1. Mikheil Kavelashvili is a Georgian politician and former professional footballer who was sworn in as the sixth president of Georgia on 29 December 2024.
14 Facts About Mikheil Kavelashvili
1. 2.
Mikheil Kavelashvili was the sole candidate for the presidency for the first time in Georgia's history because of the opposition boycott.
3.
Mikheil Kavelashvili was capped 46 times by the Georgian national football team.
4.
Mikheil Kavelashvili began training with Manchester City on 1 March 1996, before finally joining the club on 28 March, which was transfer deadline day.
5.
Mikheil Kavelashvili then played the majority of his football in Switzerland, featuring for Zurich, Luzern, Sion and Aarau.
6.
Mikheil 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 scored the only goal of the win over Grasshoppers.
7.
Mikheil Kavelashvili had ten appearances for FCB in his first season and in each he had been used as a substitute.
8.
In 2016, Mikheil Kavelashvili was elected as a member of Parliament of Georgia for the Georgian Dream party.
9.
Mikheil Kavelashvili left Georgian Dream in 2022 and co-founded the People's Power party, a satellite of Georgian Dream designed to propagate anti-Western narratives without incriminating the ruling party.
10.
Mikheil Kavelashvili laid the foundations of the Global War Party conspiracy spread by Georgian Dream leaders since 2022, by insinuating US ambassador Kelly Degnan tried to blackmail Bidzina Ivanishvili into the war in Ukraine.
11.
People's Power joined the party list of Georgian Dream for the 2024 parliamentary election, with Mikheil Kavelashvili being elected for the third time.
12.
Mikheil Kavelashvili remained the sole candidate, a first in Georgia's presidential elections, due to a boycott by the opposition.
13.
Mikheil Kavelashvili is the third former professional football player to become a country's president, following in the footsteps of Algeria's first president Ahmed Ben Bella between 1963 and 1965 and the election of George Weah as President of Liberia between 2018 and 2024.
14.
On 20 March 2025, Mikheil Kavelashvili appointed political scientist, blogger, and TikTok creator Luka Ekhvaia as his advisor on foreign relations, who has been described as far-left, anti-Western, and pro-China.