Connect with us

Sports

Mikheil Kavelashvili used to play for Manchester City. Now he’s Georgia’s far-right president-elect

Published

on

Mikheil Kavelashvili used to play for Manchester City. Now he’s Georgia’s far-right president-elect

It was an April’s day in an era when Manchester City were still playing at Maine Road and a visit from Manchester United was a lot more daunting than it has been in recent years.

City were on the attack. The ball was swung over from the left into the penalty area. Gary Neville was never going to beat Niall Quinn, the 6ft 4in (193cm) City striker, in an aerial contest. Another player in blue was waiting for Quinn’s knockdown. And that was the moment Martin Tyler’s voice went up an octave in the Sky Sports commentary box.

“My goodness, what a story! Mikheil Kavelashvili! On his debut, in a Manchester derby. Well, it’s a long name to splash across the back of a Manchester City shirt. But it will be splashed across a few headlines if City go on from this…”


Mikhail Kavelashvili equalises against Manchester United — his high point at City (Tony Marshall/EMPICS via Getty Images)

It’s funny how it turns out sometimes. That was about as good as it got for Kavelashvili during his brief dalliance with the Premier League towards the end of the 1995-96 season. United won the league, as they often did in those days, and for the last three decades, Kavelashvili’s contribution has been largely consigned to the dustbin of history by those City fans who remember the era of tragicomedy that resulted in Alan Ball’s team slipping towards relegation.

Kavelashvili has been back in the news and you can probably understand the collective surprise among former team-mates to learn that the pale-faced wearer of City’s No 32 shirt has re-emerged as a far-right politician and president-elect of Georgia, known for his sympathetic stance towards Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Advertisement

“That’s a story I didn’t think I’d ever hear,” was Quinn’s verdict when The Athletic broke the news to the striker who set up Kavelashvili for his derby goal. “He was a lovely, smiley, mannerly young lad and so happy to be in Manchester — no edges at all.”

Kavelashvili was nominated for the largely ceremonial role last month by the Georgian Dream political party, just a few weeks after its re-election sparked protests in the streets amid accusations the vote was rigged and influenced by Russia.

The 53-year-old, described by former team-mates as “quiet and unassuming”, was elected to parliament in 2016 and, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, set up a splinter group called People’s Power.

Opponents accuse Georgian Dream of being pro-Russian and say its hardline beliefs will cause irreparable damage to the nation’s chances of joining the European Union. Nonetheless, Kavaleshvili’s presidency is all but guaranteed, given the vote is made by a 300-seat electoral college dominated by his own party. 


Kavelashvili is now a leading figure in the Georgian Dream party (AP)

The election takes place tomorrow, with the inauguration on December 29, ushering in a 46-cap ex-international striker who has become increasingly known for his anti-Western statements. In June, Kavelashvili used social media to accuse the United States of having “an insatiable desire to destroy our country”. His political opponents, he says, have been steered by U.S. congressmen who are planning “a direct violent revolution and the Ukrainisation of Georgia”.

Advertisement

All of which seems a long way from the days when City were grubbing around for points towards the bottom of the Premier League and the 24-year-old Kaveleshvili was signed for £2million ($2.5m at current rates) from Dinamo Tbilisi, with the job of scoring enough goals to keep his new team in England’s top division.

“It could be argued that Kavelashvili spent most of his time at City facing in the wrong direction, just as he now seems to be doing as the prospective Russia-apologist leader of Georgia,” says Simon Curtis, a City fan, writer and author.

“He was bought on the say-so of (fellow Georgian) Georgi Kinkladze who told the somewhat gullible Alan Ball that he was, ‘Even better than me’. It was a desperate throw of the dice, just after City had been tonked 4-2 at West Ham. There were six games left and he looked lightweight and confused (against United) but he did score our equaliser.”

Unfortunately for City, Andy Cole restored United’s lead within a minute of Kavelashvili making it 1-1 and United ended up winning 3-2. Kavelashvili’s first appearance in English football — also marked by him missing a good chance to score a second, only to shoot straight into Peter Schmeichel’s face — was equally memorable for a mutinous outburst from Uwe Rosler, the striker who had lost his place to the new signing.

