A private football museum founded by a Lithuanian football player from Veisiejai, Meirūnas Stankevičius, is an exclusive place for all football fans. The museum was started in 2022, completely by chance. At the request of the son of a football club jersey, the idea was born that a football museum could be established, since collecting exhibits throughout his life is Meirūnas' hobby. Currently, there are no such museums in Lithuania, and Meirūnas' collection is truly impressive. The stories of collecting football jerseys are also incredible, but you will learn about them only when you come to this exclusive museum in Veisiejai. The beginning of the football history of Veisiejai is the summer of 1935. It was the first football match between the Veisiejai football team and the Marijampolė club. As times changed, the team's names changed as well: "JSO", "Dzūkas", "Nemunas", "Ančia", and after Stasis Gražulevičius took over, in 1967 the team was given the name Veisiejai "Dainava".
The founder of the Football Museum, Meirūnas Stankevičius, started playing football at the age of 6. He first played for Veisiejai Dainava in 1999, when he was only 14 years old. However, this did not prevent him from scoring two goals against Alytus Vytis in his first season. While playing for Veisiejai Dainava, Meirūnas represented the Lithuanian U-18 national team in matches against Georgia, Latvia, and Russia. He was also invited to the national team camp several times. From 2000 to 2002, he represented the Alytus County national team in the Lithuanian Junior Championship with two other Veisiejai players. From 2003 to 2010, he played for Alytus Alytis. In 2010, he became the top scorer for Alytus, scoring 12 goals. In the same year, he became the winner of the "Dzūkų bucai" competition organized by the Alytus Football Federation. Meirūnas was recognized as the best striker of the year. Since 2011, he has been playing in the highest Lithuanian A league (FK "Mažeikiai", FK "Atlantas"), the next season he competed in the Lithuanian II league for FK "Druskininkai", and from 2014 to 2019 he returned to the Veisiejai "Dainava" team. Meirūnas Stankevičius has been elected the best athlete of Veisiejai city as many as 4 times, and has also been elected the best athlete several times in the elections of the best athletes organized by the Lazdijai District Sports Center.
It is very symbolic that the football museum is open to the general public to commemorate 90 years since the beginning of football history in Veisiejai. If you would like to visit the museum, please contact the given contact phone number or Facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/meirunas.stankevicius . The information is based on Zenonas Sabaliauskas' book "Football in Veisiejai" 1935-2019.
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