AFC U23 Asian Cup
Two years ago, the 42-year-old led Uzbekistan to the final on home soil, only to be denied the title by Saudi Arabia and Kapadze will seek to make amends when his side face Japan in Friday’s AFC U23 Asian Cup Qatar 2024™ final at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium.
The former midfielder has already etched his name in the annals of Uzbekistan history after guiding them to Olympics qualification but Kapadze is determined to emulate Ravshan Khaydarov, who led the Central Asian side to the AFC U23 Asian Cup title in 2018.
One of Uzbekistan’s most successful players, Kapadze was a serial winner with 12 Uzbekistan league titles with four different clubs - Neftchi (one), Lokomotiv (two), Bunyodkor (three) and Pakhtakor (six).
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The AFC Champions League™ also became a hunting ground for him with semi-final appearances in 2003 and 2004 with Pakhtakor and 2008 with Bunyodkor.
He also played club football in Korea Republic (Incheon United), United Arab Emirates (Sharjah) and Kazakhstan (Aktobe, one league title).
At the national team level, Kapadze was capped 119 times between 2002 and 2015 - appearing in four editions of the AFC Asian Cup™ - including reaching the semi-finals in 2011, netting 66 club and 10 international goals.
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Kapadze was handed the Olympic Tashkent team in 2021 and the target was qualification to the Paris Olympics - which was achieved in the 2-0 semi-final win over Indonesia on Monday.
That Uzbekistan have been the team in form at Qatar 2024 is testament to Kapadze’s management skills, the tactician having absolute faith in his entire squad with every single outfield player having played at least an hour of football in Qatar 2024.
Come Friday, Kapadze will expect his players to deliver yet again in their bid to become the first two-time winners of the AFC U23 Asian Cup.
