Hopefully he's spending his weekend's playing football though...
Well weekends in the off season and week days in the regular season. What I'm saying is for the lifestyle being in the EU, even if it's in the far east, is better than playing in the Ukraine or Russia or even the US or Asia as Europe is small, well connected, and easy to travel around. He's also living in an area which has turned into a bit of a party capital as there's plenty of cheep booze and food, lots of nightclubs and bars, and very attractive girls. Heck Riga even had a Kiwi bar right in the old town, doubt its still there though.
As long as he doesn't mind drunk Germans and Poms on stag do's vomiting in the streets he'd be a fool no to enjoy himself.
Edit: I googled it, still there surprisingly: http://www.kiwibar.lv/