Hurrah! I have a free time. I decided to walk in Warsaw and to tell readers of “World Sport” something interesting.

Here, I met one Georgian boy – Lasha Skhirtladze. I asked him to show me Warsaw and he agreed. He has been studying and working here for 9 years and knows the city well. We walked in Old Warsaw and how small this football universe is – Davit Klibadze was coming up to us! I will tell you about Warsaw tomorrow. Today, I want to tell you how my generation waited for appearance of Klibadze on screen.

My generation grew up on “Sports Kaleidoscope”, “Forty-Five Minutes” and “Dribbling” of this man. Little generation does not know and cannot understand how we waited for these programs of Klibadze every week! It was forbidden to watch foreign football in the Soviet Union. Football fans from Tbilisi went to Pantiani and Kiketi to watch European tournaments on Turkish channel. According to the rules of USSR, it was a jail job!!! Klibadze had a lot of friends in Moscow. He often visited “Ostankino”. He managed to gain videos of the matches, edited them and showed us. Klibadze was telling differently – “…and goal of Rexach!” – How envy I was then!

I am always telling him to write a book because he has not missed World and European Championships since 1978 (by the way, after my request, Kote Makharadze republished the book “First report without microphone” and Nugzar Jugheli wrote the second book. But I cannot persuade Klibadze and while he writes his book, I will write about him…

Klibadze started working for TV channel in 1959. Unlike today, that time young journalists had a right to make their own program only after the years’ experience. Klibadze was told to find little playing fields in Tbilisi blocks. One day, after the end of the working day he was sent to Conservatoire where the fourth course student, former player of “Dinamo” – Zurab Sotkilava sang so well that teachers from Riga went to the stage and kissed him so hard that Sotkilava was almost drown! Klibadze brought news to the TV channel – I found opera singer – but he was laughed at – you praise him because he is a football player… I remember when Klibadze let us listen to Julio Iglesias, former goalkeeper of “Real” Madrid (for teenagers – father of Enrique Iglesias (boyfriend of Anna Kournikova). He took this plate from Argentina Championship in 1978! I even remember the song – Manuela!

Klibadze was not famous only in sport – in 1995 when Georgia played against Germany in the qualifying round of European Championship, German hosts invited Klibadze to unique museum in Mainz – there were bibles in all languages… except Georgian one!!! Who knows how many Georgians were in this museum before and did not think to bring Georgian bible there. Klibadze asked our patriarch Ilia II for a bible and sent it to the museum!

Klibadze is fan of Meskhi! He is looking for someone who can move like him but as he says – in vain… In USSR Klibadze was the first who showed American professional basketball, sumo, formula-1, European Championship, films about Pele, Charlton, Muhammad Ali… Klibadze loves Rome… Once, we were in Italy together and went from Ancona to Rome: if I do not see Rome, I will die… If we believe Klibadze, there are sunny weathers in Rome every Sunday – because the pope is praying…

Klibadze loves peach like me. In 1980’s you could not have bought bread in Tbilisi. Once, we were in Slovenia and lived in hotel together. I had friends there and asked them to let me help find peach. We found peach in super market – I did not have much money and bought some for him – he was happy like a child…

If we believe Klibadze, he discovered Maradona – in 1979 he dedicated his whole program to 18-year-old Diego with title – Is Maradona Pele? We watched playing of the Argentinian for the first time… Do you remember? That time, Russian commentators called unknown Argentinian “Maradonia”…

Klibadze was sitting on “Azteca” stadium in 1986 when Maradona scored goal against England with hand. Argument was held in press lounge and Klibadze participated in it. He offered coffee. When a waiter brought coffee, Maradona scored his second goal. All journalists, including Klibadze, jumped up and… he poured coffee over himself.

Do not think that Klibadze had an easy life: in 1978 after World Championship in Argentina, he made a program about rough playing of Holland: Davit Kipiani and Vova Gutsaev counted that the Dutch team played roughly 40 times and Argentinians – twice less than the Dutch team. I was a little boy that I felt sorry for Argentina. Georgian fans of the Dutch team named Klibadze almost as a “persona non Grata”. People called and threatened him!!!

Davit Klibadze looks like a cruel man but he is a really warm person…

When in my childhood, I counted minutes till the start of “Sports Kaleidoscope” who could imagine that after so many years we would be together at European or World Championships? We watched finals of World Championship 2006 and European Championship 2008 together. I met such person while walking in Old Warsaw. We went to the Georgian embassy. Street musicians were playing around us. Music, music, music. Klibadze hosted his program this way, first football and then Italian music… we waited for Luciano Pavarotti, Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo. The first joint project of these three men was done in the days of Italian World Championship. Thanks to Klibadze, Georgians were the first in USSR who listened to it in 1990!
P.S. I met Davit Petriashvili, chairman of UEFA hat-trick committee, for several times at European Championship. I will tell you about him later.

UEFA media-officer Mamuka Kvaratskhelia, specially for worldsport.ge from Warsaw