Georgia were about to play their first tournament since the country declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and Daily Mail Sport was chatting to a well-placed source for the low-down on the underdogs.
We quizzed them on the merits of Paris Saint-Germain superstar Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and were stopped in our tracks.
‘No, no, no,’ they butted in when asked to wax lyrical about the then-Napoli magician, who has since left and won the Champions League with the French giants.
‘Kvara is obviously the poster boy but we are just as reliant on Giorgi, the Valencia goalkeeper,’ the source said. That sentence stuck in the mind.
Back then, in June last year, most Premier League fans would not have known of Giorgi Mamardashvili and would have predicted zero points for Georgia at the Euros, but already executives at many top-flight clubs and European rivals were scrambling for his signature.
Barcelona and Chelsea were among them and, by quirk, the Blues will be Liverpool’s opponents when Mamardashvili, who stands 6ft 6in tall, makes his Premier League debut.
Giorgi Mamardashvili is set to finally make his Premier League debut for Liverpool on Saturday
The Georgian star is highly rated by the Reds, who see him as the eventual replacement for Alisson as the Reds’ No 1
Liverpool were first to the punch, having identified him and done their due diligence before the Euros. They knew if they waited, he would no longer be on the market.
As Georgia’s standout player at that tournament — the minnows managed by former France and Bayern Munich defender Willy Sagnol qualified for the knockout stage against all odds — Mamardashvili’s stock was on the rise.
So Reds sporting director Richard Hughes struck a deal with Valencia — we will sign him, but the transfer will not go through for a year. And so it was that Mamardashvili continued at Valencia to gain experience.
Hughes is believed to have considered loaning Mamardashvili to Bournemouth to give him Premier League experience, but it was decided staying in La Liga would benefit his development more. The transfer counted in this summer’s accounts and a £29million fee was paid.
This was an exercise in future-proofing, fixing the roof while the sun is shining, and it came with Alisson’s blessing. Mamardashvili, 25, knows the Brazilian is still No 1 — when asked last year why he did not move sooner, the reply was simply: ‘Alisson.’
Liverpool had an unwritten agreement with their former No 2 keeper Caoimhin Kelleher that, if a club coughed up the money, the Irishman would be allowed to leave to seek regular football, which he did this summer when Brentford paid £18m for him.
Alisson, despite being the best goalkeeper in the world in Liverpool’s eyes, is injury-prone — last season he missed 10 Premier League games, the same tally as the year before.
Kelleher played 46 games in all competitions across those two campaigns. So Mamardashvili will know he has not signed just to sit on the bench for two years, waiting for Alisson’s contract to run out. He is here to play an important role now with his eyes firmly set on claiming that No 1 jersey in the future.
Mamardashvili played in Liverpool’s 2-1 win over Southampton in the Carabao Cup last month
Alisson, despite being the best goalkeeper in the world in Liverpool’s eyes, is injury-prone
Arne Slot has sung Mamardashvili’s praises and there is a view he can usurp Alisson
Liverpool believe he can be their No 1 and so does he. David Webb, the assistant manager of Georgia, thinks so too. He told Daily Mail Sport: ‘Giorgi is not at Alisson’s level yet, but he is only getting better. He is commanding.
‘When you look at someone like Gianluigi Donnarumma, he is massive, has the presence and is an outstanding shot-stopper. You can make comparisons. He (Mamardashvili) is very clear in what he wants. He knew he wanted to play in the Premier League when at Valencia. He knows he won’t be first-choice yet, but if opportunities present themselves he needs to be ready.’
He is ready now. Alisson marked his 33rd birthday on Thursday by going for scans on a hamstring injury, which revealed he is facing more than a month on the sidelines. The Brazilian is forecast to miss eight games, including Liverpool’s clashes with Manchester City and Real Madrid.
There is excitement in Georgia. Mamardashvili’s big break at Valencia also came after a stroke of good fortune, when No 1 Jasper Cillessen got injured and their No 2 goalkeeper caught Covid.
