During the late summer of 2020 there was a growing sense of excitement in recruitment staff on the Brighton training base, located between the South Downs and the mouth of the English channel.
The reconnaissance structure built by Albion owner Tony Bloom is for a good reason the jealousy of the world game: the club signed players such as Moises Caicedo, Alexis Mac Allister and Marc Cucurella for relatively small amounts before being sold with a huge profit.
Bloom's data algorithm for finding players is one of the most effective round and this time the model had identified a 19-year-old Georgian winger in Rubin Kazan in the Russian Premier League. His name? Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, recently purchased by Paris Saint-Germain from Napoli for £ 65 million and one of the most important threats for Liverpool in the Champions League last-16 pee bindings on Tuesday in Anfield.
In the end, Brighton did not follow their interest in Kvaratskhelia, where Bloom and his team spot a player in the Japanese J-League who played in a similar position as Kvaratskhelia, and whom they knew they could buy for £ 2.5 million. The acquisition of Kaoru Mitoma from Kawasaki Frontale in August 2021 was not too bad.
It is another example of how Slim Brighton is. When they sign or explore a player, we all learned to sit up and to notice.
That is precisely the effect that Kvaratskhelia has had since he moved to Napoli from Dinamo Batumi in his home country in the summer of 2022, whereby the Serie A club pays only £ 11 million.
Kvaratskhelia was a fantastic partnership with Victor Osimhen and ended the campaign with 12 goals and 13 assists and Napoli was crowned in their history for the third time. They loved him so much in Naples that they even have 'kvaradona' at the nickname. When a player is compared to Diego Maradona, an almost suspected of Naples and perhaps the biggest football player in history, he has to do something good.
Even now, in his third season in Europe's top five competitions, there is something glorious unrefined about Kvaratskhelia. Where some modern players seem to spend just as much time on perfecting their hairstyles and have taken their Instagram stories when they work on their weaker foot, the trim of Kvaratskhelia is the species supplied by a standard city-oriented hairdresser.
With the ball on his feet he seems to shuffle while he also moves at high speed in one way or another. Although powerfully effective, his characteristic movement – caught up from left to his right foot – was worked out in the course of time by Serie A defense: in his first season, Kvaratskhelia almost registered a goal or an assist per 90 minutes; Due to his last campaign, that had fallen to hardly more than one any other competition.
Perhaps that was partly the reason why no Premier League club seriously competed with PSG when they did the deal in January, although Mail Sport understands that Chelsea had considered it in the past, even weighing which players offer Napoli as partial suction.
With Billy Gilmour now with Napoli and Trevoh Chalobah who have interested them in the past, the Italians were open to negotiations – although they are notorously difficult to deal with.
Sports directors and agents throughout Europe shiver at the prospect of sitting at a table of the Napoli president Aurelio de Laurentiis, a frightening opponent in transfer discussions. Clubs can feel that they are about to an agreement, only for circumstances to change repeatedly. Some decide that they don't need the hassle and move on to the next goal on their list.
With Kvaratskhelia, however, it would certainly have been worth it.
David Webb, the British assistant coach of the Georgian national team, saw Harry Kane from close by during a Stint in Tottenham of 2015-17 and believes that the captain of England shares countless properties with Kvaratskhelia.
“The elite players, like Harry Kane, have this lead on them where they have the desire to be absolutely the best they can be – and Kvara has that,” Webb tells Mail Sport. 'You can't get it from the training field.
'He wants to shoot, finish, free kicks, always so extra. I remember that I spoke about him with Gareth Southgate and he said: “I love him. He is a throwback, almost like George Best. He is so competent and strong but deceptively fast. '
Look again at the strike against Liverpool, lingered away for the most fractional offside call, to understand the appetite of the 24-year-old for improvement.
Ryan Gravenberch seemed to relax so lightly as he saw the ball on the weaker base of Kvaratskhelia. Only when the ball was sent past Alisson in the far corner did the Liverpool midfielder realize his mistake.
If that goal had counted, it would have been the third in a row of Kvaratskhelia with his left foot, and the fourth in eight at club level. Before that, only three of his previous 21 goals had come from his left side.