Rosler, a former East Germany international who infamously wore a T-shirt bearing the message ‘Rosler’s Grandad Bombed Old Trafford’, was seriously unimpressed to be left out. Cue an angry flare-up when Rosler came off the bench to score City’s second goal and ran to the dugout, jabbing an accusatory finger at the home manager.

Advertisement

“It wasn’t the happiest camp at times,” says Quinn. “I was angry that I wasn’t in the team for long periods. Uwe was angry when he was left out.

“We had Kinkladze, who had very little English. Georgi did all his talking on the ball, he was a wizard. The best way to describe him was that Alan Ball didn’t call him Georgi, he called him the ‘little genius’ — ‘Give the ball to the little genius’.

“Then Mikheil came along and he was a totally different player. He didn’t have Georgi’s skill or ability but he was honest and hard-working and he had something that he fought for. I found him a lovely guy. He was proud and patriotic to be Georgian. He had a little more English than Georgi and I remember he seemed particularly happy and proud that he was playing for Manchester City.”


Kavelashvili with Niall Quinn on his City debut (Mark Leech/Offside via Getty Images)

Kavelashvili played in a 3-0 defeat at Wimbledon and a nervy 1-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday but was not trusted by Ball to start the final game of the season at home to Liverpool — an occasion that will always be remembered for City’s players wasting time by the corner flag when they were drawing 2-2, thinking that would be enough to save them from relegation.

They had been cruelly misinformed: another goal was needed to stay up. It never arrived and, in Curtis’ words, Kavelashvili “came on as a late sub to be part of the relegation party”.

Advertisement

“I remember the game against United when he scored on his debut,” says Keith Curle, the former City defender. “But I also remember he had two big chances in the Liverpool game that saw us relegated.

“If you watch it back, he had two chances inside the six-yard box in the last 10 minutes. That’s not to blame him, it’s just the plight of the centre-forward. You can have one touch and be the hero. Or you can miss a couple of chances and it’s all about the ifs and buts and what could have been.”

Quinn, who won 92 caps for the Republic of Ireland, has never forgotten that match, either. “I have a memory of our centre-half Kit Symons scoring (to make it 2-2) and almost getting another one late on. We were scrambling for a goal in the last couple of minutes. Kit got on the end of a cross. Mikheil was running out of the way but the ball hit him on its way in and rebounded out, when it might have been the goal that kept us up.”

Relegation led to Quinn leaving the club for Sunderland. Kavelashvili, meanwhile, hung around for a season in the second tier, then called Division One. He underwhelmed again and a recent post by the Monument City fan blog summed up his contribution.

“He was different at least to Quinn and Rosler and cleared the low bar of being better than (fellow striker) Gerry Creaney,” writes its author, Mark Meadowcroft. “But he was not the sort of player we needed in the second tier. It soon became clear his main role was, as we had suspected all along, to be Kinkladze’s pal.”

Advertisement

Kavelashvili did pop up with a goal in a 3-1 defeat at Crystal Palace and, six months later, he headed in City’s equaliser in a 1-1 draw at Grimsby Town. That, however, was it from the man whose political party has recently pushed through laws similar to those used by the Kremlin to crack down on freedom of speech and LGBTQ+ rights.


Kavelashvili was proud to represent Georgia (Tony Marshall/EMPICS via Getty Images)

Curle remembers his former team-mate being “very quiet, very unassuming, he mixed in well without ever being the star of the show or seeking the limelight… an intelligent man who never held court in the changing room or came across as politically minded”.

Sadly for City, the man in question was never a prolific scorer either, as City finished the 1996-97 season in 14th position, below Barnsley, Port Vale and Tranmere Rovers. “By the summer of ’97 nobody had even noticed he had gone, so little impact had he made,” says Curtis, author of City in Europe and a long-time authority on Mancunian nostalgia. “Kinkladze had his mum in Manchester cooking Georgian specialities for him, so there was definitely a worry he (Kinkladze) might be homesick.”

In total, Kavelashvili scored three goals for City in 29 appearances. It was not for him that a Georgian flag fluttered in the Kippax stand. But maybe, given his new occupation, he learned a thing or two about what constitutes good and not-so-good leadership. City did, after all, have five managers in his 12 months.

