Georgian Legend Nemsadze Remembered as Dundee Icon in Scotland

Scotland is also bidding farewell to Giorgi Nemsadze, former captain of the Georgian national team, who died at the age of 54. Nemsadze spent one of the best periods of his club career at Scottish "Dundee" (and not "Dundee United"). After news of his death spread, local sports media and Dundee fan websites published numerous farewell articles.

Alan Pattullo, chief football writer for scotsman.com, writes that Nemsadze, who played 69 matches for the national team, suffered a heart attack. According to him, fans of every generation of Dundee were shocked when the first reports emerged. Pattullo recalls that Nemsadze suffered a serious knee injury in the 2001-2002 season, but returned and, in the following campaign, took Dundee to the Scottish Cup final for the first time since 1964. He remains the last Dundee player to score for the winning side at Hampden: he scored the only goal in the semi-final match against Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

According to Pattullo, social media was flooded with condolence messages from supporters of other clubs. The article calls Nemsadze the "Caucasian Maradona" and compares him to Romanian Gheorghe Hagi, who was nicknamed the "Maradona of the Carpathians". Pattullo recalls a September 2000 match against Dundee United, where Nemsadze set up the second goal of Juan Sara's hat-trick. According to him, Argentine legend Claudio Caniggia once told him that Nemsadze was as good as any teammate he had played with, except Maradona. Nemsadze assisted Caniggia when he scored his first goal in Scottish football against Aberdeen.

The article's author writes that Nemsadze's departure from the club was painful: Dundee was engulfed by financial chaos and, like Caballero and Fabrizio Ravanelli, he was shown the door. Pattullo also recalls a meeting with Scottish sports journalists in Tbilisi in 2007, before a Euro 2008 qualifying match. Kenny Macdonald, then chief football writer of News of the World, says that Nemsadze organised a tour for the journalists and threw a party for them at night.

George Crani, author for the Courier, writes that Dens Park was in mourning for 24 hours after news of Nemsadze's death spread. According to him, Nemsadze formed devastating partnerships with Fabian Caballero and Claudio Caniggia.

Former teammate Lee Wilkie, who played 48 times alongside Nemsadze, said on the Courier Sport podcast: "It's a terrible story, because he was obviously very young, 54". According to Wilkie, Nemsadze was a wonderful guy and an even better footballer, who had a style similar to Maradona. Wilkie recalls that their relationship did not start well: Nemsadze gave him a dirty look in training because of his aggressiveness. Later, he says, Nemsadze would also go out at night with the lads for fun.

Tom Doyle, former football writer for Tele Sport, who covered Nemsadze throughout his time at the club, describes him as "lovable" and "a really good person". According to Doyle, Nemsadze loved being at Dundee, but in 2003 he was paid compensation and released due to an administrative crisis. Doyle says Nemsadze was heartbroken to leave, as he and his family loved Dundee very much.

According to the article, in 2015 Nemsadze took part in Juliano Speroni's testimonial match. According to Doyle, Nemsadze was a creative midfielder whose level stood one head above what locals were used to. He recalls Nemsadze saying: "I am a playmaker, in my position I should be the one losing the ball the most, because you have to try to do things that lead to a goal". According to Doyle, Nemsadze even hated defending and running.

The article states that Nemsadze played an important role in bringing Zurab Khizanishvili to the club. Khizanishvili later played for Rangers and Blackburn Rovers and was a family friend of Nemsadze. Doyle also recalls that during a winter training camp in Italy, Nemsadze paid in advance the curfew breach fine and left the hotel. According to him, Nemsadze had a superstar aura.