Valdas Ivanauskas (born July 31, 1966 in Kaunas) is the current first team coach of Hearts football club and a former football striker from Lithuania. He played 28 international matches and scored 8 goals for the national team, and also played 5 matches for the Soviet Union between 1988 and 1990.
Ivanauskas started his playing career and soon became a regular with FK Žalgiris, a club that was a respected member of the old Soviet Premier Division. Ivanauskas spent the 1985 season in the Second Division with CSKA Moscow, but then he returned to Žalgiris. However, in season 1990, he played in the Second Division for Lokomotiv Moscow after Žalgiris decided to transfer to the new Lithuanian League.
In November 1990 he moved abroad to play for Austria Vienna, where he was hugely successful with 52 goals in 122 games during which he was twice the leading scorer in the League. As a result, Valdas helped Austria to win three successive Championships and in June 1992, the Lithuanian striker scored the only goal of the Cup Final against Admira Wacker.
In July 1993 he moved to Germany and became the first Lithuanian to play in the German Bundesliga, playing 100 matches for Hamburger SV between 1993 and 1997 and scoring 17 goals. He was also a hero in his homeland and was voted Lithuanian Footballer of the year in 1990, 1991, 1993 and 1994.
In the summer of 1997 he moved back to Austria, and signed for SV Salzburg, where he spent two seasons including a spell at St. Pölten before ending his career at a German Regional League side SV Wilhelmshaven in July 1999. Two years later the 35-year old striker had a season with BV Cloppenburg where he retired for good in June 2002.
Since retiring he has acquired a UEFA Professional Coaching Licence in Germany and in 2003 started his manager career when he became assistant manager of the Lithuanian national team. The same year Ivanauskas also took caretaker position in FK Vetra, and was later appointed on a permanent basis. In 2004 season Ivanauskas led FK Vetra to its first ever Intertoto Cup third-round appearance, eliminating Tony Mowbray’s revitalised Hibernian side, but resigned in August citing personal problems and that he was too occupied with his job in the national team. However in just a couple of weeks time he took over at FBK Kaunas and led the club to Lithuanian championship title and Lithuanian Cup victory.
In summer 2005 after a run of poor results he resigned from FBK Kaunas. It was rumoured that he might take over Scottish team Heart of Midlothian, a club with a Lithuanian-based owner and several Lithuanian players. Although these rumors persisted even after the sacking of managers John Robertson and George Burley, the club subsequently appointed Graham Rix as head coach. However, when in March 2006 Rix was also sacked, Ivanauskas was promoted to the position of interim head first team coach until the end of the season.
After finishing second in the SPL and guiding to club to a Scottish Cup triumph, it was announced on 30 June 2006 that Ivanauskas had been appointed as Hearts’ head coach on a permanent basis.
On Monday October 23 2006, Valdas Ivanauskas was given two weeks leave by majority shareholder, Vladimir Romanov, citing health reasons – believed to be stress. He was replaced by Eduard Malofeev. This casting shadows over his Hearts future following a 2-0 defeat to a resillient Kilmarnock side at Tynecastle.
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