The European Championship’s top scorer has revealed his nickname in reference to Brazil.
UEFA Euro 2024 is full of world-class players, most of them from Europe. However, these kinds of competitions always throw up surprises. One of them is George Mikautadze, the Georgian striker who is currently the tournament’s top scorer with three goals.
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In addition to being the revelation of the Euros so far, the Georgian also offers an unexpected representation for Brazil in the European Championship. The 23-year-old young man, born in France to Georgian parents, nicknames himself “Georginho” to feel like a Brazilian footballer.
« It’s a nickname I gave myself in reference to Brazilian football. It already started when I was playing with my neighborhood friends. I have to say that when I tell people my first name is George, they think I’m joking “, he told Belgian radio station RTBF in 2021.
It was in Belgian football that he gained experience during a spell away from French club Metz, his current team. In the 2020/21 season, Mikautadze was loaned to Sérésien in the Belgian second division. The following season, he joined Seraing, a team in the country’s first division. In total, he scored 36 goals in 58 appearances for both clubs. Mikautadze returned to Metz and was the top scorer in Ligue 2 in the 2022/23 season, with 23 goals in 35 games.
Despite moving to Ajax for €16 million in 2023, the striker has only played nine games for the Dutch club and has not scored a single goal. In January 2024, he returned to Metz on loan. There, Mikautadze found the net again, contributing 14 goals and four assists in 22 games during the second half of the season, although he was unable to prevent relegation against Saint-Étienne in the play-offs of League 1.
Despite this, the club exercised the purchase option for 13 million euros in order to keep “Georginho” for the following season.
Despite his passion for Brazilian football, the top scorer clarified: “ My roots are in Georgia. I still have family there. My family is very happy to see me wearing the national team jersey. »
Now, he will look to help his national team when Georgia take on Spain on Sunday (June 30) in the round of 16 of the European Championship. The winner will face Germany or Denmark in the quarter-finals.
