Daniels Balodis

Daniels Balodis (born 10 June 1998) is a Latvian footballer who plays as a defender for FC Tatran Prešov and the Latvia national team.

Club career At the age of 20 years-old, Balodis made his debut in the Virsliga for RFS. However, after only making two league appearances he continued his career at Daugavpils and then FK Jelgava. Just 6 days later, on 10 July 2024, Balodis scored a header against Larne of Northern Ireland in a 3–0 home victory in the first qualifying round of the 2024–25 UEFA Champions League. On 30 October 2024, he scored a late equaliser as RFS came back from 2–0 down in the final of the Latvian Cup against FK Auda to take the match to extra time, and eventually win the title.

He signed for Scottish Premiership club St Johnstone on 28 January 2025 on an 18-month contract. He made his debut for St Johnstone on 8 February 2025 in the Scottish Cup in a 1–0 home win against Hamilton Academical. He made his Scottish Premiership debut the following week away against Kilmarnock. On 6 April 2025, he scored the only goal of the game with a fourth-minute header from a Graham Carey free-kick as St Johnstone inflicted a surprise 1–0 defeat against runaway leaders Celtic who had been looking for a win to secure the Scottish league title.

International career Balodis made his international debut for Latvia on 16 November 2022 in the 2022 Baltic Cup against Estonia. He scored his first international goal for Latvia on 12 October 2023 in a 2–0 home win against Armenia in a qualifying match for the 2024 UEFA European Championship.

International goal Scores and results list Latvia's goal tally first. No Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition 1. 12 October 2023 Skonto Stadium, Riga, Latvia 2–0 2–0 Euro 2024 qualifier

Career statistics

International