‘Scoring in a derby, on my debut, was an amazing supply of pleasure’: The unimaginable story of MIKHEIL KAVELASHVILI, Man Metropolis star turned disputed president of Georgia – as he reveals why Metropolis followers will stick with him ‘for the remainder of my life’

‘What a narrative! Mikheil Kavelashvili, on his debut, in a Manchester derby! It’s a protracted title to splash throughout a Manchester Metropolis shirt however will probably be splashed throughout a number of headlines if Metropolis go on from this.’ Martin Tyler, Sky Sports activities commentary, April 6, 1996

Our dialog was a little bit surprising. If a lot concerning the man with the lengthy title, you’ll in all probability perceive why.

It was a fortnight in the past that Each day Mail Sport took a punt, which meant sending an electronic mail to a generic media handle within the Georgian parliament. The gist: would Mikheil Kavelashvili fancy a chat?

Once more, if , . When you don’t, then this one is relatively attention-grabbing – Kavelashvili performed 28 video games for Manchester Metropolis in an earlier time in his life and for the previous 21 months has operated in a unique line of labor. He’s the disputed president of Georgia. Reaching him would probably be a non-starter.

However 18 hours later, a reply got here again from the individuals who deal with his affairs they usually needed to know our space of curiosity, so I defined: Maine Highway, April 1996, Manchester Metropolis 2 Manchester United 3.

It was Kavelashvili’s debut and after Eric Cantona tucked away a penalty for 1-0, Metropolis’s new striker stepped on to a Niall Quinn knock-down and poked previous Peter Schmeichel to stage. Metropolis misplaced the sport, earlier than lengthy they’d misplaced their place within the Premier League, too, and Kavelashvili’s headlines didn’t materialise. Quickly sufficient, he was on mortgage to Grasshoppers in Switzerland.

And Kavelashvili again in his footballing days when he had a spell with a struggling Manchester Metropolis within the late Nineteen Nineties

A number of extra messages got here and went on this theme and curiosity from the opposite finish formed into an oblique ‘sure’ – the president wouldn’t take a telephone name however may reply our questions in writing.

After per week of silence, they arrived on Wednesday morning. On Sunday, United and Metropolis will contest the 199th Manchester derby at Previous Trafford.

Someplace in Georgia, a 55-year-old who performed within the one hundred and thirty fifth will pay attention to how that each one goes. Right this moment, he’s depicted as an anti-West hardliner of the correct and his election to the presidency in 2024 has been rejected by political opposition and the European Parliament. 

It’s a critical debate in the actual world. However it seems he nonetheless follows the goings-on in his different life. And, surprisingly, he was open to discussing the best way it was, which means he nonetheless believes Metropolis deserved a draw three many years in the past. 

He nonetheless reckons he may have performed extra to save lots of Metropolis from relegation. And he may also see a comparability between one in every of his many Metropolis managers, Frank Clark, and Margaret Thatcher.

Soccer. You by no means fairly know the place it’s going to steer.

The Manchester Metropolis of 1996 was considerably completely different to the one in every of 2026. Kavelashvili arrived into the chaotic panorama of Alan Ball’s squad within the March, following a chronic marketing campaign of suggestions from the better-known Georgian at Maine Highway, the nice Georgi Kinkladze. 

Aged 24, Kavelashvili signed for £1.4million from the Russian champions Spartak Vladikavkaz.

Kavelashvili celebrates his aim at Maine Highway which briefly levelled the Manchester derby in April 1996

‘I keep in mind him as a heat, good fella,’ Quinn (proper) says. ‘We referred to as him Kav. There was rather a lot happening on the membership, issues have been tense, however he was a kind of forwards who labored laborious’

‘My transfer to Manchester Metropolis was preceded by a match I performed in Wales as a part of the Georgian nationwide group, which we received, and by profitable the Russian championship, the place I additionally turned the group’s prime scorer,’ Kavelashvili tells me.

‘After all, Gio’s advice additionally performed a really important position. Earlier than signing the contract, the membership’s president, Francis Lee, advised me that the thought behind my transfer was to construct, sooner or later, a group round Giorgi Kinkladze that may play extra artistic soccer. This was a really attention-grabbing challenge for me.

