Georgiou Kinkladze

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Georgiou Kinkladze
Image:Kinkladzemcfc.jpg
Personal information
Full name	Georgiou Kinkladze
Date of birth	6 July 1973
Place of birth	Tbilisi, Georgia
Nickname	Kinky Gio "The Georgian Wizard
Playing position	Centre Midfielder
Youth clubs
1989	Mretebi Tbilisi
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1989-91 1991-95 1995 1995-98 1998-00 2000 2000-03 2004-05 2005-	Mretebi Tbilisi Dynamo Tbilisi Saarbrucken Manchester City Ajax Derby County (loan) Derby County Anorthosis Famagusta Rubin Kazan	60 (9) 124 (45) 11 (0) 119 (21) 12 (0) 14 (1) 82 (6) (??) ? (??) ?
National team
1991 – 2000	Georgia	50 (18)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Georgiou Kinkladze (born July 6, 1973 in Tbilisi, USSR) is a Georgian football (soccer) midfielder. His nickname was 'Kinky'. He is regarded as one of the greatest ever players to wear the Manchester City and Derby County shirts and is a hero to fans at both clubs

Contents 1 Growing Up 2 Career in Georgia 3 Manchester City 4 Quotations

[edit] Growing Up

Georgiou Kinkladze was born on 6th July 1973 in Tbilisi, Georgia, part of the former Soviet Union. At school Gio had only two interests, history and football, with football holding the larger share of his attention, no doubt because of his father's influence in having him playing for Dynamo Tbilisi's junior side when he was only eight years old.

In 1991, Georgia became an independent state again, but independence brought civil war as rival factions fought for control. Because of the hostilities, the Tbilisi management sought to put their players in a more stable environment and Kinkladze, with two others, was sent on loan to Saarbrucken in Germany.

[edit] Career in Georgia

None of the Georgians were able to settle into the side at Saarbrucken, partly because of the over competitive, and sometimes aggressive attitude of the German players towards those from the East. Following Saarbrucken's relegation and the political situation in Georgia having stabilised, Kinkladze returned to Tbilisi. By now he was a regular in the Georgian national side, and in 1993/94 he was the national Player of the Year. After a season at Tbilisi, Kinkladze was offered to Athletico Madrid (April 1994) for approximately £200,000; they gave him a trial but no contract. However, Gio had caught the eye of one Diego Maradona, who had him on trial at Boca Juniors in Argentina for a month. Had Kinkladze taken a liking to life in that part of the world, he could have been there today; he didn't, so he returned to Georgia once more.

In September 1994, in the run up to Euro 96, the Georgian national side played Moldova in Tbilisi. This match took place largely unnoticed, but Francis Lee saw a video recording and was so taken by the skills of Kinkladze that he contacted Tbilisi President Merad Jordania, eventually securing an undertaking that Manchester City would have first refusal should Georgiou become available.

Two months later Georgia thrashed Wales 5-0, and at the return match at Cardiff Arms Park, City scouts Jimmy Frizzell and Colin Bell saw Kinkladze's now famous goal, lifting the ball with a well controlled chip over Southall from 20 yards.

In his last season with Dinamo, Kinkladze scored 14 goals in 20 outings and attracted the attention of some world class clubs including AC Milan. It seems that the Italian scouts were so excited with his ability they gave him the nickname "Rivera of the Black Sea". However, when it came to it, Merad Jordania was as good as his word and Kinkladze was offered to City and the pair flew into Manchester to finalise a 3 year deal; Alan Ball's first signing for City, the fee somewhere in the region of £2 million. After initial difficulties obtaining a work permit, Georgiou played his first match for the Blues at Maine Road against Spurs on 19th August 1995.

[edit] Manchester City

During the 1995/96 season he quickly became the fans' favourite; though having no understanding of English, his displays of skill and ball control show something not seen for an awful long time at Maine Road. His ability and panache even caught the eye of opposing fans, the Middlesbrough fans voted Gio the "Best Opposing Player of the Season" and his goal against Southampton in March 1996 will be forever in the memories of those lucky enough to have witnessed it.

He became a favourite of the City fans (rivalling the Maine Road legend Colin Bell in the eyes of some fans) and scored 22 goals in 119 appearances. One of his most famous and sublime goals was against Southampton F.C. when City were still in the premiership. Kinkladze beat several players before cheekily chipping the stranded goalkeeper. The goal won the "Best ever Maine Road goal in a poll by city fans when they moved from their famous home. The goal also won the goal of the month competition. Despite City's relegation that season Kinkladze was one of the stars of the Premiership. He looked set to join one of the European giants- Barcelona, AC Milan, Real Madrid- rumoured to be interested in his signature. But such was his loyalty to the club which had shown faith in him and his love for the fans he decided to stay. Despite the rough tactics of many opponents he battled away until the club, in freefall, was relegated for the second time in three seasons. Despite the pleas of the City faithful, including a Gio Kinkladze day, he could not play in the Second Division. He left the club for Ajax Amsterdam for £5 million transfer fee. However Gio's spell at Ajax quickly turned sour after he was told to play out of position on the left wing. Gio was eventually dropped after just 12 appearances for Ajax and he joined Derby County on loan before a permanent move to the midlands club came about the following season. Kinkladze started to play better at Derby and was the supporters player of the year in the 2002-2003 season. The following year Derby offered Gio a new contract but on considerably lower wages, so he decided to leave the club. He was later linked with moves to Scottish Clubs Dundee, Celtic and later Leeds United, but nothing came of it. He eventually did get a contract with Cypriot team Anorthosis Famagusta where he linked up with his fellow countryman and Player Coach Temuri Ketsbaia.

At a club which became infamous for lurching between the sublime and the ridiculous in equal measure, Kinkladze was the perfect player to sum up the club as he eventually delighted and frustrated City fans in equal measure. He showed his ability and talismanic importance at a time when City had few (if any) gifted players on their books, and the rags were collecting trophies at a rate of knots. It was nice, even for a short while, to finally have a player whom supporters of rival clubs would covet, especially when the same player shrugged off suggestions he might leave by declaring that his only interest was to win matches for City. His unforgettable solo goal against Southampton has been acknowledged as arguably the best-ever goal scored by a City player and seeing Gio at his very best will live long in the memory. At the "Parade of Legends" before the last City match at Maine Road, Gio repeated his statement from years before that "City is the one club dearest to my heart and wherever I go I'll always love and be grateful to the City fans for the support they gave me".

In the year 2004/2005 he was signed by the Cypriot club Anorthosis Famagusta, where his compatriot Temuri Ketsbaia has the role of player/manager. After helping Anorthosis win the Cypriot championship, his contract came to an end, but Famagusta managed to extend it for another year. He played in Famagusta's Champions League qualifying matches against Rangers before leaving for Russian club Rubin Kazan, where he currently plays.

A recent book 'Perfect 10' was released telling Kinkladze's story from Georgia to Russia via Manchester City, an unhappy spell at Ajax Amsterdam and a return to England with Derby County.

[edit] Quotations

"City is the one club dearest to my heart and wherever I go I'll always love and be grateful to the City fans for the support they gave me"