1. Jaba Kankava is a hero in every sense of the word
ONE OF GEORGIA’S best-known players is Jaba Kankava. The 28-year-old captain is comfortably the most experienced member of the team with 48 appearances. In a very young squad that features just two players who are 30 or over, the Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk midfielder’s leadership is crucial. However, for all his accomplishments in football, he is perhaps most renowned for saving teammate Oleg Gusev’s life after swallowing his tongue (see below) during a Ukrainian league game, receiving the Order of Merit award as a result.
2. Tblisi can be a tough place to go
Georgia may have only picked up five points in their last qualifying campaign, but they still managed to achieve some notable results. In addition to beating Belarus in Tblisi, they also gained a highly credible 0-0 draw there against France. Furthermore, they almost emulated that feat in their encounter with Spain, but were ultimately undone by a late Roberto Soldado goal.
3. Their best player is arguably Guram Kashia
The Vitesse player has won Georgian Footballer of the Year for the past two seasons and is a regular for his club side. The 27-year-old centre-back impressed enough in the Eredivisie to attract interest from Chelsea at one point, before they eventually signed Gary Cahill from Bolton instead.
(Spain’s forward Alvaro Negredo, centre, duels for the ball with Georgia’s defender Guram Kashia)
4. Shota Arveladze was their Robbie Keane
The ex-Ajax man is the closest thing there has ever been to a world-class Georgian attacker. He played for the country between 1997 and 2007, scoring 26 goals in 60 appearances — an incredible achievement given that he was playing for a team that were seldom on the front foot during games. He is comfortably their all-time top scorer, with their current manager, Temuri Ketsbaia, second on the list with 18 goals. He also developed into a cult hero at AZ Alkmaar thanks to his impressive goal haul there (see below).
5. Unlike Arveladze, the current side are not exactly prolific in front of goal
Their squad for the Ireland match features just two recognised strikers — Empoli’s Levan Mchedlidze, who has two goals in 21 appearances (one of which came in a 2-0 win against Scotland, which you can see below), and Nikoloz Gelashvili, who has 0 goals in 19 caps. Indeed, the top scorer of all their squad is captain Jaba Kankava, who has four goals in 48 appearances at international level. Moreover, in their 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign, they managed just three goals in eight matches, albeit in a tough group that also featured France, Spain, Finland and Belarus.
6. Another Georgian legend, Kakha Kaladze, is now a prominent politician
Having retired in 2012, the ex-AC Milan star wasted little time in forging a new and similarly successful career in politics. The five-time Georgian footballer of the year who earned 83 caps for his country was part of the Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia party created by Bidzina Ivanishvili in February 2012 and he was subsequently elected to parliament as Minister of Energy later that year.
(Georgia’s most famous football player Kakha Kaladze stands at a news conference in Tbilisi after being nominated for the post of energy minister)
7. Jano Ananidze could be the team’s secret weapon
The 21-year-old Spartak Moscow star is the great hope of Georgian football. He already has three goals and 24 caps for the national side, and has been dubbed the new Georgi Kinkladze, attracting the interest of both Arsenal and Liverpool following a successful debut season with Spartak. Since becoming the youngest player ever to score in the Russian league at 17 and making a big initial impact, his progress slowed somewhat, prompting him to be loaned to FC Rostov for all of last season.
