© EuroFootball.com
The football team of the Vilnius city football association "Žalgiris" has signed a contract with the Lithuanian national team defender Linas Pilibaitis.
The 28-year-old footballer joined the Lithuanian champions from Hungary.
Last season, he represented the "Mezokovesd" club, where he was loaned from the Debrecen ETO team.
In eleven matches played, the footballer from Kretinga scored 1 goal.
"L. Pilibaitis was one of our main targets during the winter transfer window. We are very happy that he joined the "Žalgiris" family.
Linus' transfer took a bit of time, as he had a valid contract with the Hungarian Debrecen ETO team until summer.
We are happy that Linas successfully terminated it and ended up in our team," said "Žalgiris" sports director Mindaugas Nikoličius.
He believes that the defender will become one of the key players of the Lithuanian champions.
"We have assigned a very important role to L. Pilibaitis. We hope he will become one of the team's leaders.
He is a player known for his fighting character, leadership qualities, and ability to lead the team forward.
We hope he will control the tempo of the game for "Žalgiris" and be a crucial figure in our team.
We hope that Linas's transfer to "Žalgiris" will help him return to the Lithuanian national team," said M. Nikoličius.
The new "Žalgiris" player represented the Lithuanian national football team 27 times, 9 times for the under-19 team, and 6 times for the under-21 teams.
Wearing the yellow and green national team jerseys, L. Pilibaitis played against strong opponents such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Russia, France, Czech Republic, Scotland, Serbia, Romania.
The Kretinga-born professional footballer began his career at the FBK "Kaunas" club. At the age of 17, he debuted for the main team and became one of the key players of the team after a few years.
Representing the temporary capital city team, L. Pilibaitis became a Lithuanian champion 4 times, won the Lithuanian Cup 3 times, and the Lithuanian Supercup.
In the 2004 season, the footballer was loaned to Klaipėda's "Atlantas", and in 2007, he briefly played for Scotland's Edinburgh "Hearts" club.
L. Pilibaitis successfully played in the UEFA Champions League qualifying matches for FBK "Kaunas". In 2008, scoring 5 goals, he helped the team advance to the third round of the strongest league on the continent.
L. Pilibaitis scored twice in both matches against Andorra's "Santa Coloma" team. His accurate header helped eliminate Scotland's powerhouse Glasgow "Rangers" from European tournaments.
After a brilliant performance in Europe, the "Žalgiris" newcomer started playing for Hungary's Debrecen ETO team. In four years, he played 92 matches for this club and scored 7 goals.
In the 2012-2013 season, the Lithuanian national team defender helped Debrecen ETO win the Hungarian championship title.
