Georgian national, Shota Arveladze, was born on 22 February 1973 in Tbilisi and is a professional football manager and former national player for Georgia, among others.
He was appointed manager of the English Football League (EFL) championship club Hull City in January 2022 following the club’s transfer to new owner, Turkish media mogul, Acun Ilicali. His contract is for two-and-a-half years.
On his debut game as manager against Swansea City two days after his appointment, Hull City team won 2–0 at home.
Arveladze was raised in Tbilisi when it was still part of the former USSR in the 1970s. Spending most of his time playing the beautiful game, he played alongside the likes of Georgi Kinkladze (whom English fans will remember), his talent was recognised early.
The 6ft (1.82 m) former striker is his home country’s top goal scorer with 291 goals in his 410 league games for his clubs and 26 goals in his 61 games for the Georgian team. Holding the best strike record of Georgian football, Arveladze was nominated as Georgia’s best player as well as the best player by the Georgian Professional Football league survey.
Besides the above accolades, Arveladze’s 27 goals scored in the UEFA Cup competition ranks him 7th in the tournament’s history.
He is best remembered in English football as playing for the Glasgow Rangers. Between 2001-2005, he won two league titles, two Scottish Cups and the Scottish League Cup.
Coaching Career
After retiring as a player, Arveladze was appointed as assistant manager of AZ under head coach and former Ajax coach Louis van Gaal in July 2008, where he remained in the position for the 2009/20 season.
Like slots players moving from enjoying ordinary pokies to the best pokies, he then moved to the Turkish club Kayseripor for the 2010/11 season followed by the Istanbul club, Kasimpasa SK from 2012-2015. Arveladze was then appointed as manager for Trabzonspor before moving to the Maccabi Tel Aviv side in 2016.
A year later he was named head coach for The Uzbekistan club Pakhtakor Tashkent, where his team went on to win the Uzbekistan Super League Cup in 2019 and 2020.
Arveladze inherits Hull City, a side ranking 19th in the Championship, 9 points above the relegation zone.
To sum up, his club manager and head coach roles include:
2010-2012 (Kayseripor)
2012-2015 (Kasimpasa)
2015 (Trabzonsspor)
2016-2017 (Maccabi Tel Aviv)
2017-2020(Pakhtakor Tashkent)
2022- (Hull City).
Hull City football club has a squad of 27 with an average age of 24. Of the 27 players, 7 are foreigners, roughly 25.9%. Two players play for the national team and the current transfer record is -€800 k. The market value of the Tigers is €30,75 million.
Meanwhile, Tiger fans are hoping for good things under Arveladze’s leadership. They shouldn’t be disappointed as his family have football in their blood.
His brothers, Archil (his twin) and Revaz (older brother) also played international football, as did Revaz’s son Vato.
Shota Arveladze says he is looking forward to working with the Tigers’ attacking players and fans cannot wait to se what the team does next.