The Lithuanian seaside has always been known for producing footballers. Although neither Palanga nor Klaipėda currently have a team in the country’s top division, other clubs from the region have enjoyed strong seasons. Gargždai-based Banga have impressed in the Toplyga, while Kretinga Minija are closing in on promotion as likely Pirma lyga champions. This interview, however, is not about clubs. It is about former Lithuania international striker Karolis Laukžemis, who has not yet ended his career and continues to play professionally.
Despite being 34, the Palanga-born forward remains in demand abroad. He has most recently played in the Maldives and India, while during the summer he received several interesting offers, including one from an Afghan club that had competed in Asian Champions League qualifying.
In a career spanning more than a decade, Laukžemis has experienced football across Europe and Asia. He spoke about dressing-room tensions, threats from teammates, agents and sporting directors, life in extreme heat, loyalty in football and his memories with the Lithuania national team.
How would you describe yourself to someone who does not know you? As a person and as a footballer, what are your main strengths?
That is a difficult question because it is not easy to talk about yourself. As a person, I always try to be honest and speak openly. As a footballer, I always want to win and fight until the end.
What are your hobbies apart from football? What were you best and worst at in school?
My hobby is sport and an active lifestyle. School was such a long time ago that it is difficult to remember. I was pretty average in everything. I was not extremely good or extremely bad at anything. For an athlete, I studied quite well.
You made 31 appearances for the Lithuania national team. Which matches were the most memorable and why?
The most memorable ones were the games in which I scored. I would mention our wins against Albania and Kazakhstan away from home. I also remember the match against Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo.
What percentage of players do you think go to the Lithuania national team because of the money, such as appearance bonuses in European Championship or World Cup qualifiers, and how many go because of love for their country? Do players with big contracts sometimes protect themselves in international matches, or do they still play at full intensity?
You cannot really know what is inside every person’s head, but at least during my time I do not think anyone played at half speed or tried to protect themselves. At that level, you would immediately get exposed and also let your teammates down. I want to believe that everyone always gave 100 percent.
What was the best advice you received from an experienced player when you were young, and what would you tell players who are only starting their careers? What would you change in your own career if you could turn back time?
My advice would be to train more than you do now. If you train with the team in the morning, then in the evening you should train again and work on your weaknesses. The more you put into it, the more you will get back. If I could change something, there are definitely a few decisions I would make differently. I would not have gone to Romania for half a season (12 appearances for UTA Arad in 2022 – auth.). I should have made a different choice at that time. After that, there was a snowball effect and it became difficult to return to a similar level again.
Your brother Klaidas Laukžemis is also a footballer and plays as a goalkeeper. Do you communicate a lot despite the age difference, and how do you see his potential?
We do. During the off-season we often train together. He is a goalkeeper and I am a striker, so we can both get good work out of it. I think he can reach at least the level I played at. If circumstances are favourable, he can even go beyond that and I would not be surprised at all. A lot will depend on whose hands he ends up in and whether the environment helps him continue developing.
Do intrigues exist in men’s football? If so, how do they show themselves? Have you ever been involved in a fight during training or had to separate teammates?
Of course they exist. If the team is not doing well, there is constant tension. It becomes harder to show your best football and you start feeling extra pressure. Players feel it from supporters, club management or coaches. Then it is not enjoyable.
As for conflicts, I do not think I was ever involved in a proper fight. But one teammate threatened me and said that if I was in his country, he would break my fingers. I told him to do it in the country we were in. That was basically the end of our conflict.
Have you encountered dirty games from agents? Or do we sometimes exaggerate by blaming everything on agents, because it is no secret that many sporting directors work closely with agents and these things are often interconnected, with sporting directors and club presidents sometimes protecting their own interests?
I cannot really say that I experienced serious deception from agents because when someone starts doing strange things, you simply stop working with them and cut contact. You choose people you can trust.
It is true that sporting directors sometimes work with certain agents and only take players from them. In some ways you can understand it. For example, you buy fruit from a place where you know it will be fresh instead of trying somewhere completely new. Maybe sporting directors also take players through agents they trust because they believe those agents will bring them good footballers.
How have the methods of agents and sporting directors changed from when you started playing compared with the period after Covid? Are things getting better or worse?
It is difficult to say. I think it is quite similar. These behind-the-scenes games existed before, they exist now and they will always exist. I have gone through that more than once. Football is a business. Everything revolves around quite a lot of money, but there are also situations where someone can cheat you over a few hundred euros without feeling any guilt.
How could this situation be improved? Will there be more deception in the future, and does a person’s word mean less nowadays?
I do not know. Maybe it comes down to a person’s moral values. I do not think there is any need to make it personal. If there is a lack of trust, both sides can protect themselves by signing authorisation or agreements. Then it becomes easier to avoid deception and tricks.
