Less than two months have passed since AC Milan’s defender Kakha Kaladze returned to his homeland to bury his brother. It was a moment of closure of sorts. The end of an ordeal that lasted almost five years — suffering the like of which few top-level footballers could comprehend. Kaladze’s brother Levan, a medical student, was kidnapped in Tbilisi in May 2001, just as Kakha joined the San Siro club. Levan’s remains were discovered only in January.
The fact that gangsters targeted a relative of the country’s most successful footballer, whose move to a major European club implied a windfall to the family, means Kaladze now lives with a terrible sense of responsibility. How many times has he asked himself this: if he weren’t a famous footballer, would his brother have lived?
In maintaining his career at one of the world’s most eminent clubs while his brother’s fate was unknown, Kaladze showed unimaginable courage. The family were in the dark for years. They fought a losing battle for assistance from the Georgian government, who flatly refuse to pay ransom to criminal gangs. They were so frustrated, Kakha even looked into the possibility of renouncing Georgia to take up Ukrainian citizenship. His father, Karlo, threatened to set himself on fire outside a ministerial building.
After his parents received the initial ransom demand of $650 000, which was steadily reduced and at one stage accompanied by a video of Levan blindfolded and begging for help, there was no more word until his corpse was found and identified by the FBI three months ago.
Never a day goes by when Kakha doesn’t think of Levan. Never a game goes by when Milan’s strapping defender feels his brother is not with him every step of the way. ”It has been a very difficult time and I would like to thank the fans, the team and the club,” he says. ”They helped me a lot, but I am a man and I have to live through this tragedy.”
It is almost impossible to judge Kaladze the footballer without the context of what he went through off the field. But AC Milan don’t give out games for sympathy and recent performances have impressed enough for the Italians to suggest his blossoming central defensive partnership with Alessandro Nesta is the future for the rossoneri.
Aged 28, Kaladze is the baby of an evergreen Milan back line that respects age as a badge of defensive honour. He is the only one who isn’t yet in his thirties (or, in Alessandro Costacurta’s case as of this week, his forties). Kaladze himself isn’t short of experience, having won eight league titles in succession during his apprenticeship with Dinamo Tbilisi and then Dynamo Kiev.
Nicknamed ”The Desailly of the Caucasus”, his versatility meant he began as a left-back at San Siro, but establishing himself proved a problem.
Last season he was linked with a move to Chelsea, but the deal fell through. Serendipitous, perhaps, because Kaladze has this season relaunched his Milan career. Paolo Maldini’s injury gave him a chance in his favoured position of centre-half. He seized it with relish.
”I was happy when I was playing at left-back, but then I heard the rumours that the club were looking to buy a new centre-back. I started to ask myself why,” Kaladze says. ”Carlo Ancelotti just told me to be patient and thankfully I got my chance.”
Ancelotti is impressed enough to rethink his off-season spending. ”Kaladze’s form in defence has convinced us to change our strategies for the transfer market,” the coach says. — Â