"Only painstaking work on oneself and good games in the Russian league can give a candidate a chance to go."
Born in Georgia of Greek heritage, Tetradze is an international player in every sense of the words.
He made his debut in the Soviet league with Georgian side Dynamo
Tbilisi and later in the Russian league with Dynamo Moscow.
In 1996, he moved to Roma in Italy after winning the Russian league with Vladikavkaz, a North Ossetian club who became the only team to break Spartak Moscow's dominance in the last ten years.
Within months of his move, though, he was sidelined after picking up a serious knee injury while playing for Russia against Luxembourg in a World Cup qualifier in 1997.
Tetradze spent two years out of the game recovering from the injury.
Luckily, he received a lot of support from then Russian coach Boris
Ignatiev and his assistent Yury Syomin.
But it was his wife who convinced him he would play again.
"Thanks to her I didn't hang up my boots," he said.
Tetradze is sometimes referred to as a member of the lost generation
of senior Russian players who missed out on the last World Cup and European championship.
"The national team has for many years not really achieved anything,"
"But for those who played at the start of the 1990s and still play now there is a chance to show what they can do in Japan."
Tetradze returned to bigtime football with Greek side PAOK and, after a brief spell in the Greek army, he returned to Russia earlier this year and soon caught the eye of Oleg Romantsev.
He even turned down a chance to play in Japan for a chance to play in Japan.
Former Anzhi Makhachkala coach Gadzhi Gadzhiev wanted him to play in the J-League, but Tetradze chose Alania Vladikavkaz instead.
"I have returned to the team where I had the biggest success in my
football career," he said.
And, in April, it paid off as he was recalled to the Russia squad that drew with world champions France.