TBILISI, Georgia (AP) ― Georgia’s most famous football star, who played in Italy for the past dozen years, was nominated Tuesday to become the energy minister in the new government.
Kakha Kaladze, who was with Milan from 2001 to 2010 and spent the past two years at Genoa, was nominated by Bidzina Ivanishvili, whose opposition coalition won the Oct. 1 parliamentary election.
Ivanishvili, who will become prime minister, presented his future Cabinet on Tuesday. The candidates still need to be approved by President Mikhail Saakashvili, who has one year remaining in his second and final term.
 |
AC Milan’s defender Kakha Kaladze (right) of Georgia and AC Milan’s President Silvio Berlusconi (left) hold the FIFA Club World Cup soccer championship trophy in December 2007. (AP-Yonhap News) |
The 34-year-old Kaladze announced his retirement from football in May to join Ivanishvili’s campaign. Ivanishvili, Georgia’s richest man, expressed confidence in Kaladze’s ability to lead the ministry despite a lack of experience in the energy sector.
“Kaladze is a talented man and will be able to master a new trade,” he told reporters.
The footballer’s father, Karlo Kaladze, told The Associated Press that his son holds a degree in history from a Georgian university.
Kaladze promised to give priority to renewable energy and said Georgia should abandon its plans to build hydro-power plants.
“We don’t want to develop the energy sector at the expense of the environment,” he said. “Wind and solar energy may be quite expensive, but we should think about moving in that direction.”
Ivanishvili’s government will begin its work after the newly elected parliament meets for the first time on Sunday.
