"I had to": Dynamo player says he did not want to play for Ukraine's national team

Dynamo Kyiv midfielder Giorgi Tsitaishvili deliberately refused to play for the Ukrainian national team. The 23-year-old footballer has always aimed to play for the Georgian team, for which he made his debut in September 2021.

Tsitaishvili himself said this in an interview with NV. According to him, while studying at the academy of Dynamo Kyiv, he was forced to obtain Ukrainian citizenship, and later began to join the youth and youth national teams of Ukraine. In 2019, he won the World Cup with the U-20 team, but then decided to play for Georgia.

"I had a goal to play for the Georgian national team. It didn't matter if I had competition in the Ukrainian national team or not. I just wanted to play for the Georgian team. I had a dream to get into the first team of Dynamo Kyiv, so I took a Ukrainian passport. But I didn't have a dream of getting into the national team of Ukraine. It was after the fact, when the years passed, that I was called up to the youth national teams of Ukraine because I stood out. I had to play for these teams," Tsitaishvili said.

He has played 38 matches for the Ukrainian national teams of all ages, scoring eight goals. He currently defends the colors of Dynamo Batumi on loan.

As OBOZ.UA previously reported, former Ukraine national team coach Andriy Shevchenko no longer plans to return to coaching.

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