Is the Slovenian league overrated? Celje currently have almost half of the Lithuania national team, but what is the real level there?
I would not say it is overrated. I played there in the second half of the 2019/20 season. A lot has changed since then. At that time there were four good teams and five or six weaker ones. The football was more open and attacking. From what I follow now, the competition there is much stronger. I would say it is a league somewhere between Lithuania and Croatia or Serbia.
You have played in both Europe and Asia as a foreign player. Where was it easier for you to adapt and where did you feel best? Is it still true that football is only really played in Europe and players go to Asia mainly to earn money?
I felt good everywhere where I was playing and things were going well. The easiest place to adapt and probably the place where I felt best was Kazakhstan. Maybe it was because the cultural difference was smaller and because I could speak Russian and understand what people were saying. That gives you a lot.
I would say it is a myth that players go to Asia only to earn money because the salaries are not huge everywhere. Quite often wages can be delayed or clubs try to cut something from what you are owed.
Football is played everywhere. At the beginning it is not easy there either because you have to understand the local style of football and adapt immediately. As a foreign player, you have to deliver results straight away. If you think you can simply go there and enjoy warm weather, you can get burned very quickly.
Tell us about your experiences in Asia for someone who has never been there. What is different about the environment, people, climate and football itself?
First of all, the heat. In Thailand and the Maldives, where I played, we always had to train and play in temperatures of around 30 to 35 degrees. Even in Kazakhstan, the temperature could rise close to 40 degrees during the summer. You need time just to adapt to that.
The people are also different. They take many things personally. If you raise your voice at someone too much during training or a match, you should not expect many passes from them afterwards.
As for the football itself, it is more open and less physical. They have quality, speed and explosiveness, but the main weakness is physical preparation and tactical positioning, as well as understanding systems.
When you put everything together, the football becomes more open and more favourable for strikers.
Earlier in your career you usually stayed longer at clubs and before Covid your choices were quite consistent and loyal. Is loyalty still a value in football nowadays? What do you think about players who change clubs every six months or every year and never stay anywhere longer than one season? What does that say about them?
That is a good question. After one of my experiences, I realised that loyalty does not really mean much in football. It definitely does not mean that if you were loyal to a club for five years, they cannot throw you out. There are no sentiments.
I would say players are more loyal to clubs than clubs are to players. Players who change clubs often are probably just looking for somewhere better and somewhere they can earn more. Because of that, I completely understand them. Time also influences those choices because a sporting career does not last forever.
After Covid you changed around ten clubs. It almost feels like you wanted to make up for the whole career. Or did it simply happen because you decided to take more risks and accept better-paid offers from Asia, knowing your career would not last forever?
Like I said before, it just became a snowball effect. I definitely did not want it to happen that way, but it happened. For a striker, it can be like this: you play well for three or four months, score five or six goals, and suddenly you get a lot of calls and messages from agents.
That is what happened to me. I would play well for a while and then move somewhere better. After that I would come back again. I definitely wanted something more stable, but at the same time I also wanted to earn more and see the world. I visited many countries and I do not regret that.
Who did you support during the World Cup and did you watch the matches at night?
I have supported Brazil since childhood, so it was the same this time. I did not watch all of their matches because of the time difference. I mostly watched the evening games during the tournament.
How much influence do partners have on footballers when it comes to career decisions, and would you give Lithuanian citizenship to a foreign player?
It is difficult to say how it works for others, but for me it never influenced my decisions. I wanted to play abroad for as long as possible and I managed to do that. My wife also enjoyed it, so she travelled everywhere with me.
I would give citizenship and the opportunity to play for the national team to a foreigner, but only to someone who has put down some roots in Lithuania or has Lithuanian heritage.
Generally speaking, is it painful to see the Lithuania national team losing? Lithuania have not won an official match for more than two years. What do you think are the reasons?
I think those statements and calculations about not winning for two years are exaggerated a little. When I played, and I think it is still the same now, the players treated all of those matches as official matches and wanted to win them at any cost.
There was a win against Moldova and there were several draws. I think the whole discussion about the number of years is sometimes made more dramatic than it really is.
Of course, everyone would like to see more victories. I think that in a couple of years our leading players will reach the peak of their careers and then we can expect better results.
You scored your first senior international goal against Latvia in the 2018 Baltic Cup. Lithuania have not won the competition since 2010, while Estonia have won three of the last four editions. What are they doing differently from Lithuania?
Yes, I will remember that goal for the rest of my life. It is difficult to say what the reasons are because on paper all three national teams are more or less at a similar level. Everything comes down to details and a little bit of luck, and luck has never been particularly generous to us.
Finally, what do you plan to do after your playing career ends?
After my career, I would like to stay in football, whether that is in management or coaching. I have not fully decided yet. I think time will put everything into place.
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