Alexander Gabrielovich Chivadze is a Soviet professional ex-football player who played as a defender. Throughout his career, he played with Dynamo Tblisi, where he played 324 matches and scored 44 goals in 13 years. In the period from 1980 to 1987, he played for the national team of the Soviet Union, he spent 46 fights and became the author of three goals. Alexander Chivadze is a Master of Sports of the international class (rank received in 1980) and Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1981). A. Chivadze is also one of two Georgian football players who became captains of the Soviet team. The first was Murtaz Khuptsilava (played for Dynamo Tbilisi and Torpedo Kutaisi).
The football player is known for his unique style of play and a non-standard way of performing free-kicks. It is known that Alexander began his career as an opornik, but was later moved to defense. Alexander was incredibly skilled in rolling technique and played excellently on the second floor. Many goals in his career are scored with his head.
Biography
Alexander Chivadze was born on April 8, 1955 in the city of Klukhori (now the Republic of Karachevsk), and then - the Stavropol Territory, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Alexander's father worked at a bakery, married a young girl, Nora.
When the boy was only a year and a half, the family moved to Tbilisi, where his father was from. Sasha grew up and was brought up in the Nakhalovka district. Here he played football from morning to night with the local guys. At the age of eight, Alexander began to go to the football section of Dynamo Tbilisi.
Professional career at Dynamo Tbilisi
At the age of eighteen he began to play for the understudy team, and since 1974 - at the base. Initially, Alexander Chivadze was used as a defensive midfielder. In 1978, Nodar Parsadanovich Akhalkatsi (the main mentor of Dynamo) decided to involve Chivadze in the position of centerback. As a result, the young footballer coped with his tasks perfectly, and since then has remained to play this role. The entire football community of the Soviet Union recognized the correctness of the decision of the white-blue mentor.
While playing in the defensive line, Alexander Chivadze also connected to the attacks, because the skills and tasks of the midfielder remained in his memory. Often a player becomes the author of goals and assists. Chivadze was also distinguished by a strong and accurate shot, thanks to which he was made a full-time penalty kick in the composition. During his run, he always monitored the goalkeeper’s movement and reaction, and when he approached the ball to shoot, he paused a little, thanks to which he understood in which direction the goalkeeper would fall and in which he would break. In 1980, Alexander was appointed captain of the Dynamo Tbilisi team and remained with him until the end of his career as a football player.
International performances
As part of the USSR team, Alexander Chivadze spent 46 matches and recorded three goals in his statistics. The first fight took place on March 6, 1980 (against Bulgaria). In 1982, the Georgian centerback participated in the World Cup in Spain. In 1986, he went to the World Cup in Mexico, where he did not play a single match. The fact is that Alexander Chivadze had a minor injury that the specialists did not manage to heal. At the same time, the defender was included in the application of the national team with the hope that the Georgian football player would still be able to enter the field. A sufficient amount of time A. Chivadze withdrew the USSR national team with a captain’s armband on his hand.
Retirement
The last match in the career of a Georgian football player took place in 1987 as part of the UEFA Cup against Sportverein Werder Bremen from Germany. The reason for ending his career was numerous minor injuries, which made it extremely difficult to continue. An important factor was the burden of responsibility, which Alexander Chivadze could not cope with in his last sports years.
Club achievements internationally
During his career A. Chivadze became the owner of many titles and trophies. For thirteen years he remained faithful to the Dynamo Tbilisi club, with whom he became the USSR champion d 1978, 2-time winner of the USSR Cup (1976 and 1979)? winner of the UEFA Cup Winners Cup in 1981. Also, the centerback Alexander Chivadze was eight times on the list of 33 best players of the Soviet Union, and in 1980 he was recognized as the best player in the country. As part of the USSR team, he became a bronze medalist at the 1980 Olympics.
