53-year-old former Manchester City football player Mikheil Kavelashvili has become Georgia's new president.
ADVERTISEMENTMikheil Kavelashvili has been chosen as president of Georgia on Saturday by a 300-seat electoral college, which replaced direct presidential elections in 2017 and is currently dominated by his party, Georgian Dream.
It was a straightforward win for Kavelashvili, 53, who was the only candidate on the ballot. Though constitutional changes in Georgia have made the president's job largely ceremonial, it signifies a tightening of Georgian Dream's grip in what the opposition has called a blow to the country's EU aspirations and a victory for Russia.
It has been an unlikely path to the presidency for Kavelashvili, who emerged from Dinamo Tblisi's youth system as a promising young footballer in 1989. He went on to build a successful career as a striker, becoming a regular for his local team before moving to Russian side Spartak Vladikavkaz in 1995.
He then joined English side Manchester City for two seasons before playing for several different Swiss Super League teams and retiring in 2006. During his playing career, he amassed 46 appearances for the Georgian national team and scored nine goals.
Just 10 years after his retirement from the football world, he was elected to Georgia's parliament in 2016 on the Georgian Dream ticket. In 2022, he co-founded the People’s Power political movement, which was allied with Georgian Dream and became known for its strong anti-western rhetoric.
Kavelashvili has often been mocked by the opposition in Georgia for lacking higher education. On the day of his election as president, protesters outside the parliament building brought their own university diplomas, while others kicked around footballs.
Kavelashvili was one of the authors of a controversial law requiring organisations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “pursuing the interest of a foreign power,” similar to a Russian law used to discredit organizations critical of the government.
Speaking in parliament after his nomination in November, Kavelashvili said “Our society is divided," claiming that “radicalisation and polarisation" in the country is being fuelled from abroad.
He accused pro-western outgoing president Zourabichvili, who has said she will refuse to vacate her position until a new election is held, of violating the constitution and declared that he would "restore the presidency to its constitutional framework.”