Shota Arveladze


Shota Arveladze is a Georgian former professional footballer and current manager of Pakhtakor Tashkent.
Arveladze played at Dinamo Tbilisi, Trabzonspor, Ajax, Rangers, AZ and Levante.
He is Georgia’s all-time top scorer with 291 goals in his 410 league games for his clubs and 26 goals in his 61 games for the national team.
His 27 goals scored in the UEFA Cup competition ranks him 5th in the tournament's history. He has the best strike record of independent Georgian Football. He was nominated as the best player of Georgia as well as the best player by the Georgian Professional Football league survey.

Club career

Tbilisi and Trabzonspor

Arveladze played at Dinamo Tbilisi, Trabzonspor, and Ajax, and finished at least one season as the top goal scorer at all three. In 1993, he scored an effective first Euro Tournament goal in the history of independent Georgian Football in the match against Linfield, Northern Ireland. When he led Trabzonspor in goals in 1995–96, he also led the Süper Lig, making him the second non-Turk to date to lead that league in goals after Tarik Hodžić 1983–84. He is recorded as "most loved foreign player" for Trabzonspor supporters.

Ajax Amsterdam

In summer 1997, Arveladze signed for Ajax Amsterdam. Later, he declared that he was so nervous during his first training session, that he even forgot to take football boots with him. He became a close friend to Ronald de Boer during his spell in Amsterdam. His first game at Amsterdam Arena was a special day for the Georgian player. On 15 August 1997, Ajax Amsterdam faced Brazilian side Grêmio in a friendly game. Arveladze scored a goal, while his wife Tamuna gave birth to their first child, Giorgi hours before the game.
Arveladze made a debut for Ajax against Vitesse Arnhem, where he replaced Gerald Sibon and scored the fourth goal for the club. During his first season, he scored three hat-tricks in Eredivisie and total 25 goals in 31 appearances. The manager of the Amsterdam-based club Morten Olsen was very pleased with the performance of the young striker. Arveladze was a key figure for the club during 1997–98 UEFA Cup as well. He scored 7 goals in 8 games for the club, including hat-trick against NK Maribor. Ajax were eliminated in quarter-finals, against Spartak Moscow. Arveladze scored the club's single goal in a tie. During his first season, he faced twice NAC Breda, where his twin brother Archil played. This remains as one of the most memorable facts in Shota's career.
In summer 1998, Ajax signed Arveladze's close friend Giorgi Kinkladze from Manchester City for £5 million. They had been friends since their childhood and that looked like a dream move for both. However, Kinkladze's spell at Ajax proved unsuccessful.

Rangers

Arveladze joined Rangers from Ajax for £3m in 2001. He agreed a four-year deal with the club. It was obvious that the Georgian would face a fierce competitions for the starting place in the Rangers' strikeforce from the players like Tore Andre Flo, Claudio Caniggia, Michael Mols, Kenny Miller, Billy Dodds, Ronald de Boer and Russell Latapy.
During the first season with Glasgow-based club, Arveladze scored 17 goals overall, including 11 in Scottish Premier League. He only managed to take part in 30 games, after being injured in February in the quarterfinal of the Scottish Cup against Forfar Athletic, an injury which meant he missed the 2002 Scottish League Cup Final. However, he scored six goals for his club, which managed to win the title. Arveladze played in the final, replacing Claudio Caniggia. This was his first title with the Scottish club.
The following season was the most successful in the career of the Georgian player. Rangers won treble. In March 2003, Rangers defeated their arch-rivals Celtic in League Cup Final. Later in Scottish Cup Final, Rangers won another title, after they managed to defeat Dundee with a goal from Lorenzo Amoruso. Arveladze's two compatriots, Georgi Nemsadze and Zurab Khizanishvili also took part in this game. The latter joined Arveladze at Rangers during that summer.
In May 2005, Arveladze declared that he will leave the club after the end of the season, in which he managed to scored 9 goals. He confirmed receiving offers from the various clubs throughout Europe, including the teams from England, Germany, the Netherlands and Turkey.
During his time at Rangers, Arveladze had a nickname Mr. Bean, because of his facial likeness to Rowan Atkinson.
During a legal case in 2015, Arveladze's agent claimed that the true transfer fee had been 12 million Euro, the equivalent of £8.5 million at the time. Arveladze scored the 300th goal in the SPL and was part of Rangers squads that won the domestic treble in 2002–03 and a double in 2004–05.

