It’s not a Football Manager game without a ‘broken’ wonderkid. And this year’s (FM 26) comes in the form of Georgian full-back: Saba Kharebashvili.
Haven’t heard of him? Well, you must be living under a bloody rock!
Saba Kharebashvili is a left-back for Dinamo Tbilisi, left-footed, tall for his age, and already playing meaningful minutes. And in FM26? The database basically screams “modern full-back prototype.”
Between the game’s numbers and what he’s doing on the pitch, you can see why people are daydreaming about Anfield or the Bernabéu. Yes, I know he’s recently signed for Istanbul Baseksehir at the end of the season, but given how things work in Turkey, it’s not crazy to suggest that they might be planning his exit almost as crucially as they are preparing for his entrance.
Who is Saba Kharebashvili?
Saba Kharebashvili is a Georgian defender born in 2008, listed at 1.84m tall and a natural left-back who plays for Dinamo Tbilisi, with a natural flair for getting forward and affecting football matches.
Well, the virtual ones, anyway!
In fact, his Transfermarkt profile is starting to profligate with real-life comparisons.
That being said, despite playing a strong handful of games at the time of publishing this, and slowly stacking a pretty serious claim to make that side of the pitch his own from a defensive point of view, his meteoric playing potential in the game is still his most eye-catching element.
His Best FM26 Attributes
We love a classic ‘wonderkid’ when it comes to FM26.
In fact you can read this one here, if you fancy – about the classic of all classic ‘wonderkid’ archetypes in Freddy Adu, however the game has matured since then, as has our collective understanding of what to look for when translating virtual success into the real-world.
That being said, it’s natural for the gamers to be excited about a player like this, especially when they had an extra year to think about who would be in it. So, the community has been speaking…
On the FM26 database, Kharebashvili’s attribute mix leans heavily toward the “top club full-back” template: useful technical base, strong mentality, and the kind of engine that makes him playable early even if he’s still growing. FM Inside’s normalized attribute set highlights Crossing, Passing, Technique, plus standout mental traits like Determination and Aggression:
He’s also typically listed as a ‘professional’ person in terms of mindset, which is a bit of a cheat code in this season’s game when you want to regularly develop young players.
Additionally, FM Scout’s profile pegs him as an Inside Wing-Back or Pressing Full-Back type — roles that basically translate to “get up the pitch, tuck in when needed, win it back fast, and don’t be shy”.
And personally, I’d agree with that assessment of Saba Kharebashvili.
The Liverpool and Real Madrid links
Let’s be honest: “teenager linked with Liverpool” is basically its own genre of content.
But Kharebashvili has had named links in bigger platforms than random fan accounts.
Transfermarkt ran a feature framing him as a Georgian left-back wonderkid that Liverpool and Real Madrid “want,” which is about as mainstream as a rumour profile gets in the football ecosystem. AS.com also wrote about Real Madrid interest and contextualised why he’d be on their youth-focused radar, but again – that can change as quickly as it began.
There’s a bit more of an official ‘blocker’ in these circumstances – hence why I was so flippant earlier about his impending more to Istanbul in the summer – age rules.
Which vary depending on the individual approaches from football associates worldwide.
FIFA’s rules generally prohibit international transfers for players under 18, with limited exceptions under Article 19 of the RSTP (the FA’s summary doc quotes the same framework).
For Liverpool specifically, post-Brexit regulations have been widely reported as preventing Premier League clubs from signing foreign players under 18. TNT Sports covered this shift when the rules came in: For the legally interested – such as myself (I have a law degree, I’ll have you know!) – LawInSport also breaks down the post-Brexit transfer landscape for Premier League/EFL clubs.
So what does that mean in plain terms?
If Liverpool are serious, it’s likely to be a “track him, build the relationship, maybe agree something for when he turns 18” situation — not “whip him into the academy tomorrow, and hope he’s better than Kerkez”.
For Real Madrid, Spain is still bound by FIFA’s minor protections too. Real could monitor, invite, scout, and potentially position themselves for a move when he’s eligible. The “could it happen?” answer is: yes, but timing and structure matter more than the gossip makes it sound.
What’s his ‘ceiling’?
Based on his FM26 profile (passing, crossing, intensity, role suitability) and his real-world trajectory (early senior minutes, growing profile, major-club links), Saba Kharebashvili has legitimate top-league potential.
The safest prediction is that he’s headed for a stronger league sooner rather than later.
Whether that final destination is Liverpool or Real Madrid is the kind of football fate that depends on timing, agents, regulations, and the one thing no database can fully model: the exact right move at the exact right time.
But in its purest case, he’s certainly ‘one to watch’ moving forward.
Have you signed Saba Kharebashvili on FM26 yet?