How a former Manchester City striker-turned-president is at the heart of battle for Georgia’s future amid claims he is a pro-Russian puppet

When Mikheil Kavelashvili scored on his Manchester City debut, equalising against arch rivals Manchester United, Sky Sports commentator Martin Tyler exclaimed: ‘My goodness, what a story.’

Yet the ex-footballer now finds himself at the centre of a more momentous clash, with Europe-wide implications, as the disputed new president of his homeland Georgia.

Former international striker Mr Kavelashvili has long since given up going for goal, instead going for power – first being elected as an MP in 2016.

And he has now been sworn in as his country’s president, the first to win office thanks to a vote by officials rather than the public following constitutional reforms.

But the 53-year-old father-of-four faces tumultuous protests on the streets, condemnation both home and abroad and allegations he is a pro-Putin puppet who could take Georgia back into Russian clutches. 

Mr Kavelashvili, who in his playing days scored nine goals in 46 appearances for Georgia, has become a leading figure in a right-wing, anti-Western movement.

His People’s Power party, founded in 2022 as an offshoot of Georgian Dream which has held power in the country since a decade earlier, is accused of favouring Russian links over bolstering closer ties with the European Union.

Polls have suggested about 80 per cent of Georgians want to join the EU and the country was recognised by the bloc last year as a candidate for full membership.

Mikheil Kavelashvili, co-founder of the People’s Power party in Georgia, has been inaugurated as his country’s new president – but faces fierce protests over his rise to power

The 53-year-old father-of-four previously played for Manchester City, signing for the Premier League side in 1996 and scoring on his debut against rivals Manchester United

Opponents have been holding demonstrations in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi, brandishing red cards in protest about Mikheil Kavelashvili’s assumption of the presidency

Yet talks over any potential application have now been suspended following contentious general elections last October, which featured allegations of ballot-rigging, intimidation of voters and threats to opposition parties by the ruling regime.

Mr Kavelashvili has been backed by the governing Georgian Dream and its most influential figure, the billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili – who built his fortune, now valued at £7billion, in Russia in the 1990s.

Georgian Dream has won every general election in the country since 2012, although Kavelashvili’s predecessor as president Salome Zourabichvili was not a member of the party despite previously having its endorsement.

She has been among the leading opponents of his new accession to power, denouncing his instalment as illegitimate.

The European Parliament too has rejected the declared election results and called for a rerun, while the US has just imposed sanctions on Mr Ivanishvili.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused the tycoon of having ‘eroded democratic institutions, enabled human rights abuses and curbed the exercise of fundamental freedoms in Georgia’.

Back on April 6 1996, as new £1.4million City signing Kavelashvili found the net on his Premier League debut at Maine Road, commentator Tyler told viewers: ‘Well, it’s a long name to splash against the back of a Manchester City shirt.

‘But it’ll be splashed across a few headlines if Manchester City go on from this.’

Georgia’s disputed new president Mikheil Kavelashvili (right) is seen here before his swearing-in ceremony on December 29 2024, with Georgian Dream party founder Bidzina Ivanishvili

Georgia’s outgoing pro-EU President Salome Zurabishvili is pictured addressing a meeting ahead of Mikheil Kavelashvili’s inauguration in Tbilisi on December 29 2024

Polls have suggested about 80 per cent of Georgians favour joining the European Union – critics of Mr Kavelashvili are seen outside the country’s Parliament on December 29 2024

As it turned out, City lost the match 3-2 and were relegated the following month, and his equaliser against United remained his only Premier League goal in four top-flight appearances.

He scored three league times in total for City, across 28 appearances, but was unable to renew his work permit before moving to Switzerland.

He retired from the game in 2007 and, after failing to secure a post with the Georgian Football Federation, made a move into politics.

Mr Kavelishvili has been prevented from standing for the presidency of Georgia’s FA because he does not hold a higher education degree – and this has been among the criticisms levelled against him since being nominated for the country’s top job.

The footballer-turned-politician, first elected as an MP in 2016, was put forward as Georgian Dream’s candidacy for the presidency last month.

This provoked protests from all opposition parties, who boycotted the vote, meaning he was the only candidate left standing as was supported by 224 members of a 300-strong electoral college dominated by Georgian Dream MPs.

Ms Zourabichvili, who was previously endorsed by Georgian Dream but has been distancing herself from the party in recent years, insists that she remains the country’s legitimate president.

And demonstrators in Georgia have been taking to the streets to protest ahead of and following Mr Kavelashvili’s inauguration in the capital Tbilisi on Sunday last week.

