Marked for Samuele Colombo
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Dec 2026
Saba Ananidze: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Zugdidi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match21 Dec 2026
Zugdidi refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 16 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Yegor Alexandrov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuele Colombo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dato Janelidze, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 47 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad19 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuele Colombo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Goga Kvilitaia out for 69 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zugdidi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match28 Sep 2026
Zugdidi up to position 3
16 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad28 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Sep 2026
Whatever happens, Zugdidi do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Samuele Colombo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Loan watch28 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Fatih Karagumruk to sit and watch. I want to come back to Zugdidi and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
7.38, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Zugdidi had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Goga Kvilitaia out for 90 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zugdidi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match5 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 89th, and Sapovnela spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Market7 Sep 2026
The name of Saba Ananidze has come up in conversations Zugdidi were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market7 Sep 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuele Colombo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match5 Sep 2026
A 1‑0 win over Sapovnela, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Kakha Qazaishvili at his very best
Marked 8.30. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Zugdidi.
Market7 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Aug 2026
The small margins put Zugdidi out
Out, 1‑2 to Torpedo Kutaisi, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 7.37 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Samuele Colombo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match15 Aug 2026
1‑2 to Kolkheti, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Vasily Arkhipov
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match15 Aug 2026
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Saba Ananidze had Zugdidi level again within 2 minutes, and Kolkheti never got to play with a lead at all.