Georgia captain Guram Kashia: ‘When I wake up I listen to

The defender on representing his country at a first major tournament, learning English through the Guardian and why he has a tattoo of John Lennon on his arm

Guram Kashia never lost hope. He had come close to qualifying for a major tournament but never quite got there. The most painful miss came in 2020 when Georgia lost in the playoffs to North Macedonia.

The Georgia captain is 36 now so when it was time for the Euro 2024 playoffs he knew this was likely to be his last shot. So he made some tough decisions – and one of them was to stop eating sweets for four months.