Wanted to “take advantage of the opportunity immediately”
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Budu Zivzivadze is moving to the German football upper house as the current top scorer in the 2nd Bundesliga. The 30-year-old attacker moved from Karlsruher SC to 1. FC Heidenheim six months before the end of his contract. Zivzivadze was presented there on Friday as the first new signing this winter. He signed until 2029.
Zivzivadze contributed twelve goals in 17 games for KSC in the current second division season; best result in the well-known lower house. He is leaving Baden two years after joining from Hungarian first division club Fehérvár FC for a fee of 150,000 euros. Now the 34-time Georgian international is joining FCH, who had to let go of one of the Bundesliga’s most dangerous strikers at the moment in the summer; Tim Kleindienst (29) joined Borussia Mönchengladbach.
“We have been closely monitoring Budu Zivzivadze’s development at Karlsruher SC for some time. He was already an absolute top performer there last season and was able to improve further in the current first half of the season with twelve goals in 17 games. Budu has impressively demonstrated what special goalscoring qualities he has. We are therefore convinced that he can immediately help our team in the fight to stay in the Bundesliga and are very pleased that he has chosen us,” said Heidenheim’s CEO Holger Sanwald.
Zivzivadze added: “Those responsible at 1. FC Heidenheim worked hard for me. That’s why I really wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to play in the Bundesliga straight away. I would now like to do my part to ensure that we and FCH manage to stay in the league at the end of the season and I’m really looking forward to when the league starts again.” Zivzivadze is unlikely to be Heidenheim’s only commitment; Bayern talent Frans Krätzig (21) is also expected to be loaned out.