Nodar Akhalkatsi was a professional football manager from Georgia

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

.

Akhalkatsi coached Soviet club Dinamo Tbilisi

FC Dinamo Tbilisi

FC Dinamo Tbilisi is a Georgian football team, based in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia.Dinamo Tbilisi was one of the most prominent clubs in Soviet football and a major contender in the Soviet Top League almost immediately after it was established in 1936...

 to the USSR league championship

Soviet Top League 1978

-Overview:It was performed in 16 teams, and Dinamo Tbilisi won the championship.-League standings:-Top scorers:19 goals* Georgi Yartsev 15 goals* Ramaz Shengelia 13 goals* Oleg Blokhin 11 goals...

 in 1978, with a side that contained the likes of David Kipiani

David Kipiani

David Kipiani was a Georgian football midfielder and manager.Kipiani was born in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR. He played for FC Dinamo Tbilisi and Soviet Union National Team and also for a year for Lokomotiv Tbilsi...

, Ramaz Shengelia

Ramaz Shengelia

Ramaz Aleksandrovich Shengelia is a former Georgian footballer. He won 26 caps and scored 10 goals for the USSR national football team, and played in the 1982 FIFA World Cup.-Honours:*Soviet Top League Champion: 1978...

, Vitaly Daraselia

Vitaly Daraselia

Vitaly Kuhinović Daraselia was a Georgian football player.Born to a Georgian father and Abkhaz mother, Daraselia played for FC Dinamo Tbilisi and Soviet Union national team...

, Tengiz Sulakvelidze

Tengiz Sulakvelidze

Tengiz Grigorjević Sulakvelidze is a former Georgian footballer.-Honours:* Olympic bronze medalist: 1980.* Soviet Top League winner: 1978.* Soviet Cup winner: 1979.* UEFA Cup Winners' Cup winner: 1981....

 and Aleksandr Chivadze

Aleksandr Chivadze

Aleksandr Gavrilovich Chivadze , is a former Georgian football defender and coach.Chivadze spent his entire club career at FC Dinamo Tbilisi, playing from 1974 to 1987...

, all of whom were regular Soviet internationals. The team were renowned for their swashbuckling style of football and attack-minded approach.

The following year, Dinamo entered the European Cup and stunned the reigning champions Liverpool

Liverpool F.C.

Liverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups...

 with an impressive 3-0 win in the first round. However, they were eliminated by West German

West Germany

West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

 side Hamburg in their next tie.

Two years later, Akhalkatsi enjoyed his finest moment as a manager when he guided Dinamo to victory in the 1981 Cup Winners' Cup final

1981 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Final

The 1981 European Cup Winners' Cup Final was a football match contested between FC Dinamo Tbilisi of the Soviet Union and FC Carl Zeiss Jena of East Germany. It was the final match of the 1980–81 European Cup Winners' Cup and the 21st European Cup Winners' Cup Final. The final was held at...

, beating East German outfit Carl Zeiss Jena

FC Carl Zeiss Jena

FC Carl Zeiss Jena is a German association football club based in Jena, Thuringia.-History:The club was founded in May 1903 by workers at the Carl Zeiss AG optics factory as the company-sponsored Fussball-Club der Firma Carl Zeiss. The club underwent name changes in 1911 to Fussball Club Carl Zeiss...

 in Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...

's Rheinstadion

Rheinstadion

The Rheinstadion was a multi-purpose stadium, in Düsseldorf, Germany. The stadium was built, near the Rhine, in 1926 and held 55,900 people, at the end of its life....

. Dinamo had won the 1979 Soviet Cup

Soviet Cup

The Soviet Cup, or USSR Cup , was the premier football cup competition in the Soviet Union.-Finals:-Performance by club:-Performance by republic:-References:*, rsssf.com. Accessed on 16 May 2006....

 to gain admittance to the competition, beating FC Dynamo Moscow

FC Dynamo Moscow

Dynamo Moscow is a Russian football club based in Moscow, currently playing in the Russian Premier League. Dynamo's traditional kit colours are blue and white...

 on penalties in the final.

Akhalkatsi was a member of USSR manager Konstantin Beskov

Konstantin Beskov

Konstantin Ivanovich Beskov was a Soviet/Russian football player and manager.Beskov was born in Moscow. He played for Dynamo Moscow as forward, scoring 126 goals, and after finishing his playing career he became a successful manager who coached Dynamo and their rivals Spartak as well as the USSR...

's technical staff at the 1982 World Cup in Spain, as was Dynamo Kiev's legendary coach Valeriy Lobanovskyi.

In the early 1990s, Akhalkatsi was one of the integral figures in the formation of the Georgian Football Federation after the republic achieved independence from the USSR. He was the organisation's president from 1990 to 1998.

He died of a heart attack in Tbilisi

Tbilisi

Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...

on 24 January 1998, aged 60, while on his way to attend a tournament in the city.