Tbilisi dreaming of ‘Kvara d’or’ for Georgia’s favourite son

In the streets where he grew up Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s success is an inspiration and a continual source of pride

‘Neither the country nor Georgian football will 

ever be able to repay what he has done for us’

30 May 2026 - THE GUARDIAN / Sport

Ted Todorovic-Thomas 

Tbilisi - The cage where Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s love for football began is still buzzing with life today. Sandwiched between the vast Soviet apartment blocks of Dighmis Masivi, children scream, “Kvaraaaa!” as they strike the ball, replica shirts bearing his name stretched proudly across their backs.

This same “stadium”, as locals call it, fills each evening – like many across Tbilisi – with children playing football, stopping only when mothers lean from balconies and shout that dinner is ready.

There is a buzz about the neighbourhood, as they wait to watch their native son try to win a second straight Champions League when he plays for Paris Saint-germain against Arsenal in Budapest today. There is also a buzz about how far his stardom can reach and whether it is possible he could take home the Ballon d’or.

Among those who once played here with Kvaratskhelia was Giorgi Bliadze, a childhood friend and classmate. “It would be a dream come true as much for me as it would for him,” he says. “It would mean seeing the same dream we spoke about as kids become reality … proof that dedication and ambition can turn into history.”

For Bliadze, the possibility of Kvaratskhelia winning the Ballon d’or is about more than individual success. “It would also be a huge moment of pride for our whole neighbourhood,” he says. “Everyone knew he was going to become something special. The whole community has been waiting for his success.”

It is not only those personally close to Kvaratskhelia who want him to