Zurab Khizanishvili ( ka, ზურაბ ხიზანიშვილი; born 6 October 1981) is a Georgian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach and former player who is the assistant manager of Georgia U21. A defender, he was the most recent Georgian footballer to play in the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

Club career

Early career

Khizanishvili started his career at

Dinamo Tbilisi Dinamo Tbilisi is a sports club from Tbilisi, Georgia (country), Georgia. It was founded in 1925. Among its highest honors, is the European trophy earned by its Association football, football team which won the Cup Winners' Cup in 1981, beating ...

where he remained for just one season, before joining

FC Tbilisi FC Tbilisi was a Georgian football team based in the capital Tbilisi. The club played their home games at Olimpi Stadium. FC Tbilisi were renamed Olimpi Rustavi after merging with second division club Rustavi. In the summer of 2008, the two c ...

to improve his chances of playing regular first team football. In 1999, he was on the move again, joining his previous two clubs' city rivals Lokomotiv Tbilisi. Khizanishvili's form at Lokomotiv piqued the interest of some of

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

's top clubs, though the player's latter days at the club were marred by

injury Injury is physiological damage to the living tissue of any organism, whether in humans, in other animals, or in plants. Injuries can be caused in many ways, including mechanically with penetration by sharp objects such as teeth or with ...

. Khizanishvili was eventually released after his contract with Lokomotiv was terminated.

Scotland

In March 2001, Khizanishvili joined

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

, having had unsuccessful trials at

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

and

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

. He quickly made an impact at

Dens Park Dens Park is a football stadium in Dundee, Scotland, which is the home of club Dundee F.C. and has a capacity of . Tannadice Park, the home of rivals Dundee United, is just 200 yards (183 metres) away. History Dundee moved to "Dens" from the ...

, alerting fellow

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the Scottish football league system, top-level league competition for professional Association football, football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Foo ...

team

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

, whom Khizanishvili joined on a Bosman transfer in July 2003 as a replacement for

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

-bound defender Lorenzo Amoruso.

England

Despite making 35 appearances in his first campaign at Ibrox, Khizanishvili gradually fell out of favour and, on 31 August 2005, he was allowed to move on loan for the rest of the season to Blackburn in the English

FA Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football ...

. During his loan spell at Blackburn he scored once in the league, in a 2–0 home win over

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

, and once in the League Cup in a 3–1 win over

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. They compete in , the third tier of English football league system, English football. Huddersfield Town we ...

. On 10 April 2006, he signed a permanent deal with

in a deal rumoured to be worth around about £500,000. He was a key part of Blackburn's team in the 2006-07 season, starting more than half the matches as the club competed domestically and in the UEFA Cup. Khizanishvili struggled to hold down a regular starting position in the rest of

Mark Hughes Leslie Mark Hughes (born 1 November 1963) is a Welsh association football, football coach and former player who is the head coach of club Carlisle United F.C., Carlisle United. During his playing career he usually operated as a Forward (asso ...

' reign as manager. Under

Paul Ince Paul Emerson Carlyle Ince (; born 21 October 1967) is an English professional football manager and former player who was most recently manager of Reading. A midfielder, Ince played professionally from 1986 to 2007, starting his career with West ...

and

Sam Allardyce Samuel Allardyce (born 19 October 1954) is an English football manager and former professional player. Allardyce made 578 league and cup appearances in a 21-year career spent mostly in the Football League, as well as brief spells in the North ...

he also failed to break into the first team on a consistent basis. His first appearance of the 2009–10 campaign came on 25 August, when he started the League Cup 2nd Round tie against Gillingham at

Priestfield Stadium Priestfield Stadium (popularly known simply as Priestfield and officially known from 2007 to 2010 as KRBS Priestfield Stadium and from 2011 to 2023 and again from 2024 as MEMS Priestfield Stadium for sponsorship purposes) is a football stadium i ...

, playing the full 90 minutes alongside Gael Givet in a 3–1 win. On 17 September 2009 Khizanishvili joined

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

team

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...

on loan in a three-month deal and returned on 19 December. On 25 January 2010, he signed for

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

on loan for the remainder of the 2009–10 season. On 31 August 2010, he rejoined Reading on a season long loan for the 2010–11 season and was handed the number 15 shirt at the

Madejski Stadium The Madejski Stadium (), currently known as the Select Car Leasing Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Reading, Berkshire, England. It is the home of Reading Football Club, who play in EFL League One. It also provides the ...

. On 13 March 2011, Khizanishvili completed the full 90 minutes against

at Eastlands in a 1–0 FA Cup quarter-final loss. On 30 May 2011, he started the Championship play-off final against

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club ( ; ) is a Welsh professional football club based in Swansea, Wales. It competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Swansea have played their home matches at ...

. Khizanishvili was booked after 12 minutes and then conceded a

penalty kick A penalty shot or penalty kick is a play used in several sports whereby a goal is attempted during untimed play. Depending on the sport, when a player commits certain types of penalties, the opposition is awarded a penalty shot or kick attempt. ...

after 20 minutes, due to a clumsy challenge on winger

Nathan Dyer Nathan Antony Jonah Dyer (born 29 November 1987) is an English former professional footballer who played as a winger, spending most of his career at Swansea City, where he made over 300 appearances. He started playing as a teenager at Southampto ...

and Reading went on to lose 4–2. Khizanishvili ended his second loan spell with Reading having made 29 appearances in all competitions, including 24 league outings.

Turkey

After his release from Blackburn, Khizanishvili joined

Kayserispor Kayseri Spor Kulübü, commonly known as Kayserispor, and also called Bellona Kayserispor due to sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish professional football club based in Kayseri. They play their home matches at the RHG Enertürk Enerji Stadium ...

, where he played for three seasons.

Azerbaijan

In June 2015, Khizanishvili signed a six-month contract with

Azerbaijan Premier League The Azerbaijan Premier League (), also known as Misli Premyer Liqası for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Azerbaijan and the highest level of the Azerbaijani football league system. It is contested by twelve ...

side

Inter Baku PIK Shamakhi FK (, ) is an Azerbaijani professional football club based in Shamakhi, that currently competes in the Azerbaijan Premier League. The club has won the Premier League title twice. History Early years (1997–2004) The club has been func ...

International career

Khizanishvili played 93 matches for Georgia national team. He scored his only goal against

Moldova Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. ...

on 6 June 2009.

Coaching career

After he retired from football in the summer 2017, Khizanishvili was appointed as the assistant manager of Gia Geguchadze at the Georgian U-21 national team.

Personal life

Khizanishvili is married to the Georgian model Salome Ghviniashvili and they have three children. He is the son of former

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

international defender Nodar Khizanishvili.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Rangers * League Cup: 2004–05 *

: 2004–05 Individual * SFWA Young Player of the Year: 2002–03

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Khizanishvili, Zurab 1981 births Footballers from Tbilisi Living people Men's footballers from Georgia (country) Georgia (country) men's international footballers Georgia (country) men's under-21 international footballers 21st-century sportsmen from Georgia (country) Men's association football central defenders FC Dinamo Tbilisi players Dundee F.C. players Rangers F.C. players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Newcastle United F.C. players Reading F.C. players Shamakhi FK players Erovnuli Liga players Scottish Premier League players Premier League players English Football League players Süper Lig players Azerbaijan Premier League players Expatriate men's footballers from Georgia (country) Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in Azerbaijan Expatriate sportspeople from Georgia (country) in England Expatriate sportspeople from Georgia (country) in Scotland Expatriate sportspeople from Georgia (country) in Turkey Expatriate sportspeople from Georgia (country) in Azerbaijan