FC Stumbras

Football Club Stumbras was a professional football club, based in Kaunas, Lithuania, which played in A Lyga, the top tier of Lithuanian football. Founded in 2013 on the basis of the NFA, the club has reached the heights of Lithuanian football in a fairly short period of time. It became infamous for one-sided footballer contracts. The club stopped functioning mid-season in 2019 after the owner pulled out the funds. The club played its home matches at the Darius and Girėnas Stadium (capacity 9,180) and used the NFA stadium in Kaunas (capacity 500) as an alternative.

Stumbras
Full nameFootball Club Stumbras Kaunas
Founded2013
Dissolved2019[1]
ShareholdersRichard Walsh
Mariano Barreto
Mark Lehnett
Carlos Olavo
20198th (defunct)
WebsiteClub website

Name history

  • 2013 – FC Stumbras Kaunas

History

The club was established in 2013 on the basis of the Nacionalinė Futbolo Akademija team, adopting the name FC Stumbras and playing in II Lyga Southern Zone. The majority of the team's players were under 20 years old. Stumbras finished 2nd in the league and were promoted to I Lyga for the next year.

In 2014 FC Stumbras was able to sign a few more experienced players to go with their youth, most notably former national team striker and Kaunas native Artūras Rimkevičius. Stumbras started out the season strongly winning the first 8 matches. In July 2014, during the break, it was announced that 3 starting squad players Martynas Zaleckis, Klaidas Janonis and Klaudijus Upstas would leave the team, Rolandas Čepkauskas becoming the new head coach was announced a few days after.[2] FC Stumbras went on to finish the regular season 3rd, making it to the second phase. After beating FK Nevėžis 4–1 in the last match of the season, Stumbras secured 1st place in the league and Artūras Rimkevičius was declared top goal scorer with 26. The last team to represent the second largest city in Lithuania in A Lyga was FBK Kaunas in 2012. FC Stumbras chairman Vytautas Vaškūnas confirmed that the club would use their right to play in the top Lithuanian league in 2015 and Kaunas would have a team in A Lyga once again, he also confirmed the club would bring back Rimkevičius and would most likely strengthen the squad even more the following season.[3]

Stumbras made it official that they would like to join the premier Lithuanian football league for the 2015 season, on the second check up Stumbras was accepted. Getting ready for the 2015 season Stumbras already proved their worth playing matches against Lithuanian and foreign clubs, losing only once to Estonian Champions FC Levadia 1-0. On 28 January 2015, it was announced that 6 new players would join the club Nerijus Mačiulis, Tomas Snapkauskas, Mantvydas Eiza, Martynas Dapkus, Giedrius Kvedaras and Aleksandr Sikorskiy, later Darius Gvildys was announced as new head coach. Before the start of the season, Stumbras management surprised everyone when announcing that fans are welcome to watch them play for free for their home matches.[4] On 28 February 2015, FC Stumbras debuted in A Lyga beating FK Šiauliai 3-1 in Kaunas.

In 2019 season Stumbras won against FK Sūduva Marijampolė and FK Žalgiris Vilnius, team was in first position, but after first round team had problems, and could not win any more. In summer club lost place in 2019–20 UEFA Europa League[5] and later in A Lyga[6] and at last defunct.[7]

Stadium

Darius and Girėnas Stadium

The club plays its home matches at the Darius and Girėnas Stadium. Stadium is a multi-use stadium in the Ąžuolynas park in Žaliakalnis district of Kaunas, Lithuania. The all-seater stadium holds 9,180. In 1998 the stadium was renovated according to UEFA regulations, and in 2005 it was modernised with the installation of the biggest stadium television screen in the Baltic states.

Crest and colours

Only in 2013 after adapting the name Stumbras, the crest came along with it. It features a blue bison with a football being squashed under its leg on the background of a white shield with red borders and then placed on another shield which is blue with white text saying FC Stumbras at the top and Kaunas in smaller text under it. The choice of name and branding for the club is believed to be a reference to the historic coat of arms of Kaunas, which from 1935 to 1992 featured a white bison instead of an aurochs.

Since the beginning, the club has used the colors blue and white on their kits. The logo contained some red; at the start of the 2015 season the club played its debut match with new kits that introduced the color red to their uniforms.

Kit manufacturers

Kit evolution

  • Home kit: blue shirt, blue shorts and white socks. Signs and details on shirts and shorts are white.
Traditional home kit
2013–2016 Away kit
Away kit in 2017 season
Away kit in 2018 season
Goalkeeper`s kit 2018 Home

Achievements

LFF I Lyga Championship: 1

  • 2014

Lithuanian Cup:

Participation in Lithuanian championships

European record

As of July 2018

Season Competition Round Club Home Away Agg.
2018–19 UEFA Europa League 1QR Apollon Limassol 1−0 0–2 1–2
Notes
  • QR: Qualifying round

Last squad before defunt

As of 4 July 2019

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
2 DF  LTU Rokas Rasimavičius
3 MF  BRA Matheus Bissi
4 DF  POR André Almeida
5 DF  LTU Arnas Paura
6 MF  UKR Yehor Kondratyuk
8 MF  LTU Elvinas Navickas
9 MF  GEO Levan Macharashvili
10 MF  LTU Domantas Antanavičius
13 MF  LTU Simas Gedžiūnas
14 MF  LTU Lukas Čepkauskas
17 MF  POR Antonio Belo
19 MF  NGA Gavi Thompson
No. Pos. Nation Player
20 DF  MEX Gerardo Alonso
21 MF  UKR Denys Pidruchnyi
23 DF  LTU Deividas Raulinaitis
27 MF  MDA Andrei Ciofu
33 MF  LTU Tanas Petukauskas
40 GK  LTU Tomas Raudonikis
80 MF  LTU Arnas Borodinas
91 GK  LTU Giedrius Kvedaras
94 MF  BRA Mateus Gama
99 FW  GUI Alsény Bah
MF  KAZ Demiyat Slambekov

Staff

As of 5 March 2019.

Position Name
President Richard Walsh
Chief Operating Officer Brian Forde
Director Karolis Dieninis
Director of football Giedrius Klevinskas
Head Coach João Luís Gouveia Martins
Assistant Coach Pedro Miranda
Coach Luis Guilherme Morgado Rodrigues
Goalkeeping Coach Artūras Ramoška
Physio Artur Pereira

Managers

Partnership

References

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