His first seven appearances came in Ball’s relegation XI. There were four with caretaker manager Asa Hartford, another four during Steve Coppell’s 33-day spell in charge, seven with Phil Neal and, finally, seven under Frank Clark, who remembers the Georgian as “a good character, a nice lad, never a problem for me in the dressing room” — and, unlike Kinkladze, never sent his parking fines to the club.

Advertisement

Kavelashvili, pictured with ex-France international Christian Karembeu in 2018 (Vano Shlamov/AFP via Getty Images)

It was not enough to secure a renewal of Kavelashvili’s work permit and the rest of his playing career was spent at clubs in Switzerland and Russia, winning the 1998 Swiss league title with Grasshoppers.

“I don’t think I have had any other former players go into politics,” says Clark, reflecting on Kavelashvili’s imminent position as the second ex-City player after George Weah, the former president of Liberia, to become a head of state.

“I obviously didn’t have much of an influence on him. Good luck to him, though, if he is going to be dealing with Putin, although he might find Putin is easier to deal with than I was.

“I am joking of course… I hope I am a nicer person than Putin.”

Additional reporting: Paul Taylor

Advertisement

(Top photos: Dan Goldfarb for The Athletic, top image: Getty Images)

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Sports

Eagles fan seen in vile tirade against female Packers supporter loses job at DEI-focused NJ company

Published

on

Eagles fan seen in vile tirade against female Packers supporter loses job at DEI-focused NJ company

A Philadelphia Eagles fan at the center of a vile incident at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday lost his job at a New Jersey-based DEI-focused consulting firm this week.

The fan, who was identified as Ryan Caldwell, was seen in the viral video getting into the face of a female Green Bay Packers fan and calling her a “dumb c—” while her fiancé recorded the situation. He also taunted the man with other disgusting gestures.

Philadelphia Eagles fans cheer during the game against the Green Bay Packers in an NFC wild card game at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on Jan. 12, 2025. (Eric Hartline-Imagn Images)

The fan and his employer have since “parted ways,” the company said.

Advertisement

“We, the management of BCT Partners, have concluded the international personnel investigation regarding an employee who was caught on a video outside of the workplace making highly offensive and misogynistic statements,” the company said in a statement Tuesday. “In keeping with our company values, which are firmly centered in respect, dignity, and inclusion, we have decided to part ways with the employee. This separation is effective immediately.

“We condemn our former employee’s conduct in the strongest possible terms. This individual’s conduct and language were vile, disgusting, unacceptable, and horrific and have no place in our workplace and society. Such conduct is not who we are and not what we stand for.

“At the same time, again, to be true to our values, we can condemn the actions without condemning the individual. None of us deserve to be remembered for actions taken on our worst day. We have offered grace and support to our former employee. We hope that he will grow, and we all can learn from this deeply disturbing incident. That’s what real inclusion is and does. That is also who we are and what we stand for.

Eagles fans in Philly

Philadelphia Eagles fans react against the Green Bay Packers in an NFC wild card game at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on Jan. 12, 2025. (Bill Streicher-Imagn Images)

EAGLES COACH CALLS OUT ‘LAZY’ TAKES ABOUT AJ BROWN AFTER HE’S CAUGHT READING BOOK DURING GAME

“We sincerely apologize to the victim and for the many ways in which these events already have impact so many people. We remain committed to gender equity and fostering a culture of respect and dignity for all.”

Advertisement

Caldwell’s tirade was caught as the Eagles topped the Packers in the wild-card game over the weekend. Aside from just calling the woman a “dumb c—,” he also called her an “ugly dumb c—.” Caldwell asked her fiancé if he was going to do anything about the name-calling, and if not, then he should turn around and watch the game.

The woman’s fiancé identified himself on social media as Alexander Basara and posted the video on social media. He wrote on X he did not want to get into a physical altercation with Caldwell.

He mentioned in one post that he definitely was not going to start painting all Eagles fans with a broad brush.

“A lot of you guys were very nice. Trust me. The normal banter but a handshake at the end. This was out of line tho for sure,” he wrote on X.

