After two stints at the helm of the Lithuanian national soccer team, Algimantas Liubinskas aims to jump from the dugout to the benches of the Baltic state’s parliament.
“In life, you should never fear a challenge,” the 56-year-old said during a break from campaigning for tomorrow’s general election.
“Football, and sport in general, has always been the thing closest to my heart, so I never want to put it aside completely. This is just another way of doing it,” he said.
PHOTO: AFP
Liubinskas — who says his management models are Alex Ferguson, Luiz Felipe Scolari and Marcello Lippi — resigned as Lithuania coach in August after his second spell of five years in charge.
He quit under pressure from the national federation to choose between sport and politics, a tough decision which he says he regrets having had to make.
His campaign material plays heavily on his soccer image, showing him on the touchline in his manager’s kit.
“In politics, just like in sport, you have to be a team player,” he said. “When I was manager, I made the decisions, but we discussed everything. I think you can apply that in politics. You listen to what people want, discuss things, then make the decisions.”
Liubinskas is standing for the populist opposition Order and Justice Party, run by former president, Rolandas Paksas.
In 2004, Paksas suffered the ignominy of becoming the first ever European head of state to lose office through impeachment, after he was embroiled in a corruption scandal. He has always denied any wrongdoing, and now looks set for a comeback.
Liubinskas was tapped up by Order and Justice earlier this year.
“I liked a lot of what I saw in their manifesto, things such as the direct election of mayors, jury trials, and referendums,” he said.
Liubinskas began his career in the 1970s as a player with Vilnius side Zalgiris and in the 1980s managed the club in what was then the Soviet league. He got the Lithuania job in 1991, as the country regained independence after Soviet rule.
In 1995 he went back to club soccer following a spat with the national soccer federation, coaching sides at home and in Poland before returning to the national fold in 2002 as Olympic team manager.
He got the senior job back in 2003, and his squads notched up some qualifying upsets including holding Germany 1-1 ahead of Euro 2004, drawing 1-1 with Italy before the 2006 World Cup, and defeating Ukraine 2-0 before Euro 2008.
Valentinas Mazuronis, an Order and Justice kingpin who is tipped as a future prime minister, said it was an honor to have Liubinskas on board.
“Liubinskas has plenty of contacts, the human touch, and can be part of a winning team,” Mazuronis said.
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
“I don’t remember the moment, but ever since I was a kid, that’s the first thing I loved,” two-time NBA All-Star Isaiah Thomas said of his lifelong romance with basketball. However, that journey unfolded against the limitations of his size in a game where height often dictates opportunity — a reality he confronted throughout his career. At 175cm, Thomas is less than 2cm taller than the average Taiwanese adult male, while NBA players during his career stood at about 200cm on average. Compared with the NBA’s average career length of less than five years, Thomas’ 13-season career stands out as
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
Dakar and Rabat have longstanding ties, but relations have been strained since the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final, which Senegal won in mid-January before being stripped of the title, which was transferred to Morocco. Now, the AFCON trophy is something of a thorn in the two countries’ sides. On Rue Mohamed V, the street where Moroccan vendors are based in the Senegalese capital, a police van is parked. “The police have been on high alert since the Confederation of African Football [CAF] decided to award the title to Morocco, but there have been no incidents,” a local resident said.
RSS