Adulated by Neapolitan fans, closely watched by the biggest European clubs, Georgian winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is undoubtedly the sensation of the season in Italy. Beaten in the quarter-final first leg of the Champions League by AC Milan (1-0), last week in Lombardy, Napoli counts more than ever on its offensive jewel to qualify, in the return match played at home, Tuesday, April 18.

Irresistible and hyperactive on the left side, "Khvicha" shines with disconcerting ease by his sudden accelerations, lightning feints and devastating dribbling that have left a good number of opposing defenders on the sidelines. As spectacular as he is decisive, he has scored 14 goals and provided 16 assists in 34 matches in all competitions.

However, not many people would have bet on this virtuoso of 22 years, who started football barefoot in Nakifu, a village of Georgia of 700 inhabitants, recruited last summer against a check of just over 10 million euros to snatch him from Dinamo Batumi.

Kvaratskhelia named the Player of the Month for March by @assocalciatori

👏 Kvara

👉 😍https://t.co/b76D5BKSau pic.twitter.com/Xb5eKfs9th 🏅

— Official SSC Napoli (@en_sscnapoli) March 30, 2023

"Few people could have imagined at the time that this skinny boy would become an international star," Levan Salukvadze, an adviser to the president of Dinamo Tbilisi when the player was at the club's training center, told AFP recently.

Indeed, in Naples, some expected to see a confirmed player to replace, on this left side, the iconic captain Lorenzo Insigne who joined the ranks of Toronto FC, in MLS.

But very quickly, over the first matches and the first ball catches of the Georgian, who committed until 2027, informed observers realized that the Partenopei held a magician from another planet.

Author of 3 goals and an assist in the first two days of Serie A, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia has set the tone for an exercise that is likely to end in apotheosis for Napoli.

Became a star in 9 months

At the top of Serie A with 14 points ahead of Lazio Roma, 8 days before the end of the championship, the Neapolitans are in excellent position to win their first league title since 1990. At the time, the team that won the scudetto included in its ranks a certain Diego Maradona, the absolute idol of a city where football is a religion.

Having become a star in 9 months in Italy, "Khvicha" could enter a little more into the Neapolitan legend by qualifying the club for the first time in its history in the semi-finals of the Champions League. Even if, as a sign of their admiration, some fans already nicknamed him "Kvaradona", in reference to the Argentine playmaker.

In the Forcella district, where references to Diego Maradona – the club's stadium was renamed after him after his death in 2020 – are ubiquitous, a recent mural depicts the Georgian winger alongside Victor Osimhen. The latter is back on the pitch after being the big absentee of the quarter-final first leg against AC Milan.

Passers-by in front of a mural depicting (left to right) Argentine football legend Diego Maradona, Georgian striker Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Nigerian striker Victor Osimhen, in the Forcella neighborhood, March 24, 2023 in Naples. © Alberto Pizzoli, AFP

Sign of the understanding between the two men, Victor Osimhen is full of praise for his young teammate who wears the number 77. "He's an incredible guy and an incredible player. He has a long road ahead of him, he is capable of winning the Ballon d'Or," he said in early March.

"He has a technique worthy of the strongest in the world and he has this quality of feeling the goal, of always finding the most difficult angle," explained his coach Luciano Spalletti in January.

While waiting for the individual awards, it is collectively that the two Neapolitan strikers will have to be decisive to achieve the feat against AC Milan in the boiling Diego Maradona stadium.

And it will really be necessary to achieve a feat, because the reigning Italian champion does not really succeed at Napoli who have lost twice this season against this opponent: a stinging defeat in the league (0-4), at home on April 2, and the setback in C1 (1-0), at San Siro.

Deprived of two of his defensive pillars, Korean central defender Kim Min-jae and Cameroonian midfielder André-Frank Zambo Anguissa, both suspended, Luciano Spalletti hopes Khvicha Kvaratskhelia will be well inspired to sow discord in the opponent and quickly turn the score.

After having made Italy bend with his Nigerian compère, it is up to him to burst the screen in front of all Europe.

With AFP

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