A general view of of Lincoln Financial Field

A general view of of Lincoln Financial Field prior to the NFC Wild Card Playoff between the Green Bay Packers and the Philadelphia Eagles on Jan. 12, 2025 in Philadelphia. (Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)

Advertisement

The Eagles fan was also banned from all games at Lincoln Financial Field, according to USA Today.

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Sports

Column: Canyon High's Brandon Benjamin is making the most of his senior season

Published

on

Column: Canyon High's Brandon Benjamin is making the most of his senior season

Watching Anaheim Canyon’s 6-foot-5 senior Brandon Benjamin score, rebound, pass and continuously make a difference on a basketball court against everyone and anyone brings back memories of Jaime Jaquez Jr., who looks like his twin.

“I like the comparison,” coach Nathan Harrison said.

Jaquez used to deploy many different skills during his days at Camarillo High. Some wondered if they would translate at a higher level. Well, they did, first at UCLA and now with the Miami Heat.

The same will be said one day of Benjamin, who’s averaging 30.7 points and is committed to San Diego. Last Saturday, after a game against previously unbeaten Mira Costa in which he scored 30 points with zero turnovers, Mira Costa coach Neal Perlmutter said, “That’s hard to do.”

Said Benjamin: “I just feel you have to play smart, you have to make the right decisions and you can’t force things.”

Advertisement

Then on Monday at the Intuit Dome, he scored 29 points in an overtime win over San Gabriel Academy. It doesn’t matter the opponent or the venue, Benjamin consistently delivers.

Canyon High’s Brandon Benjamin has been having a stellar senior season.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Benjamin has gotten used to being double teamed so many times that he knows exactly how to get the ball to teammates. He grew up with opponents trying to trap him as a youth player and Harrison has worked on box-and-one defenses in practices to prepare Benjamin.

Advertisement

“I got used to it, learning how to move around and not get frustrated,” he said.

Benjamin is proof you can return home and be welcomed with open arms. He left to play his junior season at Mater Dei, where he led the Monarchs in rebounding (8.4 per game) and was the fourth-leading scorer (13.7), then returned to Canyon last March.

He’s not going to lie about what it was like walking around the Canyon campus in his return.

“At first, it was little awkward seeing people you know and haven’t seen in a year and were buddy-buddy with,” he said. “After a week or two, I still had a lot of friends. I felt real relaxed. I felt like I was home.”

Benjamin said his Mater Dei experience was mostly positive, complimenting coach Gary McKnight.

Advertisement

“I enjoyed it,” he said. “Not everything is perfect in this life. I have nothing negative to say, only good things about coach McKnight.”

His return to Canyon has worked out. He likes the neighborhood atmosphere at games and appreciates Harrison letting him do what he does best — be himself.

“He has a reputation as this incredible scorer, but he’s just as effective as a passer and kind of runs our team as a point guard,” Harrison said. “The zero turnovers is even more impressive considering how many times he’s touching the ball. He makes all the players so much better.”

Even more intriguing is how Benjamin is preparing himself for college. He’s played forward or center for all four years of high school. At 17, he still has plenty of room to improve, and he’s been working on his guard skills because that’s what San Diego coach Steve Lavin wants him to play.

“I’ve been trying to work on my quickness, strength, ballhandling,” Benjamin said. “He wants me to play guard. It’s going to be a challenge because playing center/forward until now in high school, [this] is something new. I’m down for the challenge.”

Advertisement

Canyon fans have Benjamin’s back, and Harrison is just thankful to have a chance to coach him again.

“We’ve always liked Brandon,” he said. “We appreciated how hard he played for us. We just live in a different era. You can’t take it personally. Young people have a lot in their ears. He’s very comfortable with us and we think we do a good job utilizing our kids.”

As for lessons learned, Benjamin said, “If some of these guys are [as] good as they say, they should stay at their school and try to make themselves a winning school. A lot of college coaches don’t look at high school ball. It’s really the AAU circuit. I feel that’s the path to success.”

