Blog – Nika Chanturia l European U19 Championship

This is the second blog of mine. I am not quite experienced in this sphere, but the writing process is the best way to stay face to face to myself and evaluate different events correctly.

Today, European Under 19 Championship is taking start in Georgia, which may absolutely change the life of footballers taking part in this tournament. As our past experiences have shown, life of some footballers has changed into positive, but for some of them - into negative, unfortunately.



This is the biggest chance which is given only to footballers in tens out of million. Talking through the personal experience is always more interesting. I have had the honor of playing two times in European Championship.

Probably, you remember the time we have played in Under 17 European Championship, coaching by Vasil Maisuradze. This was an unbelievable success. We outclassed the teams of Spain, England and Ukraine in Elite-Round. 

The happiness which followed our victory over them was fulfilled with the great emotions and love of our supporters.

In Tbilisi, the fans of our team expressed special support in every match, this energy helped us to reach semi-final in the European Championship. Before this, we made one more grand, the French team, to move off the way.



The most significant element for a footballer to reach success is to be confident.  For all of the members of the team, this tournament helped to reinforce the belief in our own potentials.

Among the footballers of U17 and U19 there is a great difference regarding every component. Considering this fact, it was especially exciting being allowed to play for the second time in succession, guided by Gia Tsetsadze for this time.
During that 1 year and the half, many of us showed progress, although some of the footballers in U19 could not strengthen their positions in the team, unfortunately.

We have overcome the barriers of the teams of Belgium, England and Scotland in Elite-Round. Besides, matches were held in Belgium. This was when we realized, how important it is to play on your own field.

Without the team spirit achieving success is impossible. Exactly the team spirit was a distinguishing feature of U17 and U19 squads, in which I had been playing in European Championship.

In addition to playing in the name of your own country, one more motivating factor is when you are competing with already matured stars of your age and generation.

At U19 Championship we have played against Adrien Rabiot, Anthony Martial, Hector Bellerin and Benjamin Mendy. Their strength and glory were additional motivation for us, but as the team spirit is the main weapon to fight, we used to turn out to be winners quite frequently.



European Championship in Georgia – sounds awesome, however, most of all, our footballers need to be supported by their fans.

From today we have one more chance to be united by football and I am glad that before writing this blog, all the tickets of Georgia-Portugal match at Gori stadium are sold.

I know most of the members of the Georgian team quite well, some of them are in Locomotive. I do not want to single out anybody particularly, but I know one thing for sure,  it really worths going to the stadium to see them!
Realization of their talent and potential is unimaginable without our support.