Giorgi Papunashvili


Giorgi Papunashvili, commonly known as Papu, is Georgian professional footballer who plays for Spanish club Racing de Santander and the Georgian national team as a winger.

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 2 goals.

Real Zaragoza

In June 2017, Papunashvili signed four-year deal with Real Zaragoza. Papunashvili made his debut for the Spanish club against Granada CF in 28 August, 2017, replacing Oliver Buff. On January 12, 2020 he joined Racing de Santander on loan till June 30 to help the club avoid relegation to Segunda B.

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.

Career statistics

Club

International goals

#DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.24 March 2018Mikheil Meskhi Stadium, Tbilisi, Georgia1–04–0Friendly
2.7 June 2019Boris Paichadze National Stadium, Tbilissi, Georgia2–03–0UEFA Euro 2020 qualification
3.19 November 2019Stadion Aldo Drosina, Pula, Croatia1–01–2Friendly

Honours

Dinamo Tbilisi