Ģirts Karlsons (born 7 June 1981) is a Latvian football forward, who most recently played for the Latvian Higher League club FK Liepāja. Club career As a youth player Karlsons played for his local club FK Liepājas Metalurgs, being taken to the first team in 1998, at the age of 17. He spent the next six seasons with the club, becoming the second top scorer of the Latvian Higher League in 2003 with 26 goals, completing two hat-tricks during the season. All in all he played 96 matches for his local club, scoring 40 goals. After these bright appearances he had impressed clubs abroad, and in January 2004 Karlsons went on a month-long trial with the Russian Premier League club Shinnik Yaroslavl. Afterwards he signed a three-year contract with them. However, his spell there wasn't as successful as expected and was very short. After just one season, during which he played only 8 league matches without scoring goals, Karlsons returned to the Latvian Higher League, signing with the newly promoted, ambitious club Venta Kuldiga in 2005. However, the club struggled financially and after just five matches had to let some of their players go, including Karlsons, who returned to his hometown club, Liepājas Metalurgs later that year. He spent the next three seasons there, once again showing great performance. He scored a hat-trick in the 2005 season, and he also scored in the Latvian Cup final on 25 September 2005, which Metalurgs lost 2–1 to Venta Kuldīga. Another hat-trick came in the 2006 season, which Karlsons finished as the second top scorer with 14 goals. In the Latvian Cup he scored a hat-trick in the 6–1 semi-final victory over Dižvanagi Rēzekne and then scored in the final, which the club won 2–1 over Skonto Riga. In December 2006 Karlsons was named the runner-up of the Latvian Player of the Year Award by the Latvian Football Federation behind the winner Aleksandrs Koliņko, who that time was the first-choice keeper for Rubin Kazan in the Russian Premier League. His contract with Metalurgs expired in July 2007 and it was not renewed. Player was then linked with the English Championship club Bristol City, before going on trial with Southampton. In January 2008 he had a two-day trial with Wolverhampton Wanderers. Karlsons then had trials in the Netherlands with Zwolle and De Graafschap, and on 8 February 2008 he signed for De Graafschap, which