Ferencvaros and Ludogorets were already quite modest, but RFS is on paper RSC Anderlecht’s most likely opponent in this European Cup. Here are five things to know about the Latvian club.
The RFS finished its season and is champion of Latvia
Rare fact: Anderlecht will face an opponent who, without the European Cup, would be in a way “on vacation” on this date. Indeed, the last day of the Latvian championship was held last weekend. The RFS won in Grobina, and thus confirmed its 3rd national champion title.
The previous week, the Latvian Cup final was on the program, and again, the RFS won against FK Auda, winning the third cup in its history. This is also the second cup-championship double for the Riga club after 2021.
A young club which only won its first titles recently
The RFS is not really a historic club in Latvian Football. Several clubs from Riga dominated local football: RFK Riga before the war (the club disappeared after the Second World War) with 8 championship titles, Skonto Riga after the disappearance of the USSR with 14 consecutive titles but bankruptcy in 2016 and finally Riga FC who won 3 titles and remains the RFS’s biggest current rival.
The RFS, for Rigas Futbola Skola (Riga football school), was founded in 2003 by the former director of the Skonto Riga academy, Vladimirs Belajevs. A bit as if Jean Kindermans had gone to form a whole new club when leaving Anderlecht and called it Neerpede FC. In 2016, following the bankruptcy of Skonto, the RFS will recover the registration number and therefore in a way the identity, to the point of winning three of the last four championship titles and therefore establishing itself as the number 1 club in the country.
La Gantoise crossed their path
The RFS had so far only participated in one European Cup group stage in its history, in 2022-2023. A year earlier, they lost in the last preliminary round… against La Gantoise, who still conceded an astonishing 2-2 draw in Latvia. The Buffalos had done the minimum service at the Ghelamco Arena (1-0) and had therefore qualified, but the RFS did not have a bad impression, far from it.
The Latvian club’s European exploits are, however, rare, although it should be noted that when the RFS faces weaker teams on paper, it rarely misses. The big recent performance is undoubtedly the elimination of APOEL Nicosia in the Europa League play-offs this season. But the draw (2-2) against Galatasaray on the second day of the league phase also proves that in Riga, the club is entirely capable of taking on a good opponent!
Two former Pro League players in the core
After struggling more than expected against the RFS, La Gantoise decided to take the opportunity to… attract the Latvian club’s top scorer: Darko Lemajic (31 years old). A transfer that felt a bit like a gamble and an impulsive decision after the Serb impressed with his size against the Buffalos. In Belgium, he won’t be ridiculous, but a little short all the same… and he has since returned to Latvia, where he finished this season with 10 goals in 23 games.
He is not the only player who has passed through the Jupiler Pro League into the core of the RFS. The Latvian goalkeeper, Fabrice Ondoais also an old acquaintance: from 2018 to 2020, he played 30 matches for KV Ostend. He is the indisputable starter for the Riga club this season, after a somewhat chaotic career, he who was trained at FC Barcelona and is the cousin of André Onana.
The RFS does not play in “its” stadium
Football is not the number 1 sport in Latvia (it’s ice hockey), and the stadiums there therefore do not meet European standards, even for the country’s number 1 club. It is therefore not in its usual stadium, the LNK Sporta Parks, which has however been recently renovated, that the match between the RFS and Anderlecht will take place.
The meeting will in fact take place at the Daugava Stadium, a stadium which until recently hosted the matches of the Latvian national team. This is the stadium of FK Metta in the championship, but it therefore hosts the RFS matches during the league phase of this Europa League (while the RFS was able to play its preliminary matches at Sporta Parks). A stadium with 10,000 seats, but which may well sound empty this Thursday.
A cheaper core… than Mario Stroeykens or Kasper Dolberg
The entire RFS core is valued at €9.4 million by Transfermarkt. The two most expensive players in the group are not even worth a million euros: Emerson Deocleciano (900,000) and captain Ziga Lipuscek (800,000).
For comparison, which we know is not correct, Mario Stroeykens and Kasper Dolberg are both worth 10 million euros; Anders Dreyer, Anderlecht’s most expensive player on the market, is valued at 12 million euros. A world of difference, therefore, which leaves the Mauves no choice: they must win this Thursday.
