Georgi Makhatadze

Biography

Georgiy comes from Rostov-on-Don. He started playing football when he was eight. “A schoolmate told me that our local academy was running trials, - recounts Makhatadze. – Dad insisted I should give it a shot. I did not even feel like going there. Folks at the academy did not spot anything special and wanted to turn me down. But after a couple of training sessions they relented, and it got better from then on. Once we went to Zaporozhye to take part in a tournament, where I was scouted for Lokomotiv.”

Makhatadze was initially played in centreback position. Then coaches tried moving him up front to support attack. In the final run they shifted him to midfield. Thus, Georgiy became a long-range specialist. In 2015 Makhatadze managed to score a goal directly from the middle of the park in the game against South African country squad at the Youth World Cup.

At Lokomotiv Georgiy won the 2016 Russian Youth Championship and made his debut for the main team in May as a substitute in the encounter with Mordovia.