This interview is reproduced and translated from Latvian with kind permission of the author, Edmunds Novickis. The interview originally appeared on Novickis’ Patreon page and was later syndicated on sportacentrs.com.
On 8th of January 2025, 24 year old captain of the Latvia national team – Kristers Tobers – made a somewhat surprising departure from the Swiss Super League Grasshoppers Zurich to sign with the Scottish Premier League side Aberdeen FC. Having represented Latvia at each level, Tobers made his debut with the senior team at the age of 18 against North Macedonia and recorded 37 appearances, including scoring one goal, since then. One of the leading talents of his generation, he has already played in the top tier clubs in Latvia, Poland, Switzerland and now, also Scotland.
One of the overarching themes of the interview was whether moving from Grasshoppers to Scotland constitutes a step up for Tobers or not. Novickis wasted no time to address this issue, asking whether Kristers was seeking to leave Switzerland first and come to Scotland only second:
The Swiss league is not to blame, that’s 100% clear. It was the winter period, when the vacation had started, that my agent mentioned interest from Aberdeen and advised me to talk to the club to hear what they have to say and to understand their vision. We arranged a video call with some of the senior management and coaching staff and the presentation they gave me certainly left an impression. They showed me how they saw me, my strengths and weaknesses in great detail, and offered some ideas of both how they want to see me play and of how I could contribute to the longer-term goals of the club in general.
Despite an excellent start of the season, Aberdeen’s fortunes took a turn for the worse more recently. Still, Tobers recognised that the club was fighting for European places and had ambitions to challenge the ‘Old Firm’ – two Glasgow-based giants of Scottish football, Celtic and Rangers – which he found to be an appealing challenge to be a part of.
So, several factors played a role in my transfer decision and. in the end it seemed like it was the right decision for me because it felt right. I spoke with the sport director of Grasshoppers and expressed my desire to test myself in Scotland. He wasn’t particularly happy with these news and the club was reluctant to let me go right away. They asked me to stay until summer and said that it was always difficult to find a central defender on a good day, let alone during the winter transfer window. In the end, however, we agreed on the move on amicable terms. Whether this move is a step forward or backward, I cannot say for now. All I know is that I won’t know unless I try.
When probed on the financial aspects of the transfer, Tobers admitted that, money-wise, there was no substantial difference between his old contract in Switzerland and the new one, in Scotland. In real terms, however, the cost of living in Aberdeen is significantly lower than that of Zurich, which is something that, as Kristers admitted, his new team-mates were also quick to point out.
At the time of the interview, Tobers had just arrived to Aberdeen and only played part of the game against the Heart of Midlothian from Edinburgh. When asked about how he was settling in, Kristers admitted that it is still early days but that he felt well-received by the team and the coaching staff.
I’ve only been here for a week, but I was immediately thrown into the game. There was a very pleasant atmosphere in the stadium and you could really feel the home fans pushing the team forward. Even when there is a half-moment when you cross the center line, you already feel that the fans are spurring you on and expect the team to create a chance on goal. I still have to get used to many things about the team and to understand the specifics of what kind of football is played here, but the guys did say that we will be able to enjoy this type of atmosphere even more in the upcoming game against Rangers.
On settling in, Kristers added that his personal affairs are still very much scattered between Aberdeen and Zurich and made sure to acknowledge the help of this girlfriend in stepping up to finish up domestic matters in Switzerland so that he could focus on being there for Aberdeen to a 100%. There is a noticeable Latvian diaspora in Aberdeen and Tobers admitted that more than a few local Latvians reached out to him on social media with offers to help settle in in any way possible, once the transfer announcement was made. One person, as it turned out, even lived a few houses away from his childhood home back in Latvia, which is especially noteworthy considering that Tobers comes from a small town close to both the Baltic sea and the Lithuanian border, called Rūcava. While Rūcava features a beautiful church, it also has a population of only about 500.