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According to a report from El Periodico released earlier today, New York City FC has shown in an interest in signing 24-year-old winger Giorgi Papunashvili, commonly known as Papu, from Spanish club Real Zaragoza.
NYCFC are reportedly "determined to sign" 24-year-old Georgian International right winger Giorgi Papunashvili, who is currently with Real Zaragoza in the Spanish 2nd division. https://t.co/HeBzvqd6RT
— MLS Buzz (@MLS_Buzz) November 25, 2019
From what I’ve gathered about Papu, the Georgian international is primarily a right winger who also can play in the attacking midfield. To date, he’s made 14 appearances for the Georgia national team since his senior team debut in 2014, having scored three goals since then.
A left-footed player, Papu could very easily be deployed as an inverted winger on the right side of the pitch. This is exactly the role that current NYCFC winger Jesus Medina was expected to fill, but has fallen short of expectations.
Papu has supposedly struggled to find starting minutes this season for Real Zaragoza, who are currently in Spain’s second division. In 10 appearances this season, Papu has only been given two starts and is only averaging just under 31 minutes per game.
El Periodoco has reported that NYCFC has not yet made an actual offer to Zaragoza for Papu.