Mikheil Kavelashvili ( ka, მიხეილ ყაველაშვილი; born 22 July 1971) 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 ...

politician and former professional footballer. He is the co-founder of

People's Power {{Unreferenced, date=August 2007 People's Power (Spanish and Portuguese: Poder Popular) is a common political rallying cry used in party names and slogans. Instances of its use include: *Lok Shakti, a political party in India * National Assembly ...

party. As a player he was a striker who notably played in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

for

Manchester City 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 Salford to the west. The tw ...

and in the

Swiss Super League The Swiss Super League (known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a Swiss professional league in the top tier of the Swiss football league system and has been played in its current format since the 2003–04 season ...

for

Grasshoppers Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grasshop ...

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

Luzern , neighboring_municipalities= Adligenswil, Ebikon, Emmen, Horw, Kriens, Malters, Meggen, Neuenkirch Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label=Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a ...

Sion Sion may refer to * an alternative transliteration of Zion People * Sion (name) or Siôn, a Welsh and other given name and surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Shion or Sion, a Japanese given name Plac ...

Aarau Aarau (, ) is a List of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital of the northern Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau. The List of towns in Switzerland, town is also the capital of the dis ...

and

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

. He also played for

Dinamo Tbilisi Dinamo Tbilisi is a sports club from Tbilisi, Georgia. It was founded in 1925. Among its highest honors, is the European trophy earned by its football team which won the Cup Winners' Cup in 1981, beating FC Carl Zeiss Jena of East Germany 2–1 i ...

and Spartak Vladikavkaz. He was capped 46 times by

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, scoring nine goals. He moved into Politics in 2016 was elected to the Parliament of Georgia in the

Georgian Dream Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia ( ka, ქართული ოცნება – დემოკრატიული საქართველო, ''Kartuli ocneba – Demok’rat’iuli Sakartvelo'') is a social democratic political ...

party before leaving to co-found the People's Power party.

Club career

As with many leading Georgian players, Kavelashvili began his career with

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 mo ...

, emerging from their youth system in 1989. A skilful striker, he soon established himself in the Dinamo side before earning a move to

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n club

FC Spartak Vladikavkaz FC Spartak Vladikavkaz (russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб «Спартак Владикавказ») was a Russian football club based in Vladikavkaz (formerly Ordzhonikidze), North Ossetia–Alania. Founded in 1921, the club played ...

in 1995. He began training with

Manchester City F.C. Manchester City Football Club are an England, English association football, football club based in Manchester that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English football. Fo ...

on 1 March 199

before finally joining the club on transfer deadline day. He made his city debut on 6 April scoring in the derby game against

Manchester United F.C. Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd), or simply United, is a professional football club based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. The club competes in the Premier League, ...

Following City's relegation, he played 24 games (2 goals) in the

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

. The number was not enough to secure a renewal of his work permit and so he was sent out on loan to

Grasshopper Club Zürich Grasshopper Club Zürich, commonly referred to as simply GC, GCZ, or Grasshoppers, is a multisports club based in Zürich, Switzerland. The oldest and best known department of the club is its football team. With 27 titles, Grasshopper holds the ...

, winning a

in 1998. He has since played the majority of his football in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, featuring for Fussballclub Zürich,

FC Lucerne Fussball-Club Luzern (), or simply abbreviated to FCL, is a Swiss sports club based in Lucerne (german: Luzern). It is best known for its professional football team, which plays in the Super League, the top tier of the Swiss football league syste ...

FC Sion Football Club de Sion, commonly known as simply FC Sion or Sion, is a Swiss football team from the city of Sion. The club was founded in 1909, and play their home matches at the Stade Tourbillon. They have won the Swiss Super League twice, and ...

and

FC Aarau FC Aarau is a Swiss football club based in Aarau. They play in the Swiss Challenge League, the second tier of Swiss football after being relegated from Swiss Super League. History FC Aarau was formed on 26 May 1902 by workers from a local ...

. Aarau loaned him out to Vladikavkaz in Autumn 2004, but he returned to Switzerland after playing just seven games. Kavelashvili joined

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss football club based in Basel, in the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been Swiss national champions 20 times, Swiss Cup winners 13 times, and ...

's first team during their 2005–06 season under head coach

Christian Gross Christian Jürgen Gross (born 14 August 1954) is a Swiss football manager and former player who most recently coached Schalke 04. He played as a sweeper and central midfielder. Gross was manager of Basel from 1 July 1999 to 27 May 2009, winning ...

, who was in his seventh season with the club in that position. Gross had been head coach for GC as Kavelashvili had won the Swiss championship in the 1997–98 season. Kavelashvili played his domestic league debut for the club in the home game in the

St. Jakob-Park St. Jakob-Park () is a Swiss sports stadium in Basel. It is the largest football venue in Switzerland and home to FC Basel. "Joggeli", as the venue is nicknamed by the locals, was originally built with a capacity of 33,433 seats. The capacity w ...

on 12 March 2006 as he was substituted in the 66th minute. He also scored his first goal for the team during the same game, it was the match winning goal as Basel won 1–0 against Grasshopper Club. Basel had started the season well and were joint leaders of the championship with

right until the last day of the league campaign. On the final day of the league season FCB played at home against FCZ. A last-minute goal from Zürich's

Iulian Filipescu Iulian Sebastian Filipescu (born 29 March 1974) is a Romanian former professional footballer who played as a centre back. He debuted in Divizia A with Steaua București in 1993 and became part of a league championship winning team for seven sea ...

meant the final score was 1-2 in favour of the away team and it gave FCZ their first national championship since 1980–81. The title for Basel was lost on goal difference. Kavelashvili had 10 appearances for FCB in his first season and in each he had been used as a substitute. In his second season he also made 7 appearances, again each as substitute, but the club released him before the winter break, and he retired from his active football career. During his period with the club, he played a total of 26 games for Basel scoring a total of 12 goals. 14 of these games were in the

, three in the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

and nine were friendly games. He scored four goals in the domestic league and the other eight during the test games.

International career

With his national team he won

Malta International Football Tournament The Malta International Tournament was a biannual association football friendly competition for national teams organised by the Malta Football Association that took place in Malta between 1986 and 2008. Initially, the tournament included the parti ...

1998

Political career

In 2016 he was elected as a member of Parliament of Georgia from the

party. He left Georgian Dream in 2022 and co-founded the

party.

Honours

Dinamo Tbilisi

Umaglesi Liga The Erovnuli Liga ( ka, ეროვნული ლიგა - lit. National League) is the top division of professional football in Georgia. Since 1990, it has been organized by the Professional Football League of Georgia and Georgian Football F ...

champion: 1990, 1994, 1995.

Vladikavkaz

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is the top division professional association football league in Russia. It was established at the end of 2001 ...

champion: 1995.

Grasshoppers

: 1998.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kavelashvili, Mikhail Footballers from Tbilisi Premier League players FC Basel players Association football forwards Soviet footballers Footballers from Georgia (country) FC Spartak Vladikavkaz players Grasshopper Club Zürich players Manchester City F.C. players FC Zürich players FC Dinamo Tbilisi players Russian Premier League players Georgia (country) international footballers FC Luzern players FC Aarau players FC Sion players Expatriate footballers in Russia Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers from Georgia (country) 1971 births Living people Swiss Super League players Politicians from Georgia (country) Members of the Parliament of Georgia Georgian Dream politicians