Georgi Demetradze ( ka, გიორგი დემეტრაძე, born 26 September 1976) is a Georgian former professional footballer who played as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

. He made 56 appearances for the Georgia national team scoring 12 goals.

Career

Born in Tbilisi, Demetradze played for the Dinamo Tbilisi youth team and signed for the club in 1994 after spending two seasons with Kaheti Telavi. He has become the Georgian league top scorer with Dinamo. In 1997 Demetradze moved to Rotterdam to play for Feyenoord, but an injury limited his playing time. After one season in Netherlands, he moved to Russia to play for Alania Vladikavkaz. With them Demetradze has become Russian Top Division top scorer in 1999. In 2000, he transferred to Dynamo Kyiv to become a Ukrainian champion. While there he famously missed an open goal against

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

in the Champions League that would have seen the English side eliminated from the competition. After a year at

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, S.A.D., more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad (; ''Royal Society''), La Real in Spanish, Erreala in Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Basque Country, founded on 7 Septem ...

Demetradze returned to Russia where he spent half a season with Lokomotiv Moscow and half a season with Alania. In 2003, he moved to Ukraine again, to play for Metalurh Donetsk. He spent 2.5 seasons with them. In mid-2005 he went to play for Alania for the third time. After Alania were relegated, Demetradze transferred to Maccabi Tel Aviv. In 2005 Demetradze participated in three different Leagues. In 2007, he returned to Ukraine and played for Arsenal Kyiv. A year later he signed an annual contract with Azerbaijani football club FC Baku.

Post retirement

Demetradze was arrested by Georgian police in July 2010, and on 23 March 2011 he was found guilty of extortion from people who lost at illegal betting on sports, and sentenced to six years of imprisonment. He was released from prison as a political prisoner on 13 January 2013. Demetradze later married and had a daughter.

Career statistics

All data on his participation in the top league of Ukraine can be found at th
FFU official website
and supplemented by the National Football Teams website.

Career

Post retirement

Career statistics

References

External links