Career
FK Liepāja
In 2013 he was taken to the first team Ikaunieks debuted in the Latvian Higher League. Throughout his first professional season Ikaunieks played 19 league matches, scoring three goals.
After the end of the season the club was dissolved due to financial difficulties and Ikaunieks alongside other players transferred to its successor, the newly established FK Liepāja.
Starting the season as a nominal substitute Ikaunieks strikingly rose to the first eleven and was named Latvian Higher League player of the month in May. On 11 June 2014 Ikaunieks scored four goals in a 7-0 victory over Football Club Jūrmala.
All in all, he scored 23 goals in 32 league matches and became the second top scorer of the championship behind Vladislavs Gutkovskis from Skonto. In August 2014 Ikaunieks went on trial with the Croatian Prva HNL champions Dinamo Zagreb.
In September he was named player of the month for the second time in the season.
In October explicit interest in the player was reported for AFC Ajax, Football Club Metz, VfB Stuttgart and Udinese Calcio. Football Club Metz
On 23 December 2014 the chairman of Football Club Metz, Bernard Serin confirmed that Ikaunieks will join the Ligue 1 side on a four-year deal. The transfer on an undisclosed fee was officially affirmed on 7 January 2015.
He made his debut for Latvia national football team on 13 October 2014, playing all 90 minutes in a 1-1 Union of European Football Associations Euro 2016 qualifying draw against Turkey.
lieutenant was later calculated that Ikaunieks had repeated the record of Māris Verpakovskis who debuted in 1999, being exactly 19 years, 7 months and 25 days old.