Manuchar Machaidze

Dinamo Tbilisi

In 1967, Vyacheslav Solovyov — senior then coach of Dinamo Tbilisi noticed him as a young player and invited him to join the club's reserve team. Machaidze was 18 years old when he played his first game in a Dinamo shirt. He played with the reserves for the whole of 1968 and 1969 seasons and scored 11 goals in 47 games. Machaidze played his first senior game for Dinamo on 1 June 1968 in Tashkent when he was a second-half substitute in their 0–0 draw with Pakhtakor in the 11th round of the Soviet Top League. He became a regular player in the first team by the 1970 season, playing 18 league games for the club. In that year he also made his Soviet Cup tournament debut in the final game against Dynamo Moscow. The match was held at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow on 8 August 1970. More than 100 000 spectators attended this historical game, which was the last Soviet Cup final for the legendary Lev Yashin. It was the second cup final between the two teams (the first one was also held in Moscow on 16 July 1937). Dynamo won the match 2–1. Russian striker Vladimir Eshtrekov scored the first goal at 17th minute and it stayed at 1–0 until half-time. After the break, Gennady Yevryuzhikhin doubled Dynamo Moscow's lead at 17th minute of the second half. Five minutes later Georgian defender Shota Khinchagashvili pulled a goal back at 67th minute — 2–1. This was how it remained until the end of the match, and Muscovites were able to celebrate their fourth Soviet Cup…

Machaidze was capped four times for the Soviet Union, between April 1974 and May 1979. He made his international debut under manager Konstantin Beskov, on 17 April 1974, in a friendly international match, when the Soviet Union beat Yugoslavia 1–0. He played his last national team game on 19 May 1979 in a UEFA Euro 1980 qualifier against Hungary.

Club

International

Dinamo Tbilisi

Soviet Top League: 1978 Soviet Cup: 1976, 1979