Omari Tetradze

Omari Mikhaylovich Tetradze (, , ; born 13 October 1969 as Omari Mikhaylovich Osipov) is a professional football manager and former player who is the manager of Russian club Ufa. During his playing career, he played as a defender or midfielder. Born in Georgia, he plays for the Russia national team.

Early life Tetradze was born in Velispiri, Georgian SSR as Omari Mikhaylovich Osipov (the original surname of his family was Iosifidis) to ethnic Greek parents. At the age of 18, he decided to change surname when he turned professional. It was the run-up to the USSR breakup and the nationalist sentiments in Georgia were strong enough to affect the young player's career. Because of that, Omari took his maternal grandmother's Georgian surname – Tetradze. Later he considered restoring his original surname, but decided it would cause too many problems.

Club career At club level, Tetradze played for Dinamo Tbilisi, FC Dynamo Moscow, Alania Vladikavkaz (where he won a Russian league championship medal in 1995), AS Roma, and PAOK FC (Greece).

International career Tetradze played for Russia at international level, and appeared at World Cup 1994 and Euro 1996. At the latter tournament, he played superbly in each of Russia's three games despite the team's poor results, and was arguably the best right-back in the competition.

Managing career After finishing his playing career in 2005, Tetradze became an assistant coach at Krylia Sovetov Samara. He was later the manager of Anzhi Makhachkala. He threatened to resign the post in September 2008 following a 1–0 defeat against Belgorod, but subsequently stayed on as manager. Anzhi finally returned to Russian Premier League for 2010 season after finishing champion in First Division. On 19 March 2010 the Coach has quit Anzhi Makhachkala.

In September 2014, Tetradze and his coaching staff left FC Zhetysu by mutual consent.

On 30 May 2016, Tetradze was appointed as manager of FC Tobol. He left Tobol by mutual consent on 27 June 2017.

Personal life In the early 1990s he received Greek citizenship but later renounced it. Tetradze considers himself to be a Greek by ethnicity, but says Georgia is his homeland.

Career statistics

Honours

Player Russian Premier League winner in 1995 (with Spartak-Alania) Greek Cup winner in 2001 (with PAOK) Russian Premier League runner-up: 1994, 1996. Georgian Umaglesi Liga winner: 1990. Russian Cup finalist: 2004.

Manager Anzhi Makhachkala Russian First Division winner: 2009 Russian First Division best manager: 2009.

Volga Nizhny Novgorod Russian First Division runner-up: 2010