslautern II (loan)	1	(2)
2018–2021	1. FC Kaiserslautern	31	(8)
International career‡
2012–2013	Lithuania U19	3	(0)
2014–2015	Lithuania U21	8	(4)
2014–	Lithuania	18	(2)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 12:15, 19 October 2021 (UTC) ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 22:48, 1 August 2019 (UTC)

Lukas Spalvis (born 27 July 1994) ^[2] is a retired Lithuanian professional footballer who last played as forward for 1. FC Kaiserslautern.

Early years

Lukas Spalvis was born in Lithuania. When he was six, he emigrated with his mother from Lithuania and settled in Switzerland in Basel. While living in Basel, he went to a German school. ^[1]

Club career

Youth

Spalvis joined in 2010 the SV Weil 1910 from Weil am Rhein, the German neighboring town of Basel. In 2011, he joined the youth academy of SC Freiburg.

AaB

Spalvis joined the club as a youth player in 2012 and was promoted to the first team squad in the summer of 2013. He got his first match for AaB when he was in the line up in the DBU Pokalen game against Silkeborg IF on 29 August 2013. His first Danish Superliga appearance happened on 6 October 2013 when he was subbed in during the 74th minute against Viborg FF. ^[3]

While playing for AaB, Spalvis earned the nickname "Zweimal" meaning "twice" in German. He earned this nickname because he, for every match in which he scored a goal, always scored a second goal in the game as well. This streak held for 5 matches, until scoring just one goal against OB on 24 August 2015.

In the first half of the 2015–16 Danish Superliga Season, he had impressively scored 14 goals in 17 league matches, leading to transfer rumors about Spalvis moving to Galatasaray ^[4] and Sporting Clube de Portugal. ^[5]

Sporting CP

On 8 February 2016, it was confirmed, that Spalvis will move to Sporting Clube de Portugal ^[6] from 1 July 2016. He would therefore play in AaB to the end of the 2015–16 Danish Superliga-season.

Due to his many injuries, Spalvis didn't play any games for Sporting in the first half season, and the club loaned out the forward to Belenenses on 1 January 2017. But only 16 days later, they called Spalvis back from Belenenses and canceled the contract, because 'he wasn't fit enough' and 'they wasn't ready to take that risk'. ^[7]

On 2 February 2017, Sporting announced that Spalvis would play the remainder of the year on loan for Norwegian club Rosenborg BK. Rosenborg said that Spalvis would transfer to them on loan if he passed his medical. Spalvis had suffered from a severe knee injury since his arrival at Sporting. On 14 February, Spalvis failed his medical and Rosenborg said that Spalvis was not ready for the club pending that Sporting would pay the players fees during his rehabilitation with them. ^[8] On 27 February, Rosenborg announced that the transfer would not be completed as Rosenborg and Sporting could not come to a deal that satisfied the Norwegian club.

1. FC Kaiserslautern

Spalvis was loaned out again on 5 July 2017, joining 2. Bundesliga side 1. FC Kaiserslautern for the 2017–18 season. ^{[9] [10]} On 8 May 2018, it was announced that he had joined 1. FC Kaiserslautern on a permanent deal. ^[11]

On 25 August 2018, in a league match against Karlsruher SC, he sustained a cartilage injury to his knee. The injury was estimated to keep him out of action for a "long" time. ^[12] After two years without team training he returned in April 2021. ^[13]

He agreed the termination of his contract in October 2021. ^[14]

International career

Spalvis played several matches for youth national teams, including Lithuania U-19 and Lithuania U-21. In March 2014 he made his debut for the senior team, in a friendly match against Kazakhstan.

Career statistics

Club

As of 19 October 2021 ^{[15] [16]}

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Club	Season	League			National Cup		Continental		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
AaB	2013–14	Danish Superliga	17	8	5	3	—		22	11
	2014–15		6	0	—		2	0	8	1
	2015–16		30	18	3	1	—		29	18
	Total		53	26	6	4	2	0	61	30
Sporting CP	2016–17	Primeira Liga	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
1. FC Kaiserslautern (loan)	2017–18	2. Bundesliga	24	5	1	1	0	0	25	6
1. FC Kaiserslautern	2018–19	3. Liga	5	1	1	1	0	0	6	2
Career total			67	30	7	5	2	0	76	35

International

As of match played 2 August 2019 ^[17]

Appearances and goals by national team and year

National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Lithuania	2014	4	1
	2015	6	1
	2016	5	0
	2017	3	0
Total		18	2

Scores and results list Lithuania's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Spalvis goal.

List of international goals scored by Lukas Spalvis

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition	Ref.
1	6 June 2014	PGE Arena Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland	Poland	1–0	1–2	Friendly	[18]
2	8 September 2015	LFF Stadium, Vilnius, Lithuania	San Marino	2–1	2–1	UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying	[19]

Honours

Club

AaB

• Danish Superliga: 2013–14
• Danish Cup: 2013–14

Individual

• Lithuanian Footballer of the Year: 2015
• Best player in the fall 2015, Superliga.
• Player of the Month, Superliga (2): April 2014 and October 2015.
• UEFA Top Scorer

References

1. "Spalvis og den tyske omvej til den danske top". tipsbladet.dk (in Danish). Tipsbladet ApS. 19 August 2013. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
2. "Lukas Spalvis – AaB A/S" (in Danish). aabsport.dk. Archived from the original on 13 December 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
3. "Superligakamp AaB-Viborg FF 3–1, 06.10.2013 – SuperStats" (in Danish). superstats.dk. 6 October 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
4. "Lukas Spalvis atmetė dosnų kinų pasiūlymą: vilioja "Galatasaray?". lrytas.lt. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
5. "AaB i dialog med Sporting Lissabon om Spalvis". tipsbladet.dk. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
6. bold.dk. "Spalvis skifter til Sporting til sommer". bold.dk. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
7. Comunicado sobre Lukas Spalvis‚ sporting.pt, 26 January 2017
8. AS, TV 2. "Ny RBK-spiss strøk på medisinsk sjekk". tv2.no. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
9. "Fix: Spalvis landet beim 1. FC Kaiserslautern". kicker Online (in German). 5 July 2017. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
10. "FCK verpflichtet Lukas Spalvis" (in German). 1. FC Kaiserslautern. 5 July 2017. Retrieved 5 July 2017.
11. "L. Spalvis tapo pilnaverčiu į trečią Vokietijos lygą krentančio klubo nariu" (in Lithuanian). eurofootball.lt. 8 May 2018. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
12. "Knorpelschaden! Lange Pause für Kaiserslauterns Angreifer Spalvis". kicker (in German). 23 September 2018. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
13. "Nach über zwei Jahren: 1. FC Kaiserslauterns Spalvis zurück im Training". kicker (in German). 28 April 2021. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
14. "Nach langer Leidenszeit: Lukas Spalvis verlässt den FCK". kicker (in German). 19 October 2021. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
15. Lukas Spalvis at Soccerway. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
16. "Lukas Spalvis » Club matches". worldfootball.net. Retrieved 18 February 2018.
17. Lukas Spalvis at National-Football-Teams.com
18. "Poland 2 Lithuania 1". ESPN. Retrieved 7 June 2014.
19. UEFA.com. "UEFA EURO 2016 - Matches - UEFA.com". UEFA.com. Retrieved 6 June 2017.