Georgian Khvicha Kvaratskhelia quits Russian football

Tbilisi, 23 Mar The best Georgian footballer, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, has decided to leave the Russian league that until now played as a member of Rubin Kazan's squad, as announced on Wednesday on public television. Kvaratskhelia, 21, will now play for Dinamo Batumi, leader and current champion of the Georgian league. The young player, who scored his team's only goal against Spain in a World Cup qualifier a year ago (1-2), has been called up by his team for a friendly against Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Georgian and Russian press had reported in recent days about the great pressures that the footballer had been subjected to in his country for continuing to wear the Rubin shirt in the midst of the war in Ukraine. Although he had a five-season contract with the Tatar team, FIFA and UEFA allow players to withdraw from Russian clubs due to the conflict. Kvaratskhelia exploded last season with the arrival on the bench of Rubín by Leonid Slutski, a former Russian coach who at Vitesse coincided with another Madrid player, Martin Odegaard, who began to show his full potential under the baton of that coach. The Georgian, who has acknowledged that his dream is to play for Real Madrid, is sought after by several European clubs, including Naples. The Georgian coach, Frenchman Willy Sagnol, expressed his “full support” for the player in his new professional stage. Also left the discipline of another Russian team, Arsenal de Tula, Georgian striker Zurab Davitashvili. The Georgian authorities, who broke diplomatic relations with Russia after the war for control of South Ossetia (2008), expressed their support for Ukraine, the scene of a Russian “special military operation” that was largely condemned by the international community. Due to the conflict in Ukraine, many other foreign footballers have left their Russian clubs, including Zenit, league champion for the past three seasons and sponsored by the state-owned corporation Gazprom. mv-mos/apa