Roberts Pakalns spent almost his entire football career with ASK Riga.
He started regularly appearing in the senior squad in 1929 and played until the club's dissolution in 1940.
During World War II he also played with Spartaks Rīga and Spars Riga.
From 1949 to 1956 Pakalns was the coach of VEF Rīga which he led to the Latvian Cup in 1956.
Pakalns was also the first captain of the newly founded Dinamo Riga ice hockey team in 1946.