Shota Arveladze
Personal information
Full name	Shota Arveladze
Date of birth	22 February 1973 (1973-02-22) (age 36)
Place of birth	Tbilisi, Georgia, Soviet Union
Playing position	Striker
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1990-91 1990-92 1992-93 1993-94 1994-95 1994-97 1997-2001 2001-2005 2005-2007 2007-2008	Martve Tbilisi Iberia Tbilisi FC Dinamo Tbilisi Trabzonspor FC Dinamo Tbilisi Trabzonspor Ajax Amsterdam Rangers AZ Levante UD Total	030 0(33) 007 00(3) 060 0(48) 018 0(15) 008 0(11) 078 0(46) 096 0(55) 095 0(44) 060 0(36) 004 00(0) 456 (291)
National team
1992-2007	Georgia	060 0(26)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Shota Arveladze (born 22 February 1973 in Tbilisi) is a former Georgian professional football player. He is Georgia’s all-time top scorer with 246 goals in his 410 league games for his clubs and 26 goals during his 61 games on the national team.^[1]

[edit] Career

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (January 2009)

Arveladze played at Dinamo Tbilisi, Trabzonspor, and Ajax Amsterdam, and finished at least one season as the top goal scorer at all three. When he led Trabzonspor in goals in 1995-96, he also led the Turkish Premier Super League, making him the second non-Turk to date to lead that league in goals after Tarik Hodžić 1983-84. He is recorded as "most loved foreign player" for Trabzonspor supporters.

Arveladze joined Rangers from Ajax for £2 million in 2001. He scored the 300th goal in the SPL. He was part of the squad that won the domestic treble in 2002-2003 and the double in 2004-2005. He departed for Dutch side AZ on a free transfer in 2004-05.

He was also a regular in the Georgian national team, and was the nation's all-time leading scorer. In 1993 he scored an affective first Euro Tournament goal in the history of independent Georgian Football in the match against Linfield F.C., Northern Ireland. He is now retired from international football.^[2] His twin brother Archil also played international football for Georgia.

Shota Arveladze played football on a high level with chronic trauma until 35 years. He retired from playing football on 22 May 2008 and joined AZ's coaching staff, under former Ajax coach Louis van Gaal. Shota's son Giorgi studies at the British School of Amsterdam, and is trying to follow his father's footsteps.

He has been scored the most goals in the top leagues of different countries from the former Soviet Union. Shota is the top scorer of the National Team of Georgia, and he was the top scorer in the Championships of both Turkey and the Netherlands. He scored 27 goals on UEFA Cup and with this indicator he is only falling behind one player Henrik Larsson. ^[3]

Fast and extraordinary decisionmaking, sense of scoring, technique and leadership quality were among his main qualities. He was the best striker of independent Georgian Football, he was nominated as the best player of Georgia and in addition he was nominated as the best player by the Georgian Professional Football league inquiry.

[edit] Career statistics

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Shota Arveladze career stats at Soccerbase
• van Gaal comments on Arveladze's future (Dutch)
• His career at 'legioner' - all goals and games