As reported by Fabrizio Romano on Twitter, Georgian international goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili is having a medical today ahead of a proposed £30 million (€35 million) move to Liverpool from Valencia.
Romano goes into more detail about the deal in a seperate Tweet, adding that Mamardashvili will remain at Valencia on loan this summer after signing a six-year deal on Merseyside, while los Che have a 10% sell-on clause for any future moves.
This move has been in the pipeline for a few weeks now, with James Pearce and Guillermo Rai of the Athletic reporting the deal was close last week, but the first signing of the Arne Slot era is now on the verge of completion, even if we won’t see him at Anfield any time soon.
Romano also shared a tweet showing Mamardashvili arriving for his medical in Valencia:
🔴🇬🇪 Giorgi Mamardashvili here having medical as new Liverpool player in Valencia.
Mamardashvili’s together with members of the staff and his agent.@SalvaGomis97 📸 pic.twitter.com/g2MZJNOzcd
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 26, 2024
Who is Giorgi Mamardashvili?
Born in September 2000, Giorgi Mamardashvili is a goalkeeper who’s experienced an unlikely rise to the top.
He joined home-town side Dinamo Tbilisi, Georgia’s dominant club, at the age of 12, signing his first pro-contract there, although he would never represent the Blue-Whites’ first team, loaned out to fellow Erovnuli Liga clubs FC Rustavi and then Locomotive Tbilisi.
It was with the latter he first came into the spotlight, staring as the Railroaders beat both Universitatea Craiova and then Dynamo Moskva in Europa League qualifying, before their run came to an end with a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Granada.
That night at Nuevo Estadio de Los Cármenes, according to Salome Saginashvili in Crystal Sport, Mamardashvili drew high-praise from Spanish sports-paper Marca and, more importantly, caught the eye of numerous scouts there on behalf of La Liga teams.
A year later, he was signed by Valencia, although he was initially assigned to their B team Valencia Mestalla, who were in the Tercera Federación (fifth-tier) at the time, to be third-choice at senior level, behind Jasper Cillessen and Jaume Doménech.
Nevertheles, with both out injured at the start of the campaign, Mamardashvili was given an opportunity and impressed for José Bordalás’ side, keeping nine clean sheets in 21 appearances overall, chosen the don the gloves for the Copa del Rey Final that los Murciélagos lost on penalties to Real Betis at Estadio de La Cartuja.
By the following campaign, he was the undisputed number one and, statistically, was the best goalkeeper in La Liga last season, with his post-shot expected goals figure of +10.2, meaning he saved ten more goals than expected, the best in the division.
At international level, Mamardashvili has won 21 senior caps for Georgia, having displaced long-standing, legendary number one Giorgi Loria, helping his country qualify for their first-ever major tournament earlier this year, beating Greece in a penalty shootout.
Then, at the Euros last summer, Mamardashvili again had the best post-shot expected goals – goals allowed figure, +4.1, making 30 saves across four matches, 13 more than any other goalkeeper, as the Crusaders reached the round of 16 as debut.
In short, he is a very impressive young goalkeeper and, given Valencia’s ongoing financial turmoil under Peter Lim’s catastrophic ownership, Liverpool have swooped in and got themselves a bargain.
What does this mean for Alisson’s future?
In an interview with Will Unwin of the Guardian, Alisson confirmed he had received approaches to move to Saudi Arabia, but these are of no interest to him, saying “I never got to the point where I was talking about wages… at the end of the day, you play football for love”.
The Brazilian goalkeeper also states he wishes to “honour my contract and finish my contract” which expires in 2026, also hinting he could “make a new one”.
What makes this move for Mamardashvili so intriguing is that Liverpool already boast, arguably, the world’s best goalkeeper, who is only 31 years old, while 25 year old Caoimhín Kelleher is sat on their bench.
Back in May, the Republic of Ireland international told James Pearce of the Athletic “I’m capable of doing this every week at a high level… my main ambition is to be a number one”, although his pathway to achieving this at Liverpool appears to be blocked further.
As alluded to earlier, Mamardashvili won’t feature for Liverpool this season, but this is a situation worth monitoring in the not too distant future.