Indeed, his whole journey has been about punching above his weight when unfancied. He never made the grade at Dinamo Tbilisi, Georgia’s most successful club, and was forced to go out on loan, where scouts spotted him playing for Locomotive Tbilisi.
‘Valencia offered him a contract to be part of their B team, but by luck he soon got called into the XI,’ says Tbilisi-based Luka Lagvilava, who runs the Georgia Football page on X. ‘No one ever expected him to be first-choice for Georgia at that time, but it worked out very well.
‘It is a great time to be a Georgian football fan. You will remember Giorgi Kinkladze and Temur Ketsbaia was known at Newcastle for kicking the advertising boards! But that team never came together for us on the national level and since then we really struggled.
‘But with this generation with Kvara and Georges Mikautadze at Villarreal, we have a team that has real mentality and top, top players. It is the best time to follow Georgian football since we regained independence.
Mamardashvili starred for Georgia at last year’s Euros and Liverpool acted quickly to land him
‘There is still some polishing (for Mamardashvili) to do — his main weakness is his ability to play out from the back. But in terms of shot-stopping I don’t see too many in the Premier League that are better. At the Euros, he showed what he is capable of.’
It is now time for Mamardashvili to show people what he is capable of in the pressure-cooker of the Premier League. Alisson has already bailed out Liverpool several times this season as results have papered over the cracks of poor performances.
Englishman Webb, once of Tottenham, Bournemouth and others, adds: ‘It was September 2023 when he first stood out to me at my first Georgia camp… it was straight away because he had that presence in goal.
‘He is a really good communicator, good talker and a very good shot-stopper. It made me go, ‘Wow’. He really stood out.
‘I did one-to-one sessions with him so I got to know him as a person so I knew he was a solid, feet-on-the-ground character who spoke good English and is very ambitious.
‘He is settled in his private life, focused, educated in how he sees the game. He can deal with pressure in the big moments. In the Euros, he came into his own — I knew then he could play at the highest level.
‘He is very, very ambitious and very settled off the pitch which keeps him grounded. Playing football is his main focus, he is serious and professional. He wants to go as high as he can go in the game.’
Back home, rugby union is still Georgia’s main sport. The ‘Lelos’ have reached every World Cup since 2003 and claimed some impressive victories, with the love of the sport stemming from rebelling against Moscow’s bid to push football on to the population.
Rugby was decried as a bourgeois game and Joseph Stalin’s right-hand man Lavrentiy Beria wanted to keep secret police employees fit by playing football, which led to the formation of Dinamo Tbilisi, Mamardashvili’s first club.
But football is on the rise and Mamardashvili is at the heart of that, alongside the glamorous Kvaratskhelia, who has been tipped as a future Ballon d’Or winner. There is a belief that, sooner rather than later, Mamardashvili will usurp Alisson as Liverpool’s No 1.
No wonder the Georgians are loving watching this generation play around Europe. A few more Tbilisi televisions than usual will be tuned in to events at Stamford Bridge this evening as he makes his Premier League debut, having already featured against Southampton in the Carabao Cup last month.
‘I think we’ve seen against Southampton how well he has adjusted,’ said Liverpool boss Arne Slot yesterday. ‘We knew we were bringing in a very good goalkeeper. But when he plays his first game, that’s always the best way of seeing if he has adjusted well or not.
‘He has adjusted really well to our goal, which is not a surprise because he’s a quality goalkeeper. Now he can do what Caoimhin had to do so many times in the past, replacing Alisson — hopefully in a way Caoimhin did so many times before.’
Mamardashvili is certain to replace the Brazil No 1 at Chelsea today and in the coming weeks. The bigger question is whether this is the man to replace Alisson, widely seen as the Premier League’s best goalkeeper, in the long term. Liverpool and thousands back home think he is.
