Georgi Kinkladze was one of the most mesmerising players of the 1990s Premier League — and the secret behind his silky movement on the ball, it turns out, was traditional Georgian folk dancing.

The Manchester City icon, who dazzled fans at Maine Road even through the club's darkest relegation years, told FourFourTwo that childhood dance lessons shaped his game in ways few would expect.

On his toes from an early age

"Traditional Georgian dance is very physical," Kinkladze explained. "With this kind of dance, you are on your toes, moving with high energy and with perfect balance."

He added that those lessons built a foundation few conventional training methods could replicate. "Taking dance lessons gave me the core strength to change direction instantly while keeping my upper body still," he said. "People said I looked like I was gliding when I played; that was thanks to the dance training."

Georgian folk dancing — particularly for men — is explosive, fast-paced, and demands intricate, rapid footwork. Those are precisely the qualities City supporters at Maine Road came to associate with Kinkladze's wing play throughout the mid-1990s.

He is not alone among elite footballers to credit a second discipline. Peter Schmeichel links his famous starfish dive to a handball background. Petr Cech points to ice hockey goalkeeping. Didier Drogba attributes his footwork intelligence to basketball. Ruud van Nistelrooy and Zlatan Ibrahimovic both drew on taekwondo for balance and body control.

International football opened the door

Beyond the dance floor, Kinkladze credits his early international appearances for Georgia with putting him on the radar of top clubs. Without those caps earned as a teenager, he believes his career may never have taken off.

"Back then, the Georgian league wasn't scouted heavily," he said. "Playing for the national team was my chance to show that I could perform on the big stage. Without those international caps, I might never have left Georgia and moved abroad."

That international exposure attracted clubs including Boca Juniors and Manchester City, and later paved the way for his move to Ajax. Kinkladze remains a beloved figure among City supporters to this day — not only for his breathtaking goals, but for his loyalty in staying at the club for two further seasons after their relegation from the Premier League in 1995/96.