Zurab Khizanishvili

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Personal information
Zurab Khizanishvili
Date of birth	October 6, 1981 (1981-10-06) (age 26)
Place of birth	Tbilisi, Georgia (then Soviet Union)
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position	Defender
Club information
Current club	Blackburn Rovers
Number	13
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1998-1999 1999-2000 2000-2001 2001-2003 2003-2006 2005-2006 2006-	Dinamo Tbilisi FC Tbilisi Lokomotiv Tbilisi Dundee Rangers → Blackburn Rovers (loan) Blackburn Rovers	2 (1) 9 (0) 16 (1) 43 (0) 42 (0) 26 (1) 18 (0)
National team²
1999-	Georgia	25 (0)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 22:36, 23 March 2007 (UTC). ² National team caps and goals correct as of 2 january 2007. * Appearances (Goals)

Zurab Khizanishvili (Georgian: ზურაბ ხიზანიშვილი; born Tbilisi, October 6, 1981) is a Georgian professional football player who currently plays for Blackburn Rovers.

Khizanishvili is a defender.

1 Career
2 International career
3 External links

[edit] Career

[edit] Georgia

Khizanishvili started his career at Dinamo Tbilisi where he remained for just one season, before joining FC Tbilisi 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's top clubs, though the player's latter days at the club were marred by injury. Khizanishvili was eventually released after his contract with Lokomotiv was terminated.

[edit] Scotland

In March 2001, Zurab joined Dundee, having had unsuccessful trials at Arsenal, Fulham and West Ham^{[citation needed]}.

He quickly made an impact at Dens Park, alerting fellow SPL team Rangers, whom Khizanishvili joined on a Bosman transfer in June 2003 as a replacement for Blackburn-bound defender Lorenzo Amoruso.

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

[edit] England

On 10 April 2006, he signed a permanent deal for Blackburn Rovers in a deal rumoured to be worth around about £500,000.

Since joining the Ewood Park outfit, Khizanishvili has become an important member of Mark Hughes's overall defensive personnel, often playing at centre back. Chances have been few in the 2007-2008 season for Zurab, however he has always been at hand to step in in case of injury to either Ryan Nelsen or Christopher Samba.