Georgi Kinkladze

Early career

When Georgian football formed leagues independent of Soviet competition in 1989, a family friend arranged for Kinkladze to move to Mretebi Tbilisi, the first openly professional club in the Soviet Union. Mretebi Tbilisi were a smaller club playing at a lower level, but the move gave Kinkladze the opportunity to play first team football instead of playing for Dinamo's second team. Kinkladze made his professional debut aged 16, and immediately became a first team regular. In 1991 Kinkladze's Mretebi won the Pirveli Liga, and won promotion to the highest division following a play-off. After a season in the top flight with Mretebi, Kinkladze was signed by Dinamo Tbilisi, the team he represented as a youth, for one million roubles. In September 1992, shortly after signing for Dinamo, Kinkladze made his senior international debut, aged 19. The match, against Azerbaijan, was the Georgian national side's fourth since breaking from the Soviet Union in 1991. Kinkladze's youth-level teammate Shota Arveladze also played in the match, and Kinkladze provided an assist for a goal by Arveladze. In Kinkladze's first season at the club, Dinamo won a league and cup double. However, due to the ongoing Georgian Civil War, during 1993 the Dinamo Tbilisi management sought to put their players in a more stable environment. As part of this, Kinkladze was sent on loan to 1. FC Saarbrücken in Germany. Kinkladze made his Saarbrücken debut in a 2. Bundesliga match against Tennis…

Kinkladze's position was as a playmaking midfielder, typically playing further forward than the rest of the midfield. The main aim of the role is to create goalscoring chances, suiting a creative player like Kinkladze. Dribbling ability was generally viewed as one of Kinkladze's strongest attributes, and his jinking runs with the ball resulted in some spectacular goals, most notably his "Goal of the Month" against Southampton. Set piece ability was another of Kinkladze's strengths; he regularly took corners and free kicks. He also took penalties; seven of his Manchester City goals were scored from the spot, though he stopped taking penalties for the club following two consecutive misses in the 1997–98 season. Two of his nine goals for Georgia were also penalties. Weaker points of Kinkladze's game were those related to defending. He was not noted for tackling, which sometimes caused frustration for his managers; Colin Todd remarked wistfully in 2001 that "Georgi has to understand that there is an art to tackling". Unwillingness to tackle and accusations of a lack of effort were also the source of Joe Royle's omission of Kinkladze from his Manchester City side. On occasions, Kinkladze played as a second striker, a role with less positional responsibility. Periods when Kinkladze was used in this way included Frank Clark's first months as Manchester City manager, and alongside Fabrizio Ravanelli at Derby County. Though a left-footed player, he did not perform well when played as…

Club

International

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

Georgi Kinkladze was born on 6 July 1973 in Tbilisi, Georgia, which was then part of the Soviet Union. As a child, he lived in the Didube district of the city with his father, Robinzon (an engineer), his mother Khatuna (a teacher) and his elder sister. Robinzon was keen to see his son succeed as a footballer, sometimes making him walk around the family home on his knees to strengthen his legs, and enrolled him for Dinamo Tbilisi's junior side when he was six years old. Khatuna disapproved of some of her husband's methods, instead taking Georgi to lessons in mtiuluri, a traditional Georgian ballet. Over the next few years, Kinkladze played in Dinamo Tbilisi's youth teams, progressing as far as the reserve team, where he played alongside Shota Arveladze, who would later become his teammate at both senior and international level.