Ambassadors: Shota & Archil Arveladze
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
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The twins who were heroes both inside and beyond their native Georgia are the ambassadors for the UEFA Futsal Cup in Tbilisi.
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Shota Arveldaze
Playing career: FC Dinamo Tbilsi, Trabzponspor AŞ, AFC Ajax, Rangers FC, AZ Alkmaar, Levante UD
Coaching career: Kayserispor, Kasımpaşa SK
Honours: Georgian League (4), Georgian Cup (4), Turkish Cup (1), Dutch League (1), Dutch Cup (2), Scottish League (2), Scottish Cup (2)
• Perhaps the most famous son of Georgian football, Shota Arveldaze holds several records with his career goal tally of 291, the highest of anyone from the former Soviet Union. His 27 UEFA Cup goals is also second only to Henrik Larsson and he topped league scoring charts in Turkey and the Netherlands.
• Helping Dinamo to doubles in the first four post-independence Georgian seasons, he joined Trabzonspor in 1994 and in his first year won the Turkish Cup and in the second was the first foreign player to be top league scorer for a decade.
• Moving to Ajax in 1997, he helped them complete the double in his first season. The success continues at Rangers between 2001 and 2005, not least a treble in 2002/03.
• Despite knee injury problems he remained playing at the top level with AZ and Levante before retiring in 2008. He became Louis van Gaal's AZ assistant for two years before spells coaching Turkish sides Kayserispor and Kasımpaşa.
• For Georgia he scored a record 26 goals in 61 appearances. He has been voted Georgia's greatest player by both fans and fellow professionals – all this despite suffering from chronic asthma.
Archil Arveldaze
Playing career: FC Dinamo Tbilisi (twice), Trabzponspor AŞ, NAC Breda, 1. FC Köln, FC Lokomotivi Tbilisi
Honours: Georgian League (2), Georgian Cup (2), Turkish Cup (1)
• Shota's twin brother (the pair turned 40 in February), they played together with distrinction for Dinamo, Trabzonspor and Georgia. Archil's career was only possible after funds were raised to send him to Munich for a knee operation when he was 17.
• Able to play as a striker like his brother, on the wings or in the hole behind attack, he left Turkey for Breda in 1997 and was named their player of the year twice in three seasons.
• Köln was his next destination (a former club of elder brother Revaz) and he remained there until 2003 before returning to Tbilisi prior to retirement, since when he has worked in education and the media.
• In all he was capped 32 times, scoring six goals.