Shota Arveladze

Tbilisi and Trabzonspor

Arveladze played at Dinamo Tbilisi, Trabzonspor, and Ajax, and finished at least one season as the top goal scorer at all three. In 1993, he scored an effective first Euro Tournament goal in the history of independent Georgian Football in the match against Linfield, Northern Ireland. When he led Trabzonspor in goals in 1995–96, he also led the Süper Lig, making him the second non-Turk to date to lead that league in goals after Tarik Hodžić 1983–84. He is recorded as "most loved foreign player" for Trabzonspor supporters.

Ajax

In summer 1997, Arveladze signed for Ajax. Later, he declared that he was so nervous during his first training session, that he even forgot to take football boots with him. He became a close friend to Ronald de Boer during his spell in Amsterdam. His first game at the Amsterdam Arena was a special day for the Georgian player. On 15 August 1997, Ajax faced Brazilian side Grêmio in a friendly game. Arveladze scored a goal, while his wife Tamuna gave birth to their first child, Giorgi hours before the game. Arveladze made a debut for Ajax against Vitesse, where he replaced Gerald Sibon and scored the fourth goal for the club. During his first season, he scored three hat-tricks in Eredivisie and total 25 goals in 31 appearances. The manager of the Amsterdam-based club Morten Olsen was very pleased with the performance of the young striker. Arveladze was a key figure for the club during 1997–98 UEFA Cup as well. He…

Shota Arveladze was a regular in the Georgian national team and is its all-time leading scorer with 26 goals in his 61 games. 16 of these 26 goals came in European Championship qualifiers. He made his international debut in Georgia's first official game on 2 September 1992, a 1–0 friendly loss away to Lithuania. Fifteen days later, he scored his first goal in the country's first home game, a 6–3 win over neighbours Azerbaijan. His first competitive goal was on 16 November, in a 5–0 win over Wales in Tbilisi for UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying. On 30 March 1997, Arveladze scored a hat-trick in a 7–0 home friendly win against neighbours Armenia. With Georgia he won in 1998 the Malta International Football Tournament. On 18 August 2006, he scored a hat-trick away to the Faroe Islands in a 6–0 win in the opening game of UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying. His final game was the following 24 March in another qualifier, equalising in a 2–1 loss away to Scotland.

After retiring as a player, Arveladze was appointed as assistant manager of AZ under head coach and former Ajax coach Louis van Gaal in July 2008. He maintained this position in the 2009–10 season under Ronald Koeman and Dick Advocaat.

For the 2010–11 season, Arveladze served as manager of Turkish side Kayserispor. From 2012 to 2015, he managed Istanbul-based Kasımpaşa. In his final game, the team scored away to Konyaspor while their players were attending to his injured player, Ryan Babel. Arveladze then allowed Konyaspor to score an equaliser in the name of fair play, and Konyaspor won the game 2–1. He resigned after the game. On 3 July 2015, Arveladze was named as manager of Turkish side Trabzonspor. He resigned in November. Under him and his successor Hami Mandıralı, the side lost a record 17 games that season. In June 2016, Arveladze was announced as the new head coach of Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv Around the middle of the season, he was fired; it was the first time that Maccabi had dismissed a coach during a season since 2011. In 2017, Arveladze was announced as head coach of Pakhtakor Tashkent in Uzbekistan. He won the Uzbekistan Super League and Cup in 2019 and 2020. On 21 December 2020, he left. On 27 January 2022, Arveladze was announced as the new head coach of Hull City on a 21⁄2-year deal. On his debut two days later, the team won 2–0 at home to Swansea City. Arveladze was dismissed by Hull City on 30 September 2022, with the team 20th in the EFL…

Arveladze's brothers Archil (twin) and Revaz (older) also played international football, as did Revaz's son Vato.