Saba Andreyevich Sazonov (russian: Саба Андреевич Сазонов; ka, საბა ანდრეის ძე საზონოვი; born 1 February 2002) is a football player who plays as a

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is the top division professional association football league in Russia. It was established at the end of 200 ...

club

Dynamo Moscow MGO VFSO "Dynamo" (russian: МГО ВФСО «Динамо»), commonly known as Dynamo Moscow (russian: Динамо Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. Founded by Felix Dzerzhinsky on 18 April 1923, Dynamo Moscow was the first ...

. Born in Russia, he plays for the Georgia national team.

Early life

His mother Nino Nishnianidze is a former professional Georgian volleyball player from

Samtredia Samtredia ( ka, სამტრედია ) is a town in Imereti, Georgia, lying in a lowland between the rivers Rioni and Tskhenis-Tsqali, west of the capital Tbilisi, and west of Georgia's second largest city Kutaisi. Georgia’s most impo ...

. She moved to

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

where she met her Russian husband. During his childhood, Sazonov moved to Georgia and then back to Russia, to feel more comfortable with both countries' language and culture.

Club career

He made his debut in the

for

FC Zenit Saint Petersburg Football Club Zenit (russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб «Зенит» ), also known as Zenit Saint Petersburg or simply Zenit, is a Russian professional football club based in Saint Petersburg. Founded in 1925 (or in 1914, acco ...

on 16 May 2021 in a game against

FC Tambov FC Tambov (russian: ФК Тамбов) was a Russian football team from Tambov. It last played in the Russian Premier League, having won promotion to the top division of Russian football in 2019, before dissolving in 2021. History FC Tambov star ...

. He substituted

Magomed Ozdoyev Magomed Mustafayevich Ozdoyev (russian: Магомед Мустафаевич Оздоев; born 5 November 1992) is a Russian professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Turkish club Fatih Karagümrük. Personal life Magomed O ...

in the 76th minute. In June 2021, he joined

FC Dynamo Moscow FC Dynamo Moscow (''FC Dynamo Moskva'', russian: Дина́мо Москва́ ) is a Russian football club based in Moscow. Dynamo returned to the Russian Premier League for the 2017–18 season after one season in the second-tier Russian Fo ...

on tryout. On 9 July 2021, he signed a three-year contract with Dynamo.

International career

In September 2022, Sazonov was called up to the

Georgia national under-21 football team The Georgia national under-21 football team is the national under-21 football team of Georgia and is controlled by the Georgian Football Federation. The team is considered to be the feeder team for the senior Georgian national football team. The t ...

. He was also called up to the

Russia national under-21 football team The Russia national under-21 football team is overseen by the Russian Football Union. The team competed in the European Under-21 Football Championship, held every two years, and international friendly matches. The team also participated in the ...

for the same dates, but chose to represent Georgia. He debuted with the senior Georgia national team in a friendly 3–0 loss to

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria ...

on 17 November 2022.

Honours

Club

;Zenit Saint Petersburg *

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Career statistics

Club

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sazonov, Saba 2002 births Living people Footballers from Saint Petersburg Footballers from Georgia (country) Georgia (country) international footballers Georgia (country) under-21 international footballers Russian footballers Georgian people of Russian descent Russian people of Georgian descent Association football defenders FC Zenit Saint Petersburg players FC Dynamo Moscow players Russian Premier League players Russian Second League players FC Zenit-2 Saint Petersburg players