Vitālijs Astafjevs (born 3 April 1971) is a Latvian professional football coach and former player who played as a midfielder.

He is an assistant manager of Cypriot club Aris Limassol having previously held the role for the Latvia national team.

With 167 caps for his country Astafjevs held the European record for the most international matches played, until being overtaken by Gianluigi Buffon in 2017.

Astafjevs was signed for Rovers by Ian Holloway, who then managed to persuade authorities to issue him with a work permit.

In 2004, after the European Championship, having spent one season in Austria, Astafjevs joined the Russian Premier League club Rubin Kazan.

Finishing the 2005 season, Astafjevs decided to join Skonto Riga again, where he became the Latvian champion 8 times (previous years of playing also included).

Astafjevs debuted for Latvia at the age of 21 on 26 August 1992, against then-European champions Denmark in qualification for the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

[2] After his retirement from professional football, Astafjevs accepted an offer to become the assistant manager of Skonto Riga.

[10] At the start of 2013 he was selected to be the assistant manager of Latvia national under-21 football team, coached by his former club and international team-mate Marians Pahars.

[14] In April 2018 Astafjevs left the assistant manager's position of the Latvia national team, following the sacking of head coach Aleksandrs Starkovs.

In January 2019, Astafjevs was appointed as the new coach of the Pafos FC academy, taking charge of the U17 and U19 age groups.