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After the end of the 2006 season of the "A Lyga", Vilnius, who won bronze medals in the Lithuanian championship, decided not to extend the contract with the safe Aidus Preikšaitis, which was announced on Thursday on the official club website.
According to the head coach of "Vėtra" Aleksandras Tarchanovas, after the contract with the 36-year-old veteran has expired, it was decided not to extend it, because the team will be rejuvenated after this season - there are already several candidates for the defensive midfielder position, and a young, promising football player should take the place of an experienced midfielder.
Preikšaitis has been playing for "Vėtra" since 2004. In total, while wearing the "Vėtra" jersey in the Lithuanian championships, the midfielder played 76 matches and scored 9 goals. This year, in the "A Lyga", A. Preikšaitis played 32 matches and scored against opponents' goalkeepers 6 times, and recently, in the election of the best football player in Lithuania, he performed the best among his teammates and took the fifth place.
Representing "Vėtra", the veteran returned to the Lithuanian national team after a long break and played 10 matches in the last two years. Throughout his career, Aidas Preikšaitis represented the national team as many as 48 times, ranking fifth among all Lithuanian football players in this indicator.
Preikšaitis is likely not the only player who will change clubs during the off-season among the specialists selected for the top ten of the "A Lyga". One of the leaders of Marijampolė's "Sūduva", the veteran midfielder Darius Maciulevičius, has not extended his contract, and Mantas Savėnas, the captain of Panevėžio "Ekrantas", the best player of the 2005 championship, has been openly expressing his desire to try his luck abroad for some time now.
