Kakhaber "Kakha" Kaladze (Georgian: კახაბერ "კახა" კალაძე, pronounced [kʼaχabeɾ kʼaɫadzɛ]; born 27 February 1978) is a Georgian politician and former footballer who has served as the Mayor of Tbilisi since November 2017. A versatile player, he was capable of playing as both a centre-back and left-back, or even as a wide midfielder. He played for the Georgia national team from 1996 to 2011. He was voted Georgian Footballer of the Year in 2001–2003, 2006 and 2011 and was considered one of Georgia's most important players.
Kaladze started his football career in 1993 at Umaglesi Liga club Dinamo Tbilisi and made 82 appearances in a five-year spell. In 1998, he moved to the Ukrainian club Dynamo Kyiv and made 71 appearances until 2001, when he was signed by the Italian Serie A club Milan. He has won one Serie A, three Ukrainian Premier League and five Umaglesi Liga titles. With Milan, he won the Champions League on two occasions, the UEFA Super Cup once and the FIFA Club World Cup once. After captaining his country 50 times in 84 appearances, Kaladze announced his retirement from the Georgian national team on 11 December 2011.
Born in Samtredia, a town in the Imereti region, Kaladze comes from a footballing family as his father played for Lokomotiv Samtredia and was also president of the team for some time. His brother was kidnapped in a high-profile case in 2001 and officially declared dead in 2006, resulting in two men being sentenced to prison for a combined total of 30 years. Outside of football, he owns a company called Kala Capital and an organisation called Kala Foundation, as well as being an ambassador for SOS Children's Villages. He is married to Anouki Areshidze, with whom he has four children.
Kaladze became involved in the politics of Georgia as a member of the opposition Georgian Dream–Democratic Georgia party, founded by Bidzina Ivanishvili in February 2012. He was elected to the Parliament of Georgia on 1 October 2012 and approved as Deputy Prime Minister as well as Minister of Energy in Ivanishvili's cabinet on 25 October 2012. He continued to occupy both of these position under the succeeding cabinet of Giorgi Kvirikashvili until July 2017, when he resigned to run for the Mayor of Tbilisi as a Georgian Dream candidate in the October 2017 election, which he won with 51.13%. In 2021, he was reelected as the Mayor of Tbilisi, gaining 55.61% of the vote in the second round of the election. He was re-elected again during the 2025 Georgian local elections.
Kaladze started his career playing as a striker for his local club Lokomotiv Samtredia, where his father was president, until former Georgia international footballer David Kipiani requested Kakha to join Dinamo Tbilisi. At Dinamo, he played in 82 domestic league games and scored one goal. He made his top-flight debut as a 16-year-old with Dinamo during the 1993–94 campaign. Kaladze claims that a good performance against Italy while playing for Georgia in a match that ended 0–0 brought him to the attention of Dynamo Kyiv; he later said, "In that game I was up against Christian Vieri and I marked him well."
A fee equivalent to €280,000 was enough to take him to the Ukrainian Premier League and Dynamo Kyiv in January 1998, where he signed a four-year deal. Here he scored six goals in 71 league games over the two-and-a-half seasons he spent there. The Ukrainian club had been under the ownership of Hryhoriy Surkis and the late Valeriy Lobanovskyi had just been installed as manager; they would go on to win eight consecutive league titles. Kaladze also appeared in both legs of the semi-final of the 1998–99 Champions League against Bayern Munich, which Dynamo Kyiv lost 4–3 on aggregate. En route to the semi-finals, they beat teams like Real Madrid, Barcelona and Arsenal. He won eight league titles in a row during his time at both Dinamo Tbilisi and Dynamo Kyiv.
On 10 February 1999, almost two years before his move to Milan would happen, Kaladze was part of the Dynamo Kyiv team that went to Italy for a mid-season friendly game against AC Milan, which at the time had been in the final stages of negotiations for the transfer of Andriy Shevchenko. As Dynamo won 2–1, it was Kaladze who scored the winner from a free kick with his left foot, which impressed the rossoneri management and put him onto the club's shortlist of potential signings for the team's defense.
In January 2001, Kaladze became the most expensive Georgian footballer in history when Milan paid €16 million to bring him to Italy. His burning desire to join one of the European top teams coincided with witnessing his teammate's near career-ending injury. Upon his arrival, Kaladze became a regular starter almost immediately, and played mostly as a left-sided defensive midfielder in 4–4–2 or 4–2–1–3 formations, particularly under caretaker coach Cesare Maldini. On 11 May 2001, Kaladze played from start to the final whistle in the historic 6–0 Derby della Madonnina victory for Milan over Inter, in which he assisted the fifth goal of the game scored by Andriy Shevchenko; Kaladze and Shevchenko, once teammates and regulars in the Dynamo Kyiv starting XI, celebrated the goal together as personally significant and gave each other a hug. However, on 17 June 2001, Kaladze opened the score in the eventual 2–1 away loss against Reggina yet refused to celebrate the goal as most of his thoughts were still with his brother, Levan, who had been kidnapped in Georgia just three weeks prior.
In the 2002–03 season, he returned to his original role of a defender (left-sided full back and center back), and made 46 appearances in all competitions, including 27 Serie A appearances. That year, Milan won the Champions League, where they beat Juventus on penalties in the final (despite Kaladze missing his penalty) and the Coppa Italia, where they beat Roma 6–3 on aggregate in the final. After Kaladze's double success, the Georgian postal service issued a special stamp bearing the player's image. He is the first Georgian player to win a Champions League title.
Kaladze was limited to just six league appearances and 11 total appearances in the 2003–04 season. In the next season, Kaladze played just 19 Serie A matches and five in the Champions League as Milan finished as runners-up in both competitions. He was an unused substitute in that season's Champions League final, where Milan lost on penalties to Liverpool after a 3–3 draw. He was said to be frustrated with his lack of first-team options and a move to Chelsea, in exchange for Hernán Crespo or for £4 million, was widely reported. Kaladze himself said, "I have agreed everything with the Chelsea management. Now it is necessary to wait for them to reach an agreement with Milan and I think I could become a Chelsea player next week." Chelsea opted to sign Asier del Horno instead. On 30 June 2005, Kaladze extended his contract with Milan until 2010 and again on 4 September 2006, this time until 2011. In 2005–06, an injury to Paolo Maldini meant that Kaladze was moved back into the centre of defence, his favoured position. Milan finished third that season, although they would have finished second if there were no 2006 Italian football scandal which resulted in a 30-point deduction.
In the 2006–07 Serie A campaign, Kaladze scored a goal against Sampdoria which turned out to be his only goal of the season. Milan finished in fourth place with an eight-point deduction relating to the previous season's scandal. Kaladze won his second Champions League title on 23 May 2007 after Milan beat Liverpool 2–1 in the final; he came on as a 79th-minute substitute in that match. He later picked up the FIFA Club World Cup in December that year where Milan beat Boca Juniors 4–2 in the final, though Kaladze was one of two players to be sent off in that match. He had established himself as a first-team regular in the 2007–08 season, making 32 appearances, but had only featured sparingly in the 2008–09 season due to a knee ligament injury sustained in a UEFA Cup match against Zürich. Kaladze's performance on 15 February 2009 Milan derby was described as a "horror show" on the Channel 4 website which started a dispute over an alleged smear campaign between Kaladze and the Georgian newspaper Lelo, who used the quote, "Milan really does need a new centre-back after Kakha Kaladze’s horror show in the derby." Milan finished third in the league that season, ten points behind Serie A champions Inter Milan; Kaladze believed this was caused by the many injuries suffered by the Milan squad.