Georges Mikautadze

Georges Mikautadze grew up in Lyon and passed through the youth ranks of FC Gerland and then Olympique Lyonnais before a short spell at Saint-Priest and a move into the Metz academy in 2016. He made his Ligue 1 debut for Metz on 7 December 2019, in a 4–1 defeat to Nice, and signed his first professional contract three days later. Two loan spells at the Belgian club Seraing followed.

His move to Ajax in August 2023, for a fee that could rise to €19 million, did not work out: he managed nine appearances without scoring. Metz took him back on loan in January 2024, and he responded with 13 goals in 20 matches, prompting the club to trigger a buy-back clause and sign him permanently that July for €13 million. He did not play for Ajax again after returning from that loan.

Within days of rejoining Metz, he was sold on to Olympique Lyonnais, the club where he had spent his youth years, for a fee that could reach €23 million with bonuses. He scored 12 league goals for Lyon in 2024–25, adding four more in Europe, before signing a six-year contract with Villarreal in September 2025 in a deal that could be worth €36 million in total, with a 10% sell-on clause retained by Lyon.

Internationally, Mikautadze made his Georgia debut in March 2021 against Sweden and has gone on to score 23 goals in 43 caps. His standout moment came at Euro 2024, where he finished as the tournament's joint top scorer with three goals — becoming the first Georgian to score at a European Championship and the only player to find the net in every one of his side's group games.