Levan Kobiashvili

Kobiashvili began his career in hometown club Avaza Tbilisi. His first professional club was Gorda Rustavi where he made debut in the Umaglesi Liga in 1993. After spending two years with the Rustavi-based club, Kobiashvili moved to Dinamo Tbilisi in 1995. Under the guidance of famous former player and then-Dinamo coach David Kipiani, Kobiashvili became one of the key players of the club.

At the start of the year 1997, Alania Vladikavkaz declared their interest in Georgian midfielder. Dinamo Tbilisi let Kobiashvili leave the club on a season long loan deal. Kobiashvili joined a few of his compatriots there, including Mikheil Ashvetia, Giorgi Gakhokidze and Kakhaber Tskhadadze. He made 21 appearances for the club, scoring five goals in Russian Top League. Kobiashvili played in the UEFA Cup as well, scoring a single goal (against Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk) in four appearances.[7]

After spending a half season on a loan at SC Freiburg, Kobi signed a deal with the German club in 1998. During his spell with the Breisgau-Brasilianer ("Breisgau Brazilians"), Kobiashvili became one of the key players of Volker Finke's system. He was joined some Georgian players in Germany as well, Alexander Iashvili and Levan Tskitishvili his teammates in Freiburg.

SC Freiburg finished sixth in the 2000–01 Bundesliga season which granted them a qualification for 2001–02 UEFA Cup. This was the second time the club has ever participated in a UEFA tournament. SC Freiburg were eliminated in the third round by the future champions Feyenoord, on a 2–3 aggregate score. Kobiashvili played all six games of the club during the tournament, scoring the only goal against the Rotterdam-based club.[8][9] Eventually Freiburg got relegated from Bundesliga.

Kobiashvili decided to stay at the club and helped team to get another promotion to the top tier again during the following season. He scored ten goals for the club.[10]

During summer 2003, Kobiashvili's contract with Freiburg expired and he decided to leave the club. He received an offer from the future UEFA Cup winners CSKA Moscow.[11] The coach of the Russian team, Valeri Gazzaev, was interested in signing the Georgian midfielder with whom he worked in Alania five years earlier. However, Kobiashvili decided to stay in Germany and signed a three-year deal with Schalke 04.[12]

Kobiashvili became the starting member of his new club during the first season. Schalke coach Jupp Heynckes used him as a left-back. Upon the arrival of Ralf Rangnick, Kobiashvili was moved back to midfield, becoming one of the key links between Schalke's defence and attack.[11] Two years after joining the Gelsenkirchen-based team, Kobiashvili extended the contract with the club until 2010. Schalke general manager Rudi Assauer declared that Kobiashvili was one of the best signings they had made in the last decade.[13]

One of the best games of Kobiashvili's career came against PSV Eindhoven in 2005–06 UEFA Champions League season where he scored a hat-trick.[14] Two of them were from penalty kicks.[14] After the game he was praised by the manager Ralf Rangnick and teammate Frank Rost, who labeled Kobiashvili as a true professional, who was an example for them.[11] Later this season, Schalke moved to the UEFA Cup, where the team reached semi-finals and lost to the eventual champions FC Sevilla.[15]

During his career with Schalke, Kobiashvili won three titles: the DFL-Ligapokal in 2005 and the UEFA Intertoto Cup in 2003 and 2004.

On 20 December 2009, he announced he would be leaving FC Schalke 04[16] to transfer to Hertha BSC. He joined his new club on 1 January 2010.[17]

Kobiashvili completed a move to Hertha BSC in 2010, although the negotiations began a few weeks earlier.[16]

During a relegation playoff game against 2. Bundesliga team Fortuna Düsseldorf, Kobiashvili punched referee Wolfgang Stark after the final whistle. Hertha lost the playoff 4–3 on aggregate goals and was relegated from the Bundesliga as a result. Kobiashvili was banned for one year, retroactively beginning 16 May 2012.[18] The German Football Association later reduced Kobiashvili's suspension for seven and a half months, to end 31 December 2012.[19]

^* Includes Liga-Pokal and DFL-Supercup.

Scores and results list Georgia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Kobiashvili goal.

List of international goals scored by Levan Kobiashvili

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	6 June 2001	Népstadion, Budapest	Hungary	1–4	1–4	2002 World Cup qualifier
2	27 March 2002	Mikheil Meskhi Stadium, Tbilisi	South Africa	1–0	4–1	Friendly
3	29 March 2003	Mikheil Meskhi Stadium, Tbilisi	Republic of Ireland	1–1	1–2	Euro 2004 qualifier
4	4 June 2005	Qemal Stafa Stadium, Tirana	Albania	2–3	2–3	2006 World Cup qualifier
5	16 August 2006	Svangaskarð, Toftir	Faroe Islands	4–0	6–0	Euro 2008 qualifier
6.	15 November 2006	Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi	Uruguay	1–0	2–0	Friendly
7				2–0
8	11 October 2008	Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi	Cyprus	1–1	1–1	2010 World Cup qualifier
9	28 March 2009	Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium, Larnaca	Cyprus	1–2	1–2	2010 World Cup qualifier
10	14 October 2009	Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia	Bulgaria	2–6	2–6	2010 World Cup qualifier
11	3 March 2010	Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi	Estonia	1–0	2–1	Friendly
12	26 March 2011	Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi	Croatia	1–0	1–0	UEFA Euro 2012 qualifier