AZ

Arveladze departed Rangers for Dutch side AZ on a free transfer before the start of 2005–06 season, signing a two-year deal with the club.
Under the guidance of Louis van Gaal, Arveladze became the key figure of the club. He scored 22 goals in Eredivisie, becoming the second best top-scorer of the tournament after Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, who scored 33 goals during the season. Alkmaar participated in UEFA Cup this time as well. In 6 game for the club, Arveladze made 2 assists and scored 2 goals, one of them against Real Betis. At the end of the season, AZ Alkmaar and Arveladze agreed a contract extension to keep the Georgian international striker at the Dutch club until the summer of 2008.
During the second and the final season with the club, Arveladze was appointed as the new captain of the club. He was offered the armband after Denny Landzaat and Joris Mathijsen left for Wigan Athletic and Hamburger SV respectively. The Georgian was praised by Louis van Gaal, under whose guidance he played at Ajax Amsterdam as well. Van Gaal compared Arveladze to Danny Blind and Frank Rijkaard in terms of personality, calling him the top professional in the squad.
He scored 23 goals, accumulating total 48 goals for AZ in 89 competitive appearances. The Georgian striker scored 7 goals in UEFA Cup as well, two of them in Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium in a 2–1 away win against Sevilla.

Levante

In July 2007, Arveladze passed a medical and agreed a one-year contract with the Spanish club Levante.
Unfortunately he injured during the summer training session of the club and missed nearly ten months. He got injured in July and when underwent surgery in Amsterdam. The Georgian returned and made a debut against Villarreal in March, replacing Juanma. He managed to take part in other 3 games until the end of the season.
In April, Levante confirmed that Arveladze would retire at the end of the season. In the last game of his career he played at Santiago Bernabeu against Real Madrid, in which Los Blancos won 5-2. He replaced Laurent Courtois.

International career

Shota Arveladze was a regular in the Georgian national team and is its all-time leading scorer with 26 goals in his 61 games. With Georgia he won in 1998 the Malta International Football Tournament.

Coaching career

After retiring as a player, Arveladze was appointed as assistant manager of AZ under head coach and former Ajax coach Louis van Gaal in July 2008. He maintained this position in the 2009–10 season under Ronald Koeman and Dick Advocaat.
For the 2010–11 season, Arveladze served as manager of Turkish side Kayserispor.
From 2012 to 2015, Arveladze managed Istanbul-based Kasımpaşa SK.
On 3 July 2015, Arveladze was named manager of Turkish side Trabzonspor. Arveladze resigned on November 2015 after back to back poor results with the team.
In June 2016 Arveladze was announced as the new head coach of Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. Around the middle of the season, Arveladze was fired due to series of poor results on his side.
In 2017, he was announced as head coach of Pakhtakor Tashkent in Uzbekistan.

Personal life

Arveladze played football on a high level well into his thirties despite having to deal with chronic asthma his entire career.
His brothers Archil and Revaz also played International football. His son Giorgi Arveladze is also a footballer.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

#DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.17 September 1992David Kipiani Stadium, Gurjaani4–16–3Friendly
2.19 July 1992Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi1–11–1Friendly
3.16 November 1994Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi5–05–0UEFA Euro 1996 qualifier
4.16 November 1994Qemal Stafa Stadium, Tirana1–01–0UEFA Euro 1996 qualifier
5.26 April 1995Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi1–02–0UEFA Euro 1996 qualifier
6.11 October 1995Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi1–02–1UEFA Euro 1996 qualifier
7.30 March 1997Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi1–07–0Friendly
8.30 March 1997Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi3–07–0Friendly
9.30 March 1997Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi6–07–0Friendly
10.7 June 1997Central Stadium, Batumi1–02–01998 FIFA World Cup qualifier
11.14 June 1997Stadion GKS Katowice, Katowice1–01–41998 FIFA World Cup qualifier
12.4 September 1999Bežigrad Stadium, Ljubljana1–11–2UEFA Euro 2000 qualifier
13.8 September 1999Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi1–02–2UEFA Euro 2000 qualifier
14.8 September 1999Qemal Stafa Stadium, Tirana1–21–2UEFA Euro 2000 qualifier
15.1 September 2001Mikheil Meskhi Stadium, Tbilisi1–03–12002 FIFA World Cup qualifier
16.8 September 2002St. Jakob Park, Basel1–11–4UEFA Euro 2004 qualifier
17.6 September 2003Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi1–03–0UEFA Euro 2004 qualifier
18.6 September 2003Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi3–03–0UEFA Euro 2004 qualifier
19.11 September 2003Qemal Stafa Stadium, Tirana1–11–2UEFA Euro 2004 qualifier
20.27 May 2005Sportzentrum, Altenkirchen1–21–3Friendly
21.18 August 2006Svangaskarð, Toftir3–06–0UEFA Euro 2008 qualifier
22.18 August 2006Svangaskarð, Toftir5–06–0UEFA Euro 2008 qualifier
23.18 August 2006Svangaskarð, Toftir6–06–0UEFA Euro 2008 qualifier
24.6 September 2006Olimpiyskiy National Sports Complex, Kiev1–12–3UEFA Euro 2008 qualifier
25.16 November 2006Mikheil Meskhi Stadium, Tbilisi3–23–2Friendly
26.29 March 2007Hampden Park, Glasgow1–11–2UEFA Euro 2008 qualifier

Managerial statistics

Honours

As a player

Club

Dinamo Tbilisi
Trabzonspor
Ajax
Rangers

Club

Pakhtakor Tashkent