Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Date of birth |
According to Birth certificate (modified) 18 November 1951 | 18 June 1951||
Place of birth | Tbilisi, USSR | ||
Date of death | 17 September 2001 | (aged 50)||
Place of death | Tbilisi, Georgia | ||
Height | 1.84 m (6 ft 0 in) | ||
Position(s) | Attacking midfielder | ||
Youth career | |||
1964–1966 | School No. 35 Tbilisi | ||
1967–1968 | Dinamo Tbilisi | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | ( Gls) |
1968 | Locomotive Tbilisi | 1 | (0) |
1969 | Dinamo Tbilisi | 0 | (0) |
1970 | Locomotive Tbilisi | 28 | (3) |
1971–1982 | Dinamo Tbilisi | 245 | (79) |
Total | 274 | (82) | |
International career | |||
1974–1981 | USSR | 19 | (7) |
Managerial career | |||
1984–1985 | Dinamo Tbilisi | ||
1988 | Dinamo Tbilisi | ||
1990–1991 | Dinamo Tbilisi | ||
1992–1993 | Olympiakos Nicosia | ||
1995–1997 | Dinamo Tbilisi | ||
1997 | Georgia | ||
1998 | Racing Mechelen | ||
1998 | Shinnik Yaroslavl | ||
1999–2001 | Torpedo Kutaisi | ||
2000–2001 | Georgia | ||
*Club domestic league appearances and goals |
Olympic medal record | ||
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Representing USSR | ||
Men’s Football | ||
1976 Montreal | Team competition |
David Kipiani ( Georgian: დავით ყიფიანი; 18 June 1951 – 17 September 2001) was a Georgian and Soviet football midfielder and manager, who played for the USSR national team. Kipiani principally played as a playmaker and is considered one of Georgia's greatest players. He was known for his elegant style of play, dribbling ability and passing range. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Kipiani was born in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR. He started playing for the 35th School during the early stages of his career. [7] Kipiani was invited to play for Dinamo Tbilisi in 1967. Due to injuries, he was only able to participate in a single appearances for two season. So, Kipiani went to play for another Tbilisi-based club, Locomotive Tbilisi. [7]
After a successful season with Locomotive, Kipiani was invited back to play for Dinamo again by Gavril Kachalin. [7] Meanwhile, while playing for Locomotive, Kipiani worked with his future manager Nodar Akhalkatsi, under whose managing he later became one of the key figures of Dinamo Tbilisi, which were among the powerful and successful clubs – presented not only at the highest level of Soviet football but internationally by the end of the 1970s and early 1980s. [7] [8] It was a time of the most significant results in the national championship [9] along with the local [10] and international recognition and notable achievements at various prestigious football tournaments. [11] [12] [13]
During the period between 1975 and 1982 – Kipiani was one of the prominent and unanimously recognized leaders of Dinamo Tbilisi, alongside players such as Manuchar Machaidze, Aleksandre Chivadze, Vladimir Gutsaev and Ramaz Shengelia. Georgian team's impressive success against such great football clubs like Liverpool, [14] Inter Milan, [15] [16] Napoli, [17] West Ham United, [18] Feyenoord and others was mainly determined by their obvious personal and professional talent, unique playing abilities and individual skills, great vision of the game, by their exemplary and complete interactions on the football pitch, where Kipiani was probably the most important, illustrious and exquisite player among others. [19] [20] [21] [22] [23]
Kipiani was capped 19 times for the Soviet Union, between April 1974 and May 1981, scoring seven goals. He made his international debut under manager Konstantin Beskov, in a friendly international match on 17 April 1974 in Zenica, when he was a second-half substitute for Vladimir Fedotov. Kipiani has scored his first international goal just after five minutes into his debut for the Soviet team, which became the only goal of the match and Soviet Union beat Yugoslavia 1–0. [24] [25] [26] He played his last national team game on 30 May 1981 in a 1982 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Wales. [27] [28] [29]
Kipiani was not given a chance to play in the World Cup finals. Many think his peak was in 1982, but missed the Spain World Cup and quit playing altogether due to a severe leg injury sustained against Kuban Krasnodar on 26 April (Round 4).
After retirement, Kipiani coached FC Dinamo Tbilisi, Torpedo Kutaisi, Shinnik Yaroslavl (Russia), Racing Mechelen (Belgium), Olympiakos Nicosia (Cyprus) and the Georgia national team.