‘Along with all of this, I used to be deeply impressed by the followers’ perspective. I noticed in them that particular ardour and emotion which, in my opinion, are everlasting and unaffected by the passing of generations.

‘Gio had advised me an excellent deal about all of this earlier than, however what I witnessed with my very own eyes exceeded all my expectations. I want to thank the followers and the membership itself for the feelings they gave me. I’m sure (they) will stick with me for the remainder of my life.’

All of that being mentioned, Metropolis have been in dire hassle. When Kavelashvili signed, they have been three factors above the relegation zone and their striker, the cult hero Uwe Rosler, had engaged in open revolt in opposition to Ball. For the Manchester derby, the German was abruptly dropped and the brand new man was thrown in for his debut alongside Quinn.

‘I keep in mind him as a heat, good fella,’ Quinn tells me this week. ‘We referred to as him Kav. There was rather a lot happening on the membership, issues have been tense, however he got here in and was a kind of forwards who labored laborious.

‘He wouldn’t wait with fingers on hips – he’d do his personal operating and he had his second in opposition to United.’

Alan Ball’s Manchester Metropolis was a really completely different animal to in the present day’s membership 

Kavelashvili was given his likelihood after Ball fell out with Metropolis’s German striker Uwe Rosler (pictured)

How a lot did that aim change the trail of Kavelashvili’s life? Given the profile of the Premier League and a Manchester derby, was it ultimately tied to a political celebration utilising him years later as a recognisable face? It’s unattainable to know and attention-grabbing to ponder.

Naturally, Kavelashvili remembers the sport in opposition to United, who have been a nostril forward of Newcastle United on the prime of the desk, with Sir Alex Ferguson three weeks shy of baiting Kevin Keegan into his ‘I’ll adore it…’ speech.

‘In a match like this, the positions occupied by the groups within the league desk are just about irrelevant,’ Kavelashvili says. ‘The followers create an environment that makes it really feel as if you’re taking part in in a match ultimate. An unforgettable expertise.

‘Manchester United on the time have been among the best groups in Europe. Nonetheless, we genuinely believed that we may do it.’

Martin Tyler’s commentary instructed Kavelashvili’s aim for 1-1 would make the headlines, however Metropolis have been solely stage for one minute earlier than Andy Cole acquired United’s second. Kavelashvili had one other wonderful likelihood, however Schmeichel blocked the drive along with his face, and the Georgian was then substituted for Rosler.

The latter’s subsequent equaliser turned iconic for the style through which he celebrated – he ran in direction of Ball and wagged his finger. 

Rosler, who had solely discovered he was on the bench when he noticed Kavelashvili’s shirt hanging within the dressing room, then opened the chasm additional when he advised Match of the Day that there was a ‘huge downside’ with the supervisor. By then, Ryan Giggs had scored the winner and Metropolis have been within the backside three.

‘In my opinion, we must always a minimum of not have misplaced the match, because it was an evenly contested sport general and we had a number of alternatives to attain, together with an opportunity for me,’ Kavelashvili says. ‘We made a number of expensive errors and have been punished. Given the best way the match unfolded, I imagine a draw would have been a fairer outcome.

‘As for my aim, scoring in a derby of this magnitude, particularly in my debut match, was, in fact, an amazing supply of pleasure. Sadly, nonetheless, the results of the match considerably overshadowed that pleasure.’

Kavelashvili takes on Steve Bruce within the Manchester Derby in 1996 

Kavelashvili arrived at Metropolis following a chronic marketing campaign of suggestions from the better-known Georgian at Maine Highway, the nice Georgi Kinkladze (pictured)

The farce of Metropolis’s season was encapsulated by the ultimate day, after they confronted Liverpool. Within the dying seconds, at 2-2, Ball mistakenly believed a draw would preserve his facet secure resulting from scores elsewhere, so there was a directive to get the ball to the nook. 

It was solely when the injured Quinn got here sprinting out of the physio room and waving his arms for the group to assault that anybody realised they have been dawdling in direction of their very own demise.

His team-mate Keith Curle had one other commentary. ‘Kav missed a sitter in that sport!’ he tells me.