In many eyes, Kvaratskhelia would have been perfect for Mohamed Salah on the opposite flank. Nevertheless, Oliver Dehnhardt, the head of the football strategy in the respected scouting platform eye ball, underlines why PSG was such an attractive option and why Premier League clubs may have thought twice.
“Top English clubs are well filled in those positions and when PSG is in the fight for a player, the salary becomes very high,” he says Mail Sport. 'I imagine that he would be at least the top-very earners for every British club, so he must be a regular starter.
'Do not underestimate the PSG project: it is a fantastic city, they pay very well and they usually win two trophies a year and perform well in the Champions League.
'Then you can end your contract and move to Real Madrid or another top club. So there are several factors. '
The success of Kvaratskhelia has accelerated a trend. Goalkeeper Giorgi Mhamardashvili, Valencia, will join Liverpool at Liverpool in the summer and more graduates from the Dinamo Tbilisi Academy will certainly follow in the coming years.
“He has proven to children in Georgia that you can become a rich person by playing football,” adds Dehnhardt. 'Then it has a population of only about four million and young football players make rapid progress. The best go to Dinamo Tbilisi and that makes it easier to explore the market effectively. '
If Kvaratskhelia performs on Tuesday, as he did in the first stage against Liverpool, interest in Georgian football players will only grow, and Scouts Worldwide are already delighted by 16-year-old Dinamo Tbilisi Prospect Saba Karebashvili.
A left back that is also comfortable in midfield, Kharebashvili played in the UEFA Conference League at the age of 15 and did so well in his performances for the first team of Dinamo that Liverpool and Real Madrid are one of those who look closely.
If he even turns out to be half as good as Kvaratskhelia, Georgian football will still have a superstar in his hands.
The secrets of the success of 'Kvaradona'
David Webb is the assistant manager of the Georgian national team born in English and has been working closely with Khvicha Kvaratskhelia since he was appointed in August 2023.
When Webb came into contact with Georgia, Kvaratskhelia was a rising star of European football thanks to its impressive displays with Napoli, who won the Serie A title in 2023 at the end of the first season of Kvaratskhelia.
Webb is not only an experienced coach, but has a master's degree in sports psychology and is in the perfect place to analyze the qualities of the Paris Saint-Germain star both on and outside the field. Here he reveals to email the secrets of the success of Kvaratskhelia.
Personality
Part of my assignment when I became a member was to have one-on-one meetings with the players and I was so impressed by Kvara. He is such a modest guy and you would never have known that he was one of the striking players within the group. It's a bit like Gareth Bale when he was at Wales – Kvara is a superstar, but he doesn't behave like one. He fits with the rest of the players and enjoys a smile and a joke around the camp. He is a family man with a woman and child and is very patriotic, very passionate.
Mentality
He has the advantage that all elite players have, because he wants to be the very best he can. He has a very articulated football spirit. If we have tactical meetings, he will already know who will mark him in the team we are confronted with. It is a fairly calm group and only two or three players will ask questions in those meetings, but Kvara is always one of them. He will always want to know more about the players and teams he encounters.
Work percentage
You can't get it from the training field. He wants to shoot, finish, free kicks, one-to-one exercise all time so extra. Someone with him will stay with him on the grass for 10 or 15 minutes, but always knowing that we have to be careful with him because we need him for the games. That kind of behavior is the perfect example for our younger players.
Skill
Although his right foot is his stronger foot, there is not much in it, and that makes him a very dangerous player. He can shoot with both feet and slide the ball off both feet. He can play on flank or as a no. 9, which is why PSG's floating front three is perfect for him. With Georgia we use it as a no. 9 in a 3-5-2 system, but with a free, roaming role, so that it can float left or right. He can be very effective there.
Athletics
He is quite a slender guy, but he is surprisingly strong. We have played teams where defenders will try to kick him out of the game and we had to abolish him for his own protection, but he is so difficult to hit the ball. Then he is deceptively fast – just look at how he speeds up the ball. He faces a number of really tough defenders, especially in the Serie A, but his strength and strength of the upper body enables him to compete.
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