He died in Tbilisi, Georgia from injuries sustained in a car crash near Tserovani (Mtskheta) on 17 September 2001. [30] He was 49 years old. The Georgian Cup and the David Kipiani Stadium in the town of Gurjaani belong to Alazani Gurjaani, were named after him. [31]
Club | Season | League | Cup | Europe | Total | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
Locomotive Tbilisi | 1968 | 1 | 0 | – | – | – | – | 1 | 0 |
Dinamo Tbilisi | 1969 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Locomotive Tbilisi | 1970 | 28 | 3 | 1 | 0 | – | – | 29 | 3 |
Dinamo Tbilisi | 1971 | 23 | 3 | 1 | 0 | – | – | 24 | 3 |
1972 | 28 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 2 [33] | 1 | 33 | 8 | |
1973 | 20 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 28 | 8 | |
1974 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 4 | – | – | 8 | 5 | |
1975 | 24 | 12 | 2 | 1 | – | – | 26 | 13 | |
1976 | 18 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 2 [34] | 1 | 25 | 15 | |
1977 | 27 | 14 | – | – | 5 | 2 | 32 | 16 | |
1978 | 25 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 35 | 9 | |
1979 | 22 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 28 | 6 | |
1980 | 31 | 8 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 42 | 11 | |
1981 | 18 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 24 | 8 | |
1982 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 9 | 4 | |
Total | 245 | 79 | 34 | 17 | 35 | 10 | 314 | 106 | |
Career total | 274 | 82 | 35 | 17 | 35 | 10 | 344 | 109 |
National team | Year | Apps | Goals |
---|---|---|---|
Soviet Union | 1974 | 1 | 1 |
1975 | – | – | |
1976 | – | – | |
1977 | 6 | 3 | |
1978 | 6 | 3 | |
1979 | 5 | 0 | |
1980 | – | – | |
1981 | 1 | 0 | |
Total | 19 | 7 |
Dinamo Tbilisi
Soviet Union U18
Dinamo Tbilisi
Torpedo Kutaisi
The legendary Russian goalkeeper Lev Yashin wrote: David Kipiani is the most illustrious figure in Soviet football; he is simply unparalleled. The intelligent Kipiani, with his exquisite manner of playing, is able to see his teammates excellently and has the capacity to resolve the most difficult of issues on the football field.
Today is the birthday of Dinamo's legendary number 10 player – Davit Kipiani. He played in Dinamo Tbilisi in 1971–1982 years and in 351 matches he scored 126 goals. Davit Kipiani was the champion of Soviet Union, double owner of Soviet Cup, owner of Cup Winners' Cup, the best footballer of Soviet Union, winner of Europe Youth championship. He played in European team as well. He won Georgian championship for six times, Cup for three times and Super Cup for two times as the head coach of Dinamo Tbilisi. Today legend of our club would turn 64 years old.
Georgia right-back Otar Kakabadze: David Kipiani is my idol and role model. He was a great midfield playmaker for Dinamo Tbilisi who won the Cup Winners' Cup and was player of the year in the USSR. (The Georgian team interpreter interjects: "Kipiani was an elegant player, and many people think Kakabadze plays in a similar elegant style. He started out as a midfielder, like Kipiani.")
Se producen frente a la lápida de David Kipiani (Tbilisi, 1951), el mejor jugador de la historia de Georgia, un predecesor, en los finales de los años 70 y principios de los años 80, de la elegancia fría de Zidane, según cuentan en los corrillos futboleros que ayer se montaron alrededor del hotel de concentración de la selección española en la capital georgiana.
David Kipiani. Although Kipiani was not frequently involved in the USSR national team (only 19 games and 7 goals), but his fantastic performance in Tbilisi 'Dinamo', for which he played from 1971 till 1982, made him the Georgian and Soviet Football legend. David Kipiani was the brilliant star of already stacked team of 'Dinamo Tbilisi', that won the prestigious UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in May 1981. After finishing his playing career, he became a coach. On 17 September 2001, Kipiani died in a car accident at the age of 49.
Many think, David Kipiani was the best Georgian midfielder and one of the best Georgian coaches.
The domestic football league of the old USSR was a vast, vibrant, and powerful competition, containing as it did clubs such as the Moscow giants Dynamo, Spartak, CSKA – and occasionally Torpedo – as well as influential teams from the republics, like the Dynamos of Kiev, Tbilisi, and Minsk. Evidently, the league would have been exceptionally strong and closely contested – it was so strong, in fact, that it rose to second place in UEFA's league rankings.
Multi-sports event for teams from the Soviet Union, held (roughly) every four years, usually in pre-olympic years. (Below only the summer tournaments are listed; in addition seven winter spartakiads were held between 1962 and 1990, none of them featuring a football tournament.)
