White Star snag Georgian Winger | OneFootball

On Wednesday, Ekstraklasa relegation-battlers Wisła Kraków announced the signing of Georgian international Georgiy Tsitaishvili. The right-sided midfielder arrives from Ukrainian champions Dynamo Kyiv, joining Jerzy Brzęczek’s side until the end of the season.

The Israeli-born winger is the son of former Georgian footballer Klimenti Tsitaishvili, who represented clubs such as Dinamo Tblisi, Anorthosis Famagusta and AEK Larnaca during his career. Georgiy, however, started life as a footballer in the Dynamo Kyiv youth setup, signing with them from the age of twelve.

Thanks to his Ukrainian grandmother, Georgiy was able to gain citizenship of the country; and represented Ukraine at five different youth levels. Most notably, he was a part of the team which lifted the U20 World Cup trophy in 2019, and scored in the 3-1 victory over South Korea in the final. That same year he was voted as Ukraine’s “Golden Talent of the Year”.

However, Tsitaishvili opted not to represent Ukraine at senior level, and made his debut for the Georgian national team in 2021, in a 1-0 defeat against Kosovo. He has since made a further two appearances.

Tsitaishvili has spent the majority of 2021 away from Kyiv: firstly on loan at Vorskla Poltava, and then at Chornomorets Odesa. With the Russian invasion of his adopted country, the player was able to take advantage of FIFA’s rule allowing Ukrainian-based players to sign for foreign clubs until the end of the 2021/22 season.

Tsivaishvili’s contract with Wisła will expire at the end of June 2022. The club currently sit three points from safety with seven games to play, having failed to record a victory since December.