Giorgi Papunashvili

Giorgi Papunashvili (, ; born 2 September 1995), commonly known as Papu, is a Georgian professional footballer who plays for Azerbaijani club Zira as a winger.

Ha has played for the Georgian national senior and youth teams.

Club career

Dinamo Tbilisi Papunashvili started his career in his hometown club Dinamo Tbilisi. In 2013, after having spent a single season with the reserve side of the Georgian club, Papunashvili was promoted to the first team and in November he made his debut in Erovnuli Liga against Tskhinvali.

During the 2014–15 season, Papunashvili became the key figure at Dinamo, scoring 16 goals in all tournaments with the club, including his first career hat-trick against Tskhinvali in October 2014. Dinamo won Georgian Cup at the end of the season as well, with Papunashvili scoring two goals in the final against Samtredia.

In summer 2015, Papunashvili signed a season-long loan deal with Werder Bremen. He joined the reserve side of the club and played in 3. Liga. The loan spell was unsuccessful, as Papunashvili missed 12 games due to injury and was only able to make 20 appearances for the club, scoring two goals.

Real Zaragoza In June 2017, Papunashvili signed four-year deal with Real Zaragoza. He made his debut for the Spanish club against Granada CF on 28 August, replacing Oliver Buff.

On 12 January 2020, Papunashvili joined fellow second division side Racing de Santander on loan until the end of the season.

Short spells On 24 December 2020, Zaragoza announced the transfer of Papunashvili to Cypriot club Apollon Limassol FC.

In January 2022, he returned to Erovnuli Liga to join Torpedo Kutaisi. After six months Papunashvili moved to Serbian side Radnički Niš. In March 2023, he signed with Samtredia, and four months later joined Telavi. Having played one league match for the latter, Papunashvili signed a contract with Azerbaijan Premier League side Kapaz. On 3 August 2024, Papunashvili signed 1+1 year contract with Azerbaijan Premier League side Zira.

International career Papunashvili made his debut for the national team in a 1–0 friendly loss against the United Arab Emirates on 3 June 2014.

He also represented Georgia national under-17 football team in the 2012 UEFA European Under-17 Championship in Slovenia. Papunashvili scored a memorable last-minute goal in a crucial win over England in the qualifying stage of this championship.

Career statistics

Club

International goals Scores and results list Georgia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Papunashvili goal.

Honours Dinamo Tbilisi Umaglesi Liga: 2013–14 Georgian Cup: 2013–14, 2014–15 Georgian Super Cup: 2014