Georgi Demetradze ( ka, გიორგი დემეტრაძე, born 26 September 1976) is a Georgian 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 striker. He made 56 appearances for the Georgia national team scoring 12 goals.

Career

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 ...

, Demetradze played for the

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 ...

youth team and signed for the club in 1994 after spending two seasons with Kaheti Telavi. He has become the Georgian league top scorer with Dinamo. In 1997 Demetradze moved to Rotterdam to play for

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after its ...

, but an injury limited his playing time. After one season in Netherlands, he moved to Russia to play for

Alania Vladikavkaz FC Alania Vladikavkaz (russian: "Алания" (Владикавказ), os, Футболон клуб "Алани" (Дзæуджыхъæу)) is a Russian football team from Vladikavkaz. Founded in 1921, the club played in the Soviet Top League ...

. With them Demetradze has become

Russian Top Division 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 200 ...

top scorer in 1999. In 2000, he transferred to

Dynamo Kyiv Football Club Dynamo Kyiv (, ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Dynamo Sports Society, the club as a separate business entity was offic ...

to become a Ukrainian champion. While there he famously missed an open goal against

Manchester United 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 City of Salford, Salford to ...

in the Champions League that would have seen the English side eliminated from the competition. After a year at

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, S.A.D., more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad (; ''Royal Society''), La Real in Spanish, Erreala in Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Basque Country, founded on 7 Septemb ...

Demetradze returned to Russia where he spent half a season with

Lokomotiv Moscow FC Lokomotiv Moscow (''FC Lokomotiv Moskva'', russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб "Локомотив" Москва, ) is a Russian professional football club based in Moscow. Lokomotiv have won the Russian Premier League on three o ...

and half a season with Alania. In 2003, he moved to Ukraine again, to play for

Metalurh Donetsk Football Club Metalurh Donetsk ( uk, Футбо́льний клуб «Металу́рг» Доне́цьк, ) was a Ukrainian professional football club based in Donetsk that went bankrupt in July 2015. History Club predecessor Football ...

. He spent 2.5 seasons with them. In mid-2005 he went to play for Alania for the third time. After Alania were relegated, Demetradze transferred to

Maccabi Tel Aviv Maccabi Tel Aviv ( he, מכבי תל אביב) is one of the largest sports clubs in Israel, and a part of the Maccabi association. Many sports clubs and teams in Tel Aviv are in association with Maccabi and compete in a variety of sports, such ...

. In 2005 Demetradze participated in three different Leagues. In 2007, he returned to Ukraine and played for Arsenal Kyiv. A year later he signed an annual contract with Azerbaijani football club

FC Baku FC Baku ( az, "Bakı" Futbol Klubu) is an Azerbaijani football club based in Baku that has been an amateur club since 2016. Prior to that, Baku played 18 seasons in the Azerbaijan Premier League, winning the championship twice and earning the Na ...

Post retirement

Demetradze was arrested by Georgian police in July 2010, and on 23 March 2011 he was found guilty of

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...

from people who lost at illegal betting on sports, and sentenced to six years of imprisonment. He was released from prison as a political prisoner on 13 January 2013. Demetradze later married and had a daughter.

Career statistics

All data on his participation in the top league of Ukraine can be found at th
FFU official website
and supplemented by the National Football Teams website.

Career

Post retirement

Career statistics

References

External links