Jaba Kankava

Jaba Kankava was born on 18 March 1986 in Tbilisi to Nana and Gia Kankava, and has one older brother, Levan. He played football from a young age, joining Vake 91 when he was six in 1992. Kankava played eight years there under the management of Guram Chomakhidze before moving to Dinamo Tbilisi at the age of 14. In 2004, Kankava started his football career with Dinamo Tbilisi, where Gia Geguchadze was just appointed as head coach. Geguchadze started to create a new club with youngsters and Kankava became a main member of them. In his first year, Kankava won the Georgian Cup, and played in the UEFA Europa League scoring the winning goal against Slavia Prague and contributing to the qualification for the group stages. After one season at Dinamo, Kankava moved to Alania Vladikavkaz, where he played 12 matches, before signing a contract with Arsenal Kyiv in 2005. At Arsenal Kyiv, he played 24 matches and scored 4 goals. In 2007, Kankava agreed to sign a three-year contract with league rival Dnipro. Newly arrived Kankava was among the starting squad from the first games but received a red card against Dynamo Kyiv because of a tough tackle and missed several games and was among the bench players. He won the silver medals of the Ukrainian league in 2014. The next season Kankava played in a dramatic Europa League final against Sevilla, which was his last appearance for the club. In eight years at Dnipro, he played 91 matches and scored 4 goals. In 2015, Kankava joined Ligue 1 club…

On 8 September 2004, Kankava made his debut for Georgia against Albania in the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification. Later on, he managed score a goal against Croatia in UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying, and against Germany in UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying. From August 2012 up to October 2021, he was the captain, leading the team in 62 matches. On 27 January 2022, Kankava announced his retirement from international football after appearing in 100 matches, captaining Georgia 62 times, however he came out of retirement to feature in Georgia's qualifiers for Euro 2024. Kavkava received a call-up to the team for the European championship on 22 May 2024. Two days later, he announced that he would refrain himself from taking part in the matches and travel to Germany as a fan only. His decision was widely hailed as unselfish and exemplary. Although not present at Euro 2024, Kankava was awarded the Order of Honour by a presidential decree issued on 2 July 2024.

Club

As of match played 28 May 2025 Data available from 2008

National team

As of 26 March 2024

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

Dinamo Tbilisi

Georgian Cup: 2003–04 Dnipro

Premier League runner-up: 2013–14 UEFA Europa League runner-up: 2014–15 Tobol

Kazakhstan Premier League runner-up: 2020 Slovan Bratislava

Fortuna Liga: 2021–22, 2022–23, 2023–24 Slovak Cup runner-up: 2021–22 Individual

Georgian Footballer of the Year: 2015, 2019 Slovak First Football League Team of the Season: 2021–22