Mikheil Kavelashvili

As with many leading Georgian players, Kavelashvili began his career with Dinamo Tbilisi, emerging from their youth system in 1989. A striker, he soon established himself in the Dinamo side before earning a move to Russian club Spartak Vladikavkaz in 1995. He won the Russian Premier League during his year at the club from North Ossetia–Alania. Kavelashvili began training with Manchester City on 1 March 1996, before finally joining the club on 28 March, which was transfer deadline day. He was recommended to manager Alan Ball by compatriot Georgi Kinkladze, who had joined for £2 million in the summer. The Kavelashvili deal, which was worth £1.4 million, took several weeks due to the player requiring a work permit. He made his City debut on 6 April by scoring in the Manchester derby game against Manchester United, and totalled 4 games and 1 goal in the Premier League as City were relegated. Following City's relegation, Kavelashvili played 24 games (two goals) in the Football League First Division. The number was not enough to secure a renewal of his work permit, and he was sent out on loan to Grasshoppers, winning a Swiss Super League in 1998. He then played the majority of his football in Switzerland, featuring for Zürich, Luzern, Sion and Aarau. Aarau loaned him out to Vladikavkaz in autumn 2004, but he returned to Switzerland after playing just seven games. Kavelashvili joined Basel's first team during their 2005–06 season under head coach Christian Gross, who was behind…

In 2016, Kavelashvili was elected as a member of Parliament of Georgia for the Georgian Dream party. He was re-elected in 2020. He left Georgian Dream in 2022 and co-founded the People's Power party, a satellite of Georgian Dream designed to propagate anti-Western narratives without incriminating the ruling party. Kavelashvili laid the foundations of the Global War Party conspiracy spread by Georgian Dream leaders since 2022, by insinuating US ambassador Kelly Degnan tried to blackmail Bidzina Ivanishvili into the war in Ukraine. He has since made unsubstantiated accusations that the political opposition in Georgia are being controlled by US congressmen with "an insatiable desire to destroy our country" and that they were plotting "a direct violent revolution and the Ukrainisation of Georgia". Being described as right-wing populist and ultranationalist, Kavelashvili also accused the West of wanting "as many people as possible (to be) neutral and tolerant towards LGBTQ ideology", which he called "an act against humanity".

International

Scores and results list Georgia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Kavelashvili goal.

Dinamo Tbilisi

Umaglesi Liga: 1990, 1994, 1995 Vladikavkaz

Russian Premier League: 1995 Grasshoppers

Swiss Super League: 1998