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| Career | |
| Position: | Defender |
| Clubs: | Budapesti USC (Hun), Hapoel Kfar Saba (Isr), Skonto Riga (since 1992) |
| International appearances: | 89 |
| International goals: | 7 |
| Last international appearance: | 19/11/2003, Turkey-Latvia (2-2) |
| Last international goal: | 21/02/2004, Belarus-Latvia (4-1) |
Winner (1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003)
Winner (1995, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002)
Biography
Latvia coach Alexanders Starkovs will put his money on veteran defender Mihails Zemlinskis to provide the national team with resilience at the back as the Skonto Riga stalwart closes in rapidly on a hundred caps.
Alongside club teammates, Igors Stepanovs and Vitalijs Astafjevs, the trio form a familiar sight in defence and will line up in front of 'keeper Aleksandrs Kolinko to stand tall in the face of opponents.
He will be 35 in late 2004 but is a reliable and crucial player to his team's chances especially when they are set to come up against the likes of Holland, the Czech Republic and Germany in the first round.
An example of this was during the important Euro qualifier against Sweden, when Latvia went down to ten men following the red card shown to Dzintars Zirnis and the defence had to survive some nervy moments to get a result.
Swede Marcus Allback even had his spot-kick saved by Kolinko following the red card to keep their chances alive: "I was sure Kolinko would pull something off," confided Zemlinskis.
The save proved vital as Sweden failed to overcome an earlier Latvian goal and slumped to a 1-0 defeat that propelled the unfancied Baltic State into the play-offs against Turkey, where there was to be even more drama.
After carving out a 1-0 win in the first-leg, Latvia went two goals down in Istanbul only to stun the Turkish crowd with two late equalisers for a heroic upset and a prestigious place at Euro 2004 in Portugal.
Zemlinskis has the look of a warrior with his long shoulder length hair and is a tough physical player.
His club career has been built on solid foundations at Skonto Riga, the biggest club in the country and winner of every domestic title since the league was formed.
Another advantage is the convenient matter that Starkovs is also the coach of Riga and well positioned to observe the bulk of his team.
He was named best defender in Latvia in 2003, a historic year for this nation of just 2.4 millon inhabitants, qualifying for their first major tournament.