Around 300 players from over 50 countries have represented the Wolves in the Bundesliga, some of whom are famous for being the first, or only, stars from their respective countries to have donned the green and white shirt. We’ve been shining the spotlight on these former players from time to time, and next up is the only Georgian player to lace his boots for VfL.
Final-day no-show
A nail-biting 2-2 draw with 1. FC Kaiserslautern on the final day of the 2005/06 season helped VfL Wolfsburg avoid relegation from the Bundesliga by the skin of their teeth – but Levan Tskitishvili was not there to witness it. The Georgian never even shared a pitch with Congolese midfielder Cedric Makiadi, whose goal and assist against Die Roten Teufel on 13 May 2006 mean he is still regarded as the man who saved the Wolves from a potentially disastrous end to that campaign. “My fate was already sealed at that point,” Tskitishvili recalls. “I knew I’d be leaving the club. That’s why I wasn’t even at the stadium that afternoon, to be honest.” Tskitishvili, like the Green-and-Whites fans, had expected the 2025/26 campaign to pan out completely differently. As it turned out, the left-footer hadn’t chosen the best time to move to Wolfsburg.
No compatriots, no problem
Tskitishvili had already established a glowing reputation in Germany by the time he was unveiled as a VfL player on 27 July 2005. Along with Levan Kobiashvili and Alexander Iashvili, he was one of three Georgians playing for SC Freiburg in the late 1990s – a remarkable feat, given that the total number of Georgian players to set foot in the Bundesliga still stands at ten. Tskitishvili remains the only man from the country on the Black Sea to represent VfL. “Without any compatriots in the team, I was obviously a little less comfortable than I’d been in Freiburg, but I always got on well with everyone,” he says. “I got on particularly well with Pablo Thiam and Maik Franz.”
Detour via Ukraine
The opportunity to join VfL had come as something of a surprise to Tskitishvili. He left the country altogether after his time at Freiburg had come to an end, signing for Metalurh Donetsk in Ukraine. “After about a month, I heard that Wolfsburg were interested,” he says. “That’s when I decided to return to Germany. I remembered VfL as a good club.” Head coach Holger Fach and general manager Thomas Strunz were determined to guide the Wolves, who had finished between eighth and tenth place in each of the previous five seasons, into more exciting territory – but their grand plans never materialised. The backdoor into Europe – via the 2005 Intertoto Cup – was slammed shut by Lens at the semi-final stage and, despite a decent start to their league campaign, things soon began to unravel. Before the end of the calendar year, both Fach and Strunz – who had put their faith in Tskitishvili in the first place – had left the club. “It was doubly unfortunate for me, because I’d also picked up a serious injury and ended up being sidelined for months,” adds the now 48-year-old.