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Sports

With Mike Vrabel and Drake Maye, Patriots have one of NFL’s better coach-QB pairings

Published

on

With Mike Vrabel and Drake Maye, Patriots have one of NFL’s better coach-QB pairings

FOXBORO, Mass. — Mike Vrabel has a plan for Drake Maye. For the young quarterback, who’s coming off a promising rookie season, it’s less about specific footwork and not really — at least yet — about reads, processing or mechanics.

Vrabel, officially now the head coach of the New England Patriots, has been around enough quarterbacks to know what success at that position should look and sound like. And that’s where he thinks he can most help the 22-year-old Maye.

“Drake is going to be his own person, but I’m going to give him some things that I feel like are necessary to help us win football games,” Vrabel said during his introductory news conference Monday.

Left unsaid during the pomp of Vrabel’s big day is what his presence next to Maye solidifies. Even if the Patriots have plenty of other issues that require fixing, they believe they have their coach and quarterback for years to come, the most important pairing in professional sports. They haven’t had that since at least Mac Jones’ rookie season (with Bill Belichick) in 2021, perhaps since Tom Brady had a locker at Gillette Stadium.

In a league that’s all about the head coach and quarterback, it’s OK that the Patriots’ to-do list is long and difficult. Nothing really matters until you have the right coach and quarterback. Now the Patriots feel they have both.

Advertisement

GO DEEPER

Mike Vrabel isn’t selling any Patriots glory. He’s playing defense against it

There’s a long way to go for both Vrabel and Maye to make this work the way the Patriots envision, but it’s also fair to note there are probably not too many other coach-quarterback pairs you’d no doubt take over Vrabel and Maye for the next five years. That’s not to anoint them the second coming of Belichick and Brady. But it’s the one reason that amid so many other issues, there’s a lot of optimism right now in New England.

“Put great people around him,” Vrabel said of his plan for Maye. “I would say that my involvement will be as it relates to game management and situational awareness and where we are on the football field and trying to develop him as a leader of the offense. When a quarterback calls the play, you want to say it like everybody’s going to believe that it’s going to score a touchdown — like with that type of emphasis on how everything is going to operate.”

It sounds wild given how bad the Patriots have been the last few years and the state of the roster, but there probably aren’t many pairings more promising over the next five years than Vrabel and Maye. The Chiefs, Bengals, Bills, Ravens, Chargers and 49ers have solid arguments for a better pairing. But the Patriots could be in the next tier with the Texans, Eagles and Lions.

Perhaps one of the slights on the duo could be that Vrabel’s passing offenses with the Titans never put up gaudy numbers. During their 11-win season in 2020, they ranked 23rd in passing yards. When they won 12 games the next year, they ranked 25th. But that would ignore their efficiency. In those two years, they ranked third and sixth in passing success rate.

For his part, Vrabel tried to put to rest the concerns that he’s always had run-first offenses, which doesn’t seem ideal for a promising young quarterback.

“We have to be a very efficient passing football team,” Vrabel said. “When you look at statistically what wins in the National Football League, our ability to affect the other team’s quarterback and our ability to provide for an efficient quarterback and passing game is a high contributor to success.”

Of course, Maye’s development is going to be largely pinned on whomever Vrabel picks as his offensive coordinator.

Advertisement

Vrabel said that decision isn’t close to being made yet and that the Patriots will do a full search to fill out their coaching staff.

go-deeper

GO DEEPER

New Patriots coach Mike Vrabel will have his pick of offensive and defensive coordinators

“That’s far from solidified,” he said. “We want to put the best, (most) talented coaches in front of our players. … I want the players to embrace what every coach is teaching. I will tell you this, as long as I’m the head coach here, our coaches will have three simple jobs — and they sound simple, but they’re probably not as simple as we want to make them be. They want to teach, they want to develop and they want to inspire our players by making a connection.”

On this day, a celebratory one in front of a slew of microphones and cameras, Vrabel seemed to have all the right details and answers down to the three tasks for his assistant coaches.

On Day 1, he brought stability and respectability to a franchise badly in need of it. And in the process, he’s paired now with Maye to give the Patriots assurances at the two most important spots in building an NFL team.

Advertisement

(Photos: Eric Canha and Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images)

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending