Saulius Mikoliūnas

Not to be confused with Saulius Mikalajūnas.

Saulius Mikoliūnas

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Personal information
Date of birth	(1984-05-02) 2 May 1984
Place of birth	Vilnius, Lithuanian SSR
Height
Position(s)	Right winger
Team information
Current team	Žalgiris Vilnius
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2002–2003	Šviesa Vilnius	13	(1)
2003	Ekranas	16	(0)
2004–2009	FBK Kaunas	23	(0)
2005–2009	→ Hearts (loan)	102	(11)
2009–2013	Arsenal Kyiv	78	(6)
2013–2014	Sevastopol	16	(0)
2014–2015	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	32	(4)
2015–	Žalgiris Vilnius
International career‡
2004–	Lithuania	68	(5)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 1 December 2015 ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 9 October 2014

Saulius Mikoliūnas (born 2 May 1984 in Vilnius, Lithuanian SSR, Soviet Union) is a Lithuanian professional footballer playing for Žalgiris Vilnius. He is a Lithuanian international and has played for Scottish Premier League club Hearts and FBK Kaunas. Mikoliūnas also represented Lithuania at under-21 level.

Hearts

File:Mikoliunas Hearts.jpg

Saulius playing for Hearts in 2009

On 2 March 2005, during a match against Rangers at Tynecastle Stadium, Mikoliūnas received a double red card from referee Hugh Dallas. The player was initially sent off for barging linesman Andy Davis after a controversial penalty decision. He received a second card for later swearing at Dallas. Since that incident, Mikoliūnas has been sent off twice more against Rangers, both as a second-half substitute.

Mikoliūnas was a regular in the first team for Hearts, however inconsistency always dogged his Hearts career. He silenced many critics with the winner at Tynecastle vs city rivals Hibernian on 26 December 2006. Mikoliūnas announced on 2 December 2008 that he wanted to leave the Edinburgh club after the 2008–09 season, to take up a new football challenge after spending four years at the club. On 27 April 2009, it was confirmed with immediate effect that the midfielder and his Lithuanian colleague Deividas Česnauskis had left Hearts.

The following month, Mikoliūnas states he was to sign for Swansea City on a free transfer during the summer transfer window, but the move broke down after Swansea manager Roberto Martínez moved to Wigan Athletic.

Eventually, Mikoliūnas signed a three-year contract with Ukrainian side Arsenal Kyiv.

Position

Mikoliūnas is a right-sided winger who sometimes plays in the right-back position.

Honours

FBK Kaunas

• Lithuanian A Lyga: 2004
• Lithuanian Cup: 2004
• Lithuanian Super Cup: 2004

Hearts FC

• Scottish Cup: 2005–06

International

Mikoliūnas has scored four times in his ten-year international career. Having made his debut in 2004, he scored his first international goal in 2007 against Georgia. He followed that up a year later with a second goal, against Romania. On 11 October 2013, in 2014 FIFA World Cup Qualification he scored his most recent goal: against Latvia in a 2-0 home vicotry.

Every time that Mikoliūnas has scored for Lithuania, the team have won the match and kept a clean-sheet.

In 2011, he scored again against Poland before in a surprising 2-0 win.

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	2 June 2007	S. Darius and S. Girėnas Stadium, Kaunas	Georgia	1–0	1–0	UEFA Euro 2008
2.	6 September 2008	Gruia Stadium, Cluj-Napoca, Romania	Romania	2–0	3–0	FIFA World Cup 2010 qualifying
3.	25 March 2011	S. Darius and S. Girėnas Stadium, Kaunas	Poland	1–0	2–0	Friendly match
4.	11 October 2013	LFF stadium, Vilnius	Latvia	2–0	2–0	FIFA World Cup 2014 qualifying
5.	9 October 2014	LFF stadium, Vilnius	Estonia	1–0	1–0	UEFA Euro 2016

External links

• Saulius Mikoliunas career statistics at Soccerbase
• Saulius Mikoliūnas at National-Football-Teams.com
• Hearts Appearances at londonhearts.com
• Saulius Mikoliūnas at Soccerway