FK Trakai

The 2024 I Lyga title came with a specific job attached. Winning it returned the club to the A Lyga.

What went before was a run of near-misses. Twice, in 2015 and 2016, the side finished runners-up in the Lithuanian top flight. Twice it reached a Lithuanian Cup final and lost. Twice more, in 2016 and 2017, it came up short in the Super Cup — no trophy from any of them.

The starting point was smaller than any of that. Trakų futbolo klubas was set up in 2005 in Trakai, and it played its home games on grounds built to that scale: the newer stadium in Trakai held 2,000, the town stadium 200. A side that finished second in the country was doing it in front of crowds that would fit into one stand elsewhere.

February 2019 ended that arrangement. The club took the name FK Riteriai — the Knights — left Trakai for Vilnius, and swapped the yellow and blue it had worn since the beginning for green and dark blue. Home matches moved to FK Žalgiris namų stadionas, capacity 5,067, which is more than twice what Trakai could offer and is not the club's own ground.

So the name on the badge, the colours, the town and the stadium have all changed since the seasons the club is best known for. What carries over is the position: back in the A Lyga on the strength of the 2024 promotion, with the first division title and the cup still outstanding after two decades.