Kakha Kaladze

Early career

Kaladze started his career playing as a striker for his local club Lokomotiv Samtredia, where his father was president, until former Georgia international footballer David Kipiani requested Kakha to join Dinamo Tbilisi. At Dinamo, he played in 82 domestic league games and scored one goal. He made his top-flight debut as a 16-year-old with Dinamo during the 1993–94 campaign. Kaladze claims that a good performance against Italy while playing for Georgia in a match that ended 0–0 brought him to the attention of Dynamo Kyiv; he later said, "In that game I was up against Christian Vieri and I marked him well." A fee equivalent to €280,000 was enough to take him to the Ukrainian Premier League and Dynamo Kyiv in January 1998, where he signed a four-year deal. Here he scored six goals in 71 league games over the two-and-a-half seasons he spent there. The Ukrainian club had been under the ownership of Hryhoriy Surkis and the late Valeriy Lobanovskyi had just been installed as manager; they would go on to win eight consecutive league titles. Kaladze also appeared in both legs of the semi-final of the 1998–99 Champions League against Bayern Munich, which Dynamo Kyiv lost 4–3 on aggregate. En route to the semi-finals, they beat teams like Real Madrid, Barcelona and Arsenal. He won eight league titles in a row during his time at both Dinamo Tbilisi and Dynamo Kyiv.

A.C. Milan

On 10 February 1999, almost two years before his move to Milan would happen,…

Kaladze won his first cap against Cyprus in a friendly match on 27 March 1996, coming on as a 72nd-minute substitute for Mikhail Kavelashvili. Later that year, he was sent off for the first time in his international career against Lebanon in a friendly match. With his team won Malta International Football Tournament 1998. He subsequently featured in his country's qualifying campaigns for the 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010 FIFA World Cups, and the 2000, 2004 and 2008 UEFA European Championships. Georgia had never qualified for the FIFA World Cup or the UEFA European Championship since they split from the Soviet Union until their historic qualification for Euro 2024. Sadly, this tournament appearance was made long after Kaladze's retirement from football. His competitive debut was against Poland on 14 June 1997 in a 1998 World Cup qualifier; Georgia lost the match 4–1. Just two matches later, Kaladze was sent off for the second time playing for Georgia, along with Georgi Kinkladze, against Moldova in another 1998 World Cup qualifier. Georgia finished in fourth place in the group and failed to qualify. In qualifying for Euro 2000, Georgia finished at the bottom of the group (Group 2) in sixth place, with just one win. Kaladze occasionally captained the side during these qualifiers in the absence of Georgi Nemsadze. The qualifiers for the 2002 World Cup ended with Georgia finishing in third place, ahead of Hungary and Lithuania. Kaladze played in all of the matches and often missed…

Business ventures

Along with his football career, Kaladze is an investor in Georgia, Italy, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Kaladze owns Kala Capital, an investment company established in 2008 in Georgia with a focus on energy businesses, and whose chief executive is former Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli.

Kaladze's other businesses include the Buddha Bar in Kyiv that opened in 2008. Kaladze is also the owner of a restaurant called Giannino, founded in 1899 by Giannino Bindi, which is based in Milan. The restaurant has had a Michelin star under Davide Oldani and the chef in charge was Roberto Molinari. Kala Capital owned 45 percent of the Georgia Hydropower Construction Company company SakHidroEnergoMsheni, a joint stock company incorporated in Georgia in 1998. His candidacy as Minister of Energy and Natural Resources in October 2012 was therefore overshadowed by concerns about a serious risk that a conflict of interests might arise. Reports on the same day indicated that Kaladze might refuse the energy portfolio or sell off his shares in Georgia Hydropower Construction Company within 10 days of his appointment.

Political office and conflict of interests

Kaladze became involved in the politics of Georgia as a member of the opposition Georgian Dream–Democratic Georgia party founded by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili in February 2012. He was elected to the Parliament of Georgia on 1 October 2012 as majoritarian of Samtredia constituency. He was approved as…

Kaladze started to learn both Ukrainian and Russian after his move to Dynamo Kyiv and quickly became fluent. He also speaks Italian and English. On 23 May 2001, Kaladze's younger brother Levan, a medical student, was kidnapped in Georgia with a ransom of $600,000 demanded. Then-President Eduard Shevardnadze promised that "everything is being done to locate him". Despite this assurance, the only time that Levan was ever seen was in a video where he was shown blindfolded and begging for help. Following the kidnapping, Kaladze threatened to take up Ukrainian citizenship, but reverted his decision, stating, "There was a time when I thought about quitting the national side completely, but I couldn't do it out of respect for the Georgian people and the fans who come and give us such support." Roughly four years later, on 6 May 2005, Georgian police officers found eight dead bodies in the Svaneti region and it was speculated that Levan was among them. On 21 February 2006, Levan was officially identified among the deceased, after tests from FBI experts. The local media claimed that the ransom was paid by Kaladze's family, although another source says that Kaladze's father attempted to meet the kidnappers, who fled as they believed he was followed by the police. Two men were sentenced to prison for the murder, David Asatiani for 25 years and Merab Amisulashvili for five. On 14 July 2009, Kaladze's wife Anouki gave birth to their first-born son in Milan. The couple named their son…