Giorgi Gakhokidze ( ka, გიორგი გახოკიძე; born 5 November 1975) is a

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

or forward for

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; en, Philips Sports Association ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional football department, w ...

Maccabi Haifa Maccabi Haifa ( he, מכבי חיפה) is one of the biggest sports clubs in Israel and a part of the Maccabi association. It runs several sports clubs and teams in Haifa which have competed in a variety of sports over the years, such as Football ...

FC Twente Football Club Twente () is a Dutch professional football club from the city of Enschede, sometimes known internationally as Twente Enschede. The club was formed in 1965 by the merger of 1926 Dutch champions Sportclub Enschede with Enschedese ...

and Metalurh Donetsk among others. Between 1996 and 2006 he was also a member of the Georgia national team.

Club career

Early career

Gakhokidze was born in

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million p ...

Georgian SSR The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (Georgian SSR; ka, საქართველოს საბჭოთა სოციალისტური რესპუბლიკა, tr; russian: Грузинская Советская Соц� ...

. He started his career at Metalurgi Rustavi before moving to Georgian top club

FC Dinamo Tbilisi FC Dinamo Tbilisi ( ka, დინამო თბილისი, ) is a Georgian professional football club based in Tbilisi, Georgia, that competes in the Erovnuli Liga, the top flight of Georgian football. Dinamo Tbilisi was one of the mos ...

, but did not play any matches and moved to

FC Kolkheti-1913 Poti FC Kolkheti-1913 is a Georgian football club based in Poti. Following the 2022 season, the club earned promotion to Liga 2, the second division of Erovnuli Liga. Being registered in 1913, Kolkheti is considered one of the oldest clubs in the ...

and later to Spartak-Alania Vladikavkaz, to play in the Russian league. Dutch giants

showed interest in the player and brought him into the Netherlands. In his first season, he was unable to gain himself a spot in the first team and was sent on a loan deal with Maccabi Haifa F.C. where he developed himself into a better player.

Breakthrough and downfall

Back at PSV Gakhokidze still struggled to play a decent number of matches, but in the 2001–02 season things changed. Gakhokidze played in 25 of PSV's 34 matches that season. However, mainly due to injuries he only got a total of eight matches in the following season. Recovered from the injuries he moved to

and had a good season with a lot of match rhythm and some goals as well. Gakhokidze felt the need to return to the eastern part of Europe and switched to

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

based Metalurg Donetsk. At this team however he only came to a total of two matches, while at his following team

FC Krylya Sovetov Samara PFC Krylia Sovetov Samara (russian: Профессиональный футбольный клуб «Крылья Советов» Самара) is a football club from Russia based in Samara. It returned to the Russian Premier League for the 20 ...

he did not play at all. His former team FC Twente decided to contract him again, but injuries forced him to set back most of the time and he only came to 19 appearances from 2005 to the end of 2006. On 29 December 2006 Gakhokidze decided to terminate his contract and end his career at the age of 31.

International career

Besides his club appearances Gakhokidze also played in 21 matches for the Georgian national team, and scored 3 goals.

Career statistics

External links

Career, goals, games, photos
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gakhokidze, Giorgi 1975 births Living people Footballers from Tbilisi Footballers from Georgia (country) FC Spartak Vladikavkaz players PSV Eindhoven players Maccabi Haifa F.C. players Expatriate footballers in Israel FC Twente players FC Metalurh Donetsk players FC Dinamo Tbilisi players Erovnuli Liga players Eredivisie players Israeli Premier League players Russian Premier League players Ukrainian Premier League players Georgia (country) men's international footballers Expatriate footballers from Georgia (country) Expatriate footballers in Ukraine Expatriate footballers in Russia Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate sportspeople from Georgia (country) in Ukraine Expatriate sportspeople from Georgia (country) in Russia Expatriate sportspeople from Georgia (country) in the Netherlands Expatriate sportspeople from Georgia (country) in Israel Men's association football forwards Men's association football midfielders