Ramaz Shengelia ( ka, რამაზ შენგელია; 1 January 1957 – 21 June 2012) was a Georgian and

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

football player.

Club career

Born in

Kutaisi Kutaisi (, ka, ქუთაისი ) is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and the third-most populous city in Georgia, traditionally, second in importance, after the capital city of Tbilisi. Situated west of Tbil ...

, Shengelia started career in his hometown club

Torpedo Kutaisi FC Torpedo Kutaisi is a Georgian professional football club based in Kutaisi, Georgia's third largest city. 'Torpedo Kutaisi' was founded in 1946 and in just three years the club became the winner of the Football Championship of that time. Torpe ...

in 1968. He spent four seasons for the club, scoring 29 goals in 75 games in the

Soviet First League The Soviet First League in football (russian: Первая лига СССР по футболу) was the second highest division of Soviet football,Evgeni Kazakov. The Soviet First Football League (Первая лига СССР по футбо ...

. Shengelia became the top scorer of the club twice. After the successful spell in the second strongest team in

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

, he was invited to

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� ...

in 1977. The head coach of the

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 pe ...

-based club,

Nodar Akhalkatsi Nodar Akhalkatsi ( ka, ნოდარ ახალკაცი; 2 January 1938 – 24 January 1998) was a professional football manager from Georgia. Coaching career Akhalkatsi coached Soviet club Dinamo Tbilisi to the USSR league championship ...

arrived to

in order to monitor the performance of Shengelia and his other teammate

Tamaz Kostava Tamaz Giviyevich Kostava (russian: Тамаз Гивиевич Костава) (born 29 February 1956, in Kutaisi) is a retired Georgian football player of the Soviet national team. Honours * Soviet Top League The Soviet Top League, known af ...

. Both of them eventually signed for Dinamo for the following season. During the debut years, Shengelia has to compete for the starting place with

Revaz Chelebadze Revaz Chelebadze ( ka, რევაზ ჩელებაძე) (born 2 October 1955) was a retired Georgian football player. He was nicknamed Chele (an allusion to Pelé), for his brilliant technical play and ability to score goals. The ...

. However, Shengelia found his place in the team and became the top scorer of the club during

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd government). * January 6 ...

season. Dinamo won the championship for the second time in history, while Shengelia was nominated as

Soviet Footballer of the Year The award Soviet Footballer of the Year was awarded to the best footballer of the Soviet Union from 1964 until 1991. The poll was conducted among journalists by the weekly sport newspaper ''Football'' (Football-Hockey). Each journalist named his ow ...

ahead of

Oleg Blokhin Oleg Vladimirovich Blokhin, or Oleh Volodymyrovych Blokhin ( uk, Оле́г Володи́мирович Блохі́н, rus, Оле́г Влади́мирович Блохи́н; born 5 November 1952), is a former Ukrainian and Soviet footbal ...

( Dynamo Kyiv) and

Georgi Yartsev Georgi Aleksandrovich Yartsev (russian: Гео́ргий Алекса́ндрович Я́рцев; 11 April 1948 – 15 July 2022) was a Russian football coach and player. He was the head coach of the Russia national team between 2003 and 200 ...

( Spartak Moscow). The season of 1981 was the most successful for Shengelia. Dinamo won

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tourn ...

, after defeating Carl Zeiss Jena in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

. Shengelia scored 4 goals during the tournament. At the end of the season he finished 7th in

Ballon d'Or The Ballon d'Or (; ) is an annual football award presented by French news magazine '' France Football'' since 1956. Between 2010 and 2015, in an agreement with FIFA, the award was temporarily merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year (f ...

nominees. Two of his teammates were also the nominees for the title, as

Aleksandre Chivadze Aleksandre Chivadze ( ka, ალექსანდრე გაბრიელის ძე ჩივაძე; russian: Александр Габриэлович Чивадзе) (born 8 April 1955 in Klukhori), is a former Georgian and So ...

finished 8th, while

David Kipiani David Kipiani ( ka, დავით ყიფიანი; 18 November 1951 – 17 September 2001) was a Georgian football midfielder and manager. Kipiani principally played as a playmaker and is considered one of Georgia's greatest playe ...

was 11th in the final ranking. Shengelia was again named

in 1981. During the following season, Dinamo lost in the semifinal of

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège (; nl, Standard Luik ; german: Standard Lüttich ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the most ...

. However, Shengelia became the topscorer of the tournament with 6 goals. Shengelia retired from football in 1988, but he came out of retirement a year later, joining the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

club

IFK Holmsund Idrottsföreningen kamraterna Holmsund is a football club from Holmsund, Sweden, founded on 8 June 1923 that plays its home games at Kamratvallen. They took part in the 1967 Allsvenskan. They folded and were restarted in 1990. English footballer ...

with his teammate

Tengiz Sulakvelidze Tengiz Grigoriyevich Sulakvelidze ( ka, თენგიზ სულაქველიძე; born 23 July 1956 in Kutaisi) is a former Georgian footballer. Honours * International Master of Sports: 1980. * Honored Master of Sports of the U ...

. Holmsund competed in the second tier of the championship. During the only season with the club, Shengelia scored 2 goals in 13 appearances.

International career

He played in 26 games scoring 10 goals for the

Soviet Union national football team The Soviet Union national football team ( rus, сбо́рная СССР по футбо́лу, r=sbórnaya SSSR po futbólu) was the national football team of the former Soviet Union. After the breakup of the Union the team was transformed i ...

, including performance at the

1982 FIFA World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain between 13 June and 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy, who defeated West Germany 3–1 ...

(5 matches, 1 goal). He also represented his country in 5

FIFA World Cup qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments are hel ...

matches.

Later years

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Shengelia worked in

Georgian national football team The Georgia national football team ( ka, საქართველოს ეროვნული საფეხბურთო ნაკრები, tr) represents the country of Georgia in men's international football matches, and it is c ...

as an assistant of

. Later was invited to

Georgian Football Federation The Georgian Football Federation ( GFF; ka, საქართველოს ფეხბურთის ფედერაცია, ''sakartvelos pekhburtis pederatsia'') was founded in 1936. Based in Tbilisi, it was part of the Football Fede ...

by his former coach and then-president of the federation

. Shengelia died of a

brain haemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

in June 2012, at the age of 55. The football stadium in his hometown

is named after him.

Club career statistics

''Source'' :¹Includes

UEFA European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

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 solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

and

. :²Includes other competitive competition

USSR Federation Cup The Cup of Football Federation of USSR, az, SSRİ Futbol Federasiyasının Kuboku, kk, КСРО футбол федерациялары кубогы, KSRO fwtbol federacïyaları kwbogı, lt, TSRS Futbolo Lygos Taurė, ro, Cupa Federației de ...

International goals

Ramaz Aleksandrovich Shengeliya
EU-Football.info. Retrieved 5 April 2013. :''Score and results list Soviet Union's goal tally first.''

Titles

Player

Club

Soviet Top League The Soviet Top League, known after 1970 as the Higher League (russian: Чемпионат СССР по футболу: Высшая лига), served as the top division of Soviet Union football from 1936 until 1991. The professional top level ...

Soviet Cup The Soviet Cup, or USSR Cup (russian: Кубок СССР),, be, Кубак СССР, uz, СССР Кубоги, kk, КСРО Кубогы, ka, სსრკ თასი, az, ССРИ кубоку, lt, TSRS taurė, ro, Cupa URSS ( Moldov ...

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...

: 1980–81

International

UEFA European Under-21 Championship The UEFA European Under-21 Championship, the UEFA Under-21 Championship or simply the Euro Under-21, is a biennial Association football, football competition contested by the European men's under-21 national teams of the UEFA member associations. ...

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 ...

Individual

(2): 1978, 1981 *

top scorer:

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

(23 goals) *

top scorer: 1981–82 (6 goals) *

top scorer:

Grigory Fedotov club Grigory Fedotov Club (russian: Клуб Григо́рия Федо́това) is a non-official list of Soviet and Russian football players that have scored 100 or more goals during their professional career. This club is named after first Soviet ...

member * Merited Master of Sports (1981) * The best 33 football players of the Soviet Union: 1st (1981); 2nd (1978, 1979, 1980); 3rd (1977)

Ballon d'Or

– 7th

References

External links

*
Profile in RussianPachkoria, Tengiz. ''In Memoriam. The star of Dinamo Tbilisi Ramaz Shengelia''Georgia online
(Distributed by

Ukrayinska Pravda ''Ukrainska Pravda'' ( uk, Українська правда, lit=Ukrainian Truth) is a Ukrainian online newspaper founded by Georgiy Gongadze on 16 April 2000 (the day of the Ukrainian constitutional referendum). Published mainly in Ukrai ...

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Shengelia, Ramaz 1957 births 2012 deaths Sportspeople from Kutaisi Mingrelians Footballers from Georgia (country) Soviet footballers Soviet expatriate footballers Soviet Union international footballers 1982 FIFA World Cup players Soviet Top League players FC Dinamo Tbilisi players FC Torpedo Kutaisi players Soviet expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Expatriate footballers in Sweden IFK Holmsund players Association football forwards