Kavelashvili would go on to play 24 video games for Metropolis within the second tier the following season, scoring two extra objectives, earlier than being loaned out to Switzerland in 1997 and bought in 1999. He seems to carry some regrets.

‘As my contract was signed in direction of the tip of the season, I joined the group solely 4 or 5 matches earlier than the tip of the championship,’ he says. ‘By that time, the group’s major goal was already to keep away from relegation.

‘This may occasionally even have influenced the coach to position higher belief in gamers he knew properly and with whom he had earlier expertise of working. That is totally comprehensible. Nevertheless, I imagine that, had I been given a little bit extra confidence, I may have contributed extra to the group. By the way, Gary Lineker expressed an analogous view on the time.’   

Quinn is succinct in describing his response to the occasions of December 2024, when he heard a former team-mate had grow to be the pinnacle of state in Georgia after spending eight years as a member of the county’s parliament. 

Having left England in 1999 and retired in 2006, Kavelashvili’s title had barely been uttered in our native footballing circles.

‘Jeez, that was a shock!’ says Quinn. ‘Didn’t see that coming, if I’m sincere.’ He probably spoke for the remainder of the Metropolis dressing room.

Across the time of that 2024 election, Clark, who managed Kavelashvili through the 1996-97 season, advised The Athletic: ‘Good luck to him, if he’s going to be coping with Putin, though he may discover Putin is less complicated to take care of than I used to be. I’m joking in fact… I hope I’m a nicer particular person than Putin.’

The previous Metropolis participant Keith Curle remembers ‘Kav’ properly and notably the ultimate sport of the season which noticed Metropolis relegated. ‘Kav missed a sitter in that sport!’ he says 

I redirect that thought to Kavelashvili, who says: ‘As I understood it, Frank Clark’s joke was a reference to his personal steadfastness and adherence to precept. Nevertheless, in politics, the power to search out compromises is not any much less necessary.

‘If he needed to check himself particularly to a politician, I’d have discovered it extra pure for him to attract a comparability with a British politician, comparable to Winston Churchill or Margaret Thatcher. 

‘That they had very clear rules, however additionally they needed to make tough choices within the advanced world of politics and, when mandatory, discover compromises.’

For individuals who comply with Georgian politics, Clark’s remark about Putin may chime in methods the previous supervisor didn’t intend. Kavelashvili’s stance on neighbouring Russia has been accused by critics of being sympathetic – a degree he has beforehand denied – and that sits alongside livid, ongoing opposition to his ascension to energy with the Georgian Dream celebration. 

The European Parliament mentioned in 2025 that it ‘refuses to recognise the self-proclaimed authorities of the ruling Georgian Dream celebration following the rigged parliamentary elections’.

As headlines they’re heaven and earth faraway from what Tyler had in thoughts when he reported on a soccer match. That fixture could or could not have been a sliding-door second for Kavelashvili. And for Georgia, as a complete.

As for Kavelashvili, he traces his involvement in politics to an ‘injustice’ greater than a decade in the past, when he felt soccer in his nation was being hijacked for ‘political aims’. After talking out, he says he discovered himself within the political area.

That journey has adopted a surreal and contentious route. So have Manchester Metropolis, of their manner. 

‘As somebody who as soon as had a reference to the membership, [City’s recent success] makes me very joyful,’ Kavelashvili says

For his half, Kavelashvili has saved a watch on a membership whose subsequent success bears no resemblance to the one he represented. ‘As somebody who as soon as had a reference to the membership, this makes me very joyful,’ he says.

Returning to the theme of Ball and Francis Lee, he provides: ‘Their imaginative and prescient was primarily based on creating a extra artistic model. It’s value noting that, on the time, comparatively few groups had such a imaginative and prescient. It was throughout these years that Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool have been starting to develop an analogous method.

‘Sadly, at that time, Manchester Metropolis discovered itself in a scenario that made it very tough to completely implement these concepts. Nevertheless, in the present day, after I take a look at what  Metropolis has grow to be, I can see that Alan Ball and Francis Lee have been the primary to try to introduce this soccer philosophy on the membership.’

It’s an attention-grabbing principle. Together with a number of different issues, it may additionally be weak to dispute.