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Guram Kashia () (tr, ; born 4 July 1987) is a Georgian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Niké Liga club Slovan Bratislava and captains the Georgia national team.
Developed at Dinamo Tbilisi, Kashia spent most of his career at Dutch Eredivisie club SBV Vitesse, where he was captain. In the Netherlands for eight years, he played 292 official matches (24 goals) and won the KNVB Cup in 2017. Kashia is the Georgia national team’s most capped player.
Kashia led Vitesse to the domestic KNVB Cup in 2016–17, starting all except one of their six games and recording a goal and an assist. In his five starts, the club defeated their opponents 12–2, including a 2–0 victory against eventual league champions Feyenoord Rotterdam in the quarterfinals. In October 2017, Kashia wore a OneLove for Vitesse against Heracles Almelo in support of LGBT rights, leading to a backlash in his own country and calls for him to step down from the Georgian national team. His name was also transliterated as Goeram Kasjia in Dutch.
On 14 June 2018, Kashia joined Major League Soccer club San Jose Earthquakes on a multi-year contract, joining compatriot and close friend Valeri Qazaishvili. The club rejected its contract extension with Kashia following their 2020 season.
Kashia was named Georgian Footballer of the Year twice, in 2012 and in 2013. , he is captain of his national football team. On 26 September 2022, Kashia played his 100th match for Georgia in the Nations League game against Gibraltar. He is the most-capped Georgian footballer of all time.
Kashia took part in all of Georgia's matches in both the UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying stages and Euro 2024 championship completely. He received the Order of Honour with the squad the same year on 2 July.
While playing for Vitesse in 2017, Kashia wore a OneLove as part of the Dutch initiative Coming Out Day. His show of support for gay rights led to protests outside the Georgian Football Federation's headquarters demanding his removal from the national team, at which eight people were arrested. He described himself as being "proud to support equal rights". In August 2018, he became the inaugural recipient of UEFA's #EqualGame award for his pro-LGBT rights stand. He did not attend the awards ceremony in Monaco due to his club commitments with San Jose, but submitted a video acceptance speech in which he said: "I believe in equality for everyone, no matter what you believe in, who you love or who you are...I will always keep defending equality and equal rights for everyone, wherever I will play." In December 2018, Kashia received the Presidential Order of Excellence from Georgian president Giorgi Margvelashvili.
Kashia is outspoken about the ongoing illegal Russian occupation of Georgia following the 2008 Russo-Georgian War. He obtained his U.S. green card in July 2019, qualifying him as a domestic player for MLS roster purposes.
| + Appearances and goals by club, season and competition !rowspan="2" | Club !rowspan="2" | Season !colspan="3" | League !colspan="2" | Cup !colspan="2" | Continental !colspan="2" | Other !colspan="2" | Total |
| Dinamo Tbilisi | 2006–07 | Erovnuli Liga | 2 | ||||
| 2007–08 | 1 | ||||||
| 2008–09 | 2 | ||||||
| 2009–10 | 10 | ||||||
| 2010–11 | 0 | ||||||
| SBV Vitesse | 2010–11 | Eredivisie | 3 | ||||
| 2011–12 | 3 | ||||||
| 2012–13 | 2 | ||||||
| 2013–14 | 3 | ||||||
| 2014–15 | 2 | ||||||
| 2015–16 | 5 | ||||||
| 2016–17 | 2 | ||||||
| 2017–18 | 4 | ||||||
| San Jose Earthquakes | 2018 | MLS | 0 | ||||
| 2019 | 0 | ||||||
| 2020 | 0 | ||||||
| Locomotive Tbilisi | 2021 | Erovnuli Liga | 4 | ||||
| Slovan Bratislava | 2021–22 | Slovak Super Liga | 3 | ||||
| 2022–23 | 4 | ||||||
| 2023–24 | 2 | ||||||
| 2024–25 | 4 | ||||||
| 2025–26 | 2 | ||||||
| + Appearances and goals by national team and year !National team!!Year!!Apps!!Goals | |
| Georgia | 0 |
| 0 | |
| 0 | |
| 1 | |
| 0 | |
| 0 | |
| 0 | |
| 0 | |
| 0 | |
| 1 | |
| 0 | |
| 0 | |
| 0 | |
| 1 | |
| 0 | |
| 0 | |
| 0 | |
| + List of international goals scored by Guram Kashia !scope="col" | No. !scope="col" | Date !scope="col" | Venue !scope="col" | Opponent !scope="col" | Score !scope="col" | Result !scope="col" | Competition |
| 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification | |||||||
| Friendly | |||||||
| 2022–23 UEFA Nations League C |
Vitesse
Slovan Bratislava
Individual
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