The player recalls the Georgian rising star: he was a club team-mate and gave him a Brazilian name

Upstream News

2024-06-27 14:51Upstream News official account

In the early morning of June 27, Beijing time, Georgia defeated Portugal 2:0 to reach the round of 16 of the European Cup, and Mikautadze, who contributed one goal and one assist in the game, currently leads the scorer list with 3 goals and has become the most watched new star. Recently, Gao Jialiang, a post-00 player of the Jiangxi Dark Horse Youth Team of the China Second League, recalled on social media that he and Mikautazze were teammates of the French Metz Youth Team, which attracted the attention of fans.

A few days ago, the upstream news reporter contacted Gao Jialiang to listen to him tell his experience of playing in China and France, as well as the story of Mikautazze and his teammates in the youth team.

Gao Jialiang (back row, first from left) poses with Mikhao Taze (front row, second from right) and other teammates during training with the Metz youth team. Photo courtesy of the interviewee

He was given a Brazilian name

 "ALLEZ (come on), Georges (Mikotaze name)!" On the morning of the 27th, Gao Jialiang was also very happy to learn that the Georgian team had advanced and Mikotaze had contributed one goal and one assist in the game. As early as June 19, Gao Jialiang saw Mikautadze becoming a starter against Turkey on TV, and he sighed on social media: "My teammates in France a few years ago started tonight in the European Championship. Mikautadze was also named in the first round of the European Championship team as a centre-forward, "which really surprised me. From 2018 to 2019, Gao Jialiang trained for the Metz U17 youth team in France, and Mikautadze was his teammate at the time.

Speaking of the French club Metz, senior Chinese fans are no strangers. Wang Chu, a player of Shenzhen Xinpeng City Football Club who had just retired, was sent to the French Metz club by the Chengdu Football Association at the age of 13 for youth training, and served as the captain of the Metz U14 junior team. Since then, players such as Zhang Chiming and Zhang Xiuwei, as well as young players such as Jian Tao from Chengdu Rongcheng, have also gone to France to train through a similar mechanism.

Gao Jialiang's path to Metz was different from Wang Chu's. Born in 2000, he only started practicing football in the second grade, entered Beijing Bayi Middle School in the fourth grade, and in 2015, under the operation of a sports company, he came to the youth training center of the French club Metz in his own name, and at the same time enrolled in the local school.

Gao Jialiang recalled: "In 2018-19, I have been training with the U17s, and they are in the same dormitory building with Mikautadze, and they usually eat and play together. Gao Jialiang recalled, "At that time, we would give each other nicknames for communication, they all called me 'Jia', and Mikotaze was called Georges because he was very fast, so we gave him the Brazilian name Georginio." ” 

Go to the live broadcast room and chat with him

 "Mikautadze wasn't actually the best player in the team at the time, he was a semi-main player at the time, he played in the U19 league and was promoted to Metz B, but he didn't have a chance to play, but the club was still more optimistic about him, so he rented a team in the Belgian second division. I don't know how, but in the first season he 'got the hang of it', scored a lot of goals, and came back and got into the first team. ”

Upstream news reporters saw that Mikautazze won the top scorer in the second division in the 2021-2022 season, won the French second division golden boot and MVP in the 2022-2023 season with 23 goals, and helped Metz successfully reach the first division, and joined Ajax for 16 million euros in the summer of 2023.

"He wasn't very lucky, the coach wanted him to play as a No. 10 Shadow Striker, but he didn't seem to be very adaptable, he didn't perform very well, and he went back on loan to Metz." Gao Jialiang introduced, "In the past, he often held live broadcasts on social media, and I would also go in and chat with him. Every time he enters the live broadcast room, he sees my name and takes the initiative to greet me, saying that Jia is here. ”

Mikoutadze, who returned to Metz on loan, quickly regained his form, starting all 18 Ligue 1 appearances, scoring 12 goals and providing 4 assists, and was bought out by Metz again for 13 million euros.

Georgian player George Mikotadze (right) celebrates scoring a penalty during a match against the Czech Republic on June 22. Xinhua News Agency

At the European Championships, Mikataze became the first player to score or assist in his first three European Championship games since Wales Bale in 2016, and such an outstanding performance has attracted the attention of many big clubs.

After watching several European Cup games, Gao Jialiang also spoke highly of this former teammate: "He now has a good sense of smell in front of the goal, good running, good counter-attacking points, and is originally fast, and he is a counter-attacking striker." When I was watching the game, I told my current teammate that the biggest feeling he gave me was that he could 'steal' one for you without knowing what's going on. ”

Gao Jialiang said that most of the teammates of the Metz youth team are not as lucky as Mikautadze. "One of my teammates was promoted to the first team as the No. 2 goalkeeper, but he couldn't play and transferred to the first team, and it was too difficult to make the leap from the reserve team to the first team. Most of the people are playing professional football now, but probably mostly in the third and fourth divisions of France. In addition, there are those who play in Luxembourg and Portugal. ”

"What shocked me even more was that a roommate, who is also a central defender and the captain of the French Under-17s and Under-19s, gave up football to go to business school after a break due to injury, and I asked him why? His answer is still fresh in my memory: 'There is more to life than football, there are many other things that I want to experience'. ” 

Hopefully the team can make it to the first group

In 2019, Gao Jialiang joined French fourth-tier side Vannes and returned to China in June 2020. In the 2021 season, he joined Kunshan Club of the Chinese League, joined Chongqing Tonglianglong at the beginning of 2022, and scored a goal in 3 appearances in the regional competition of the Chinese Champions League.

Gao Jialiang, who plays football in France. Photo courtesy of the interviewee

The upstream news reporter learned from the Tonglianglong Club that before the start of the 2022-2023 season, Gao Jialiang had left the club. In April 2023, Gao Jialiang joined Jiangxi Dark Horse Youth Club and made his debut in the Chinese Professional League. This season, Jiangxi Dark Horse Youth moved to Jiangxi Wuyuan and changed its name to Jiangxi Dark Horse Youth Wuyuan Aofei Team, and Gao Jialiang was appointed as the captain. At present, Jiangxi Dark Horse Youth ranks 6th out of 10 teams in the southern division of the Chinese Second League. "I hope that after the first stage of the competition, I can enter the top 5 and enter the first group of the competition."

Upstream news reporter Tang Hao

View original image 669K

• 

• 

•