1979–80 European Cup, Round: One, 2nd Leg, Boris Paichadze Dinamo Arena, Tbilisi
UEFA European Cup 1979/1980 – Boris Paichadze National Stadium, Tbilisi
Champions League – 1979/1980. Stadion: Boris Paichadze, Tbilisi. Zuschauer: 90.000. Schiedsrichter: Heinz Aldinger
1979–80 European Cup, First round, Second leg — 17:00CET (19:00 local time) — Boris Paichadze Dinamo Arena, Tbilisi
1977–78 UEFA Cup, First round, First leg — San Siro, Milan
1978–79 UEFA Cup, First round, First leg — Boris Paichadze Dinamo Arena, Tbilisi
Of course, you qualified for the European Cup Winners' Cup and then played against Dinamo Tblisi. Was that the most difficult game you've ever had? Yeah. I think we played them at a stage where we hadn't lost at Upton Park for 10 months so we were pretty formidable at home. All of a sudden, we were playing this Georgian side who had a mid-season break and hadn't played any football for six weeks. I think we went in there thinking these are there for the taking. They had players like David Kipiani in midfield and Aleksandr Chivadze, who was the captain. Ramaz Shengelia was another one. After about 20 minutes we thought, "Whoa, whoa, what's going on here?" They just totally outplayed us and gave us a footballing lesson. We lost it 4–1. We were sitting in the back afterwards. There were about eight or nine of us in there and none of us really spoke. We just sat shocked and numb because we couldn't believe what had happened to us. There was a degree of naivety and complacency, which we proved when we won 1–0 in the return leg. We were an emerging side but they were a completely different level to anyone we'd ever met.
Tbilisi were an outstanding team and the fact that the Russian domestic season had only just resumed after their winter break meant we had not seen them play. We had to settle for some film clips of their epic 4–2 aggregate triumph against Liverpool in the European Cup the previous season and their 5–0 aggregate win over Waterford in the Cup Winner's Cup a few months earlier. Technically they were a wonderful side and in the first leg at Upton Park attacked us with breathtaking pace. It was an education to watch them and I was hugely impressed by the movement and individual skills of players such as Aleksandre Chivadze, Vitali Daraselia, David Kipiani and Ramaz Schengeliya. They remain one of the finest European teams I've seen and it was a shame that a broken leg ended Kipiani's career prematurely.
They traveled to England again in their Cup Winners Cup run, this time for a quarter-final fixture against West Ham United. If the earlier victories over Kastoria from Greece and Irish side Waterford in the first two rounds were fairly perfunctory then the victory over West Ham and especially the 4–1 win at Upton Park in the first leg was more illuminating.
By schooling Liverpool and West Ham in the art of fast, passing, composed football, the Dinamo Tbilisi side of the 1970s and 1980s captured the hearts of young British fans who were unaccustomed to watching such expressive play
The Georgians had already been excellent in the first leg, controlling the game like few dared to even try at Anfield. Most of that was orchestrated by the elegant playmaker David Kipiani, who layered his precision with a power Liverpool struggled to deal with.
One can only imagine the modern football hipster galvanising over the limitless talent of Georgian playmaker David Kipiani, striker Ramaz Shengelia or the tactical abilities of Carl Zeiss Jena defender Lothar Kurbjuweit. Kipiani and Shengelia were part of a Dinamo Tbilisi side that dazzled spectators in the Soviet Union.
International Friendly, Bilino Polje Stadium, Zenica, Attendance: 30,000
International Friendly, Bilino Polje Stadium, Zenica, Attendance: 30,000
International Friendly, Bilino Polje Stadium, Zenica, Attendance: 30,000
1982 FIFA World Cup qualification (Group 3), 30 May 1981. Racecourse Ground, Wrexham. Referee: Bruno Galler. Attendance: 29,366
Panini Football Sticker Albums – Argentina 78 World Cup.
Espana 82 No. 395 Panini sticker David Kipiani.
After the most numbing seven days many of us have known, what personal compassion is there left for a single tragic death of a sportsman, or for that matter what joy might we share with a player returning to action after brain surgery? As the European soccer games pick up the threads, we have both those extremes. The death of David Kipiani in a car crash in Georgia on Monday took from us a man who was the equivalent in his day of an East European Zinedine Zidane.
Dinamo Tbilisi 3–2 Twente ( Enschede, Netherlands) — 1972–73 UEFA Cup, First round, First leg — 13 September 1972 — 16:00CET (19:00 local time) — Boris Paichadze Dinamo Arena, Tbilisi
Twente ( Enschede, Netherlands) 2–0 Dinamo Tbilisi — 1972–73 UEFA Cup, First round, Sec. leg — 27 September 1972 — 20:00CET (20:00 local time) — Het Diekman, Enschede
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, First round – 15–29 September 1976
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, Second round – 20 October – 3 November 1976
Dinamo Tbilisi won the Soviet Union champions title second time in 1978. In those years glorious players were in Dinamo: D. Gogia, V. Koridze, A. Chivadze, S. Khinchagashvili, D. Mujiri, T. Kostava, N. Khizanishvili, P. Kanteladze, G. Machaidze, M. Machaidze, V. Daraselia, D. Kipiani, V. Gutsaev, R. Shengelia, R. Chelebadze.
