Mikheil Kavelashvili
მიხეილ ყაველაშვილი
Kavelashvili in 2014
President-elect of Georgia [1]
Assuming office 29 December 2024
Prime Minister	Irakli Kobakhidze
Succeeding	Salome Zourabichvili
Member of the Parliament of Georgia
In office 18 November 2016 – 10 December 2024
Personal details
Born	(1971-07-22) 22 July 1971 (age 53)[2] Bolnisi, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union
Political party	Independent (2024–present)
Other political affiliations	Georgian Dream (2016–2022) People's Power (2022–2024)
Children	4
Occupation	Politician footballer
Association football career Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) Position(s) Forward Youth career 1989–1991 Dinamo Tbilisi Senior career* Years Team Apps (Gls) 1988–1995 Dinamo Tbilisi 132 (80) 1994–1995 → Alania Vladikavkaz (loan) 24 (12) 1995–1997 Manchester City 28 (3) 1997–1999 → Grasshoppers (loan) 59 (20) 1999–2002 Zürich 81 (28) 2002–2003 Luzern 25 (5) 2003–2004 Sion 10 (6) 2004–2005 Aarau 16 (8) 2004 → Alania Vladikavkaz (loan) 7 (0) 2005–2006 Basel 14 (4) Total 396 (166) International career 1991–2002 Georgia 46 (9) *Club domestic league appearances and goals

Mikheil Kavelashvili (Georgian: მიხეილ ყაველაშვილი; born 1971) is a Georgian politician and former professional footballer who has been elected as the President of Georgia during the 2024 Georgian presidential election.

As a player, he was a striker who notably played in the English Premier League for Manchester City and in the Swiss Super League for Grasshoppers, Zürich, Luzern, Sion, Aarau and Basel. He also played for Dinamo Tbilisi and Spartak Vladikavkaz. He was capped 46 times by Georgia, scoring nine goals.

He moved into politics in 2016, and was elected to the Parliament of Georgia in the Georgian Dream party, before leaving to create the ruling party's satellite organization, People's Power, which is only nominally independent from Georgian Dream.

On 27 November 2024, the ruling Georgian Dream party nominated Kavelashvili as its candidate for the Presidency of Georgia.^[3] On 14 December 2024, he was elected as President of Georgia uncontested. The opposition has regarded the election as "illegitimate" and has boycotted it. Therefore, no other candidates was running due to an opposition boycott.^[4] It was the first time in the history of Georgia that a presidential candidate ran without any other candidates on the ballot.^[5]

As with many leading Georgian players, Kavelashvili began his career with Dinamo Tbilisi, emerging from their youth system in 1989. A skilful striker, he soon established himself in the Dinamo side before earning a move to Russian club Spartak Vladikavkaz in 1995.

Kavelashvili began training with Manchester City on 1 March 1996,^[6] before finally joining the club on transfer deadline day. He made his City debut on 6 April scoring in the derby game against Manchester United. Following City's relegation, he played 24 games (two goals) in the Football League First Division. The number was not enough to secure a renewal of his work permit, and he was sent out on loan to Grasshoppers, winning a Swiss Super League in 1998. He has since played the majority of his football in Switzerland, featuring for Zürich, Luzern, Sion and Aarau. Aarau loaned him out to Vladikavkaz in Autumn 2004, but he returned to Switzerland after playing just seven games.

Kavelashvili joined Basel's first team during their 2005–06 season under head coach Christian Gross, who was in his seventh season with the club in that position. Gross had been head coach for GC as Kavelashvili had won the Swiss championship in the 1997–98 season. Kavelashvili played his domestic league debut for the club in the home game in the St. Jakob-Park on 12 March 2006 as he was substituted in the 66th minute. He also scored his first goal for the team during the same game, it was the match winning goal as Basel won 1–0 against Grasshoppers.^[7] Basel had started the season well and were joint leaders of the championship with Zürich right until the last day of the league campaign. On the final day of the league season FCB played at home against FCZ. A last-minute goal from Zürich's Iulian Filipescu meant the final score was 2–1 in favour of the away team and it gave FCZ their first national championship since 1980–81. The title for Basel was lost on goal difference.^[8]

Kavelashvili had ten appearances for FCB in his first season and in each he had been used as a substitute. In his second season, he also made seven appearances, again each as substitute, but the club released him before the winter break, and he retired from his active football career. During his period with the club, he played a total of 26 games for Basel scoring a total of 12 goals. 14 of these games were in the Swiss Super League, three in the UEFA Cup and nine were friendly games. He scored four goals in the domestic league and the other eight during the test games.^[9]

With the Georgia national team, he won the 1998 Malta International Football Tournament.^[10]

In 2016 he was elected as a member of Parliament of Georgia from the Georgian Dream party. He left Georgian Dream in 2022 and co-founded the People's Power party. On 27 November 2024, he was nominated by Georgian Dream as its candidate for president of Georgia in elections scheduled on 14 December. In his nomination speech, he accused outgoing president Salome Zourabichvili of violating the constitution.^[11]

Kavelashvili has accused the political opposition in Georgia of being controlled by US congressmen with "an insatiable desire to destroy our country" and plotting "a direct violent revolution and the Ukrainisation of Georgia".^[12]

He was elected as president by the electoral college assembled with 224 votes on 14 December 2024 and is expected to assume office on 29 December of the same year, although the incumbent president, Zourabichvili, questioned the legitimacy of the parliament to choose a new candidate to replace her.^[13]

Dinamo Tbilisi

• Umaglesi Liga: 1990, 1994, 1995

Vladikavkaz

• Russian Premier League: 1995

Grasshoppers

• Swiss Super League: 1998

• Kakha Kaladze

• Mikheil Kavelashvili on Facebook
• Interview with Kavelashvili at archive.today (archived 22 February 2013)
• Mikheil Kavelashvili at EU-Football.info
• Mikheil Kavelashvili at National-Football-Teams.com