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    Giorgi Mamardashvili was signed as fourth-choice before almost joining European giant

    By Andrew Beasley,

    1 day ago
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    Liverpool is said to be pursuing Valencia goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili, with a deal believed to be close to completion. The Georgia international has certainly had an interesting career to this point.

    Just three years ago he was playing for Locomotive Tbilisi in his homeland, a team currently ranked by Opta as the 5,259 th best in the world. By this simplistic measure, over half of the teams in the National League, the fifth tier of football in England, are better than the side a reported Reds transfer target represented as recently as 2021.

    Mamardashvili was only there temporarily from Dinamo Tbilisi, who then loaned him out to Valencia, with an option to buy. As much as they obviously play at a much higher level, according to BBC Sport he was only the fourth-choice goalkeeper at the Mestalla.

    READ MORE: Liverpool exploring three options with Giorgi Mamardashvili after 'stepping up' transfer interest

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    Whether that was truly the case is up for debate. Transfermarkt rated him as the most valuable goalkeeper in the Valencia squad that season, albeit his value would have been bumped up after he performed well in his debut campaign. Either way, Mamardashvili played the first match of the season, kept a clean sheet in a 1-0 win and rarely looked back.

    With his impressive form continuing the following season, the Georgian almost made a move to a club of similar stature as Liverpool . Mamardashvili was a candidate to replace the departing Yann Sommer at Bayern Munich but the deal obviously did not take place.

    It sounds like it was close to happening though. “My transfer to Bayern was almost done last summer, yes,” he said (via Geo Team ). "My agent visited Munich to find an apartment. But as far as I know, in the end, they refused to pay €35 million [$39m/£30m] for me.”

    Interestingly, that is the same amount Liverpool have offered for the goalkeeper, according to Paul Joyce in The Times , although Valencia is reportedly holding out for $44m (£34m/€40m). Whichever fee is agreed – and it will most likely be somewhere in between – it will be a very decent return on a player who joined for just $938k (£730k/€850k) in January 2022. The Spanish club’s scouts will be delighted with that, whether Mamardashvili was intentionally their fourth-choice goalkeeper or not.

    Liverpool.com says: I t has been something of a meteoric rise for Mamardashvili. He was one of the top performing goalkeepers in Europe’s big five leagues last season and overperformed by a wider margin than any other shot stopper at Euro 2024. His days of being fourth in any club’s pecking order are long since over.

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