Dinamo Tbilisi won the Soviet Union champions title second time in 1978. Dinamo Tbilisi: D. Gogia, V. Koridze, A. Chivadze, S. Khinchagashvili, D. Mujiri, T. Kostava, N. Khizanishvili, P. Kanteladze, Gocha Machaidze, Manuchar Machaidze, V. Daraselia, D. Kipiani, V. Gutsaev, R. Shengelia, R. Chelebadze.
September 3 of 1976 is an important date in the history of Dinamo Tbilisi. Our team won the Soviet Cup for the first time. Before that our team competed for the Crystal Cup for five times and failed. Before the final Dinamo beat Metalurh Zaporizhya with penalty shots – 5–4, defeated Zenit Leningrad in 1/8 final with the score – 3–0, won against Karpaty Lviv – 2–1 and defeated Shakhtar Donetsk in semi-final – 2–0. The final match was held in Moscow at Luzhniki stadium and 45 000 supporters attended it. Our team competed with Ararat Yerevan. Dinamo won the match with big score – 3–0. The goals were scored by Davit Kipiani on 27th minute, Piruz Kanteladze (penalty) on 64th minute and Revaz Chelebadze on 68th minute. Davit Kipiani became bombardier of the tournament with 5 scored goals. Dinamo: Gogia, Khizanishvili, Kanteladze, Khinchagashvili, Ebralidze, Chivadze, Manuchar Machaidze (C), Chelebadze, Gutsaev, Kipiani (Tsereteli 75'), Kopaleishvili. Head coach: Nodar Akhalkatsi
In 1979 Dinamo Tbilisi played one more triumph season after the last successful one. Nodar Akhalkatsi's team won Soviet Crystal Cup for the second time. On August 11 the match between FC Dinamo Tbilisi and FC Dynamo Moscow at Luzhniki Stadium finished without goals. Our team beat the rival 5–4 on penalties. In the beginning Nikolai Gontar saved his team from Davit Kipiani's and Vladimer Gutsaev's penalties. On the other hand Otar Gabelia repelled Aleksandr Makhovikov's and Aleksei Petrushin's penalties. After that Manuchar Machaidze, Aleksandre Chivadze, Vitali Daraselia, Ramaz Shengelia and Tengiz Sulakvelidze kicked successfully. Gabelia repelled the last penalty of Valeri Gazaev. Before the final our team defeated FC Dynamo Leningrad 2–1, FC Zorya Voroshilovgrad 5–0, FC SKA Rostov-on-Don 2–1, FC Torpedo Moscow 3–0, FC Uralmash Sverdlovsk 2–0, FC Krylia Sovetov Kuybyshev 2–0 and PFC CSKA Moscow 2–1 in additional time. Dynamo Moscow 0–0 (4–5 pen.) Dinamo Tbilisi. Dinamo Tbilisi: Gabelia, Sulakvelidze, Chivadze, Khinchagashvili, Mujiri (Kikalashvili 61), Daraselia, Manuchar Machaidze (C), Koridze (Kipiani 46), Gutsaev, Gocha Machaidze, Shengelia. Coach: Nodar Akhalkatsi
Election of the weekly Football (Football-Hockey). 1977. 1. D. Kipiani (Dinamo Tbilisi) – 323; 2. O. Blokhin (Dynamo Kyiv) – 198; 3. Y. Dehteryov (Shakhtar Donetsk) – 171
USSR Player of the Year 1977. As a player he never left his native Tbilisi. And for all intents he was a one club man. A 14-year career with Dinamo Tbilisi was only briefly interrupted, in 1970, by a loan move across town to Lokomotiv. After establishing himself at the senior level Kipiani returned to Dinamo and came to dictate their play for the following decade. In 1977 he was voted Soviet Footballer of the Year.
External videos | |
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David Kipiani, FC Dinamo Tbilisi | |
Legendary 10 – David Kipiani, El Fenomeno | |
David Kipiani vs Feyenoord – Coppa delle Coppe 1980–1981, Football 1970s | |
Inimitable David Kipiani (1951–2001), Aleks Chistogan | |
Internazionale Milan 0–1 Dinamo Tbilisi. 14.09.1977 – David Kipiani Goal, GiviFilms Studio Sport | |
David Kipiani – The Legend, Bada Jr |