Nestled in one of the leafy hills lined with oak and beech groves on which the peaceful Velbert stands, Georgia’s refuge in the Western Plus Park is filled with silence. Two members of the Georgian expedition’s private security guard guard the entrance from the outside car park. They have only one fixed point to monitor while they smoke routine cigarettes with which they pretend to kill time. Leaning against a fence in front of the main entrance, a solitary 15-year-old girl wrapped in a Georgian flag tries unsuccessfully to convince an employee of the Georgian federation. Her goal is to meet Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (23 years old). This is none other than the inveterate dribbler from Naples and a great star of the national team led by the Frenchman Willy Sagnol. Carvajal will have work to do this Sunday.
Kvaratskhelia was reborn against Portugal after two low-profile games, against Turkey and the Czech Republic, and a couple of private talks with the coach. A couple of days before the debut against Turkey, Sagnol was not pleased that the player’s agent put him on the market at the gates of the tournament, airing an offer from PSG. “You have to focus on everything that happens on the field. For a great player like Kvhita, if he plays a great Euro Cup, his future will be better,” explained a disgruntled Sagnol. The French coach’s remote hopes that Georgia could make a splash and reach the round of 16 of a European Championship in the first participation in its history depended on its best player clearing his head of everything that had nothing to do with the tournament.
Sagnol admitted on Friday that the two had a conversation again the day before the game against Portugal. This time, the French coach did strike a chord with the team’s hero. Sagnol invoked the childish pleasure of playing for the sake of playing. The result was that Kvaratskhelia, in addition to his early goal, unsettled half the Portuguese team with his speed and his overflows. “Try to find what made you stand out a year, two years ago. Don’t think too much, play,” Sagnol revealed on Radio Montecarlo.
Alluding to an unrepentant dribbler the fun of the game and freedom, triggered a performance of neighborhood hierarchy. At times, Kvaratskhelia seemed to play to see who would take the ball from him without caring about the risk of zigzagging in the central circle besieged by four or five Portuguese or in the vicinity of his area. It was a Homeric bacchanal of dribbles that filled the eyes of the fans who attended the Veltins Arena in Gelserkinchen and a transgression for prudish coaches.
When on Friday his compatriot, the also heroic Giorgi Mamardashvili, smiled after saying that “Kvaratskhelia is better than all of Spain”, he was also appealing to a childish football law that the boards and professionalism emasculate: the best is the one who dribbles the most and virguea. Maradona was enthroned like this. Kvaratskhelia is the second player in the tournament with the most attempted dribbles (21), only surpassed by the Englishman Doku (26), and the fourth who has completed the most successfully (8).
After his display against Portugal, Kvaratskhelia has silenced the critics. It is not the first time he has had to win back his compatriots. Accused of being a mercenary when he signed for Lokomotiv Moscow and then Rubin Kazan in Russia, he was again a national symbol when Russia invaded Ukraine and returned to Georgia to play for Dinamo Batumi. He earned the nickname Kvaradona at Napoli when he became the best dribbler in Serie A and the fourth in the big five to lead the Neapolitan club to the title. scudetto 33 years after the last one Maradona won. “He scudetto It was incredible, but now, when you play for your country it is special,” the attacker warned on Wednesday after resurfacing against Portugal.
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