Mikheil Kavelashvili won 46 caps for Georgia during his football career – he is seen here (left) playing for his country against Norway in Oslo in May 1999 in a Euro 2000 qualifier

Supporters of the Georgian opposition hold Georgian and EU flags during a protest in front of the Georgian Parliament in the capital Tbilisi on December 22 2024

Outgoing president Salome Zourabichvili, seen speaking to protesters on December 22 2024, has insisted she remains Georgia’s legitimate president

Protesters outside the parliament building blew whistles and held up red cards in reference to his footballing past, while outgoing head of state Ms Zourabichvili told crowds: ‘I remain the only legitimate president. I will stand with you.’

Mr Kavelashvili has been criticised for holding far-Right views, making derogatory comments against LGBTQ people and defending Kremlin-style laws curbing civil liberties.

He has previously accused the West of wanting ‘as many people as possible (to be) neutral and tolerant towards the LGBTQ ideology, which supposedly defends the weak but is, in fact, an act against humanity’. 

He has also accused opposition parties of being controlled by US congressman with ‘an insatiable desire to destroy our country’ and suggested they were planning ‘a direct violent revolution and the Ukrainisation of Georgia’.

Opposition parties have refused to enter parliament since the October general election, but prime minister Irakli Kobakhidze of Georgian Dream has ruled out calling fresh ballots.

In the first 10 days of protests after the contested vote, riot police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse demonstrators, some of whom threw fireworks and stones.

More than 400 people have been arrested during the protests, many saying they have been beaten.

Georgia declared its independence in April 1991, the first non-Baltic state of the Soviet Union to do so, but Mr Kavelashvili and his party colleagues are said to favour closer ties with Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Footballer-turned-politician Mikheil Kavelashvili, said by critics to be too pro-Moscow, is seen with the World Cup trophy in February 2018 ahead of that summer’s tournament in Russia

The former Manchester City player (pictured right, tussling for the ball with Huddersfield Town’s Steve Jenkins) made 28 league appearances for the English club in 1996 and 1997

Protesters against his inauguration as Georgia’s new president, seen here in the capital Tbilisi on December 29 2024, has made allegations about recent election abuses

His actions so far as president have included introducing new fines for using fireworks, daubing anti-government graffiti and blocking roads – while he also also stripped Ms Zourabichvili of her security detail. 

He was previously among the authors of a controversial law requiring organisations that receive more than 20 per cent of their funding from abroad to register as ‘pursuing the interest of a foreign power,’ similar to a Russian law used to discredit organisations critical of the government.

Opponents have claimed he will be not only a puppet of Russia’s President Putin but also Georgian Dream’s founder Mr Ivanishvili, who officially serves as the party’s honorary chairman.

Giorgi Margvelalashvili, a historian who was Georgia’s president between 2013 and 2018, has accused the new leading pair of forming part of a ‘special Kremlin operation’ to ensure Russian influence over Georgia.

He was quoted by the Times as saying: ‘They have effectively said goodbye to Europe. Who will benefit from this? Only the Russians.’

Meanwhile, Giorgi Gakharia – Georgia’s prime minister from September 2019 to February 2021 – said of Mr Kavelashvili: ‘With his lack of education, experience or competence, he’ll be easily managed, he’ll fulfil instructions without question.

‘He’s decidedly average, just as he was on the football pitch.’

Yet compatriot and former City team-mate Georgi Kinkladze, still a folk hero to fans in Manchester and the man who recommended his signing back in 1996, has wished the new president luck even as the storm over his legitimacy rages on.

A supporter of the Georgian opposition holds a caricature of Mikheil Kavelashvili during a protest in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi on December 14 2024

Anti-government demonstrators gathered outside the parliament building on December 14 2024 as a Georgian Dream-dominated electoral college voted in favour of Mikheil Kavelashvili

The new president is watched while taking the oath during his swearing-in ceremony at the parliament building in Tbilisi on December 29

Kinkladze, who now owns a Manchester wine bar, has said: ‘I am happy and, at the same time, worried for him. It’s a huge responsibility. I wish him every success.’

Mr Kavelashvili himself said in a TV address to the nation on New Year’s Eve: ‘I believe this will be a year of good triumphing over evil.’

Yet among the demonstrators outside the presidential palace was a 22-year-old programme named David, who declared: ‘We will keep fighting. We will keep protesting. It’s too late for backing down.’ 

Fellow protester Giorgi Mamatelashvili, 34, said that Ms Zurabishvili ‘still remains our president’, as she and her supporters hope somehow her spell in charge can defy Mr Kavelashvili’s rise to off-pitch power and instead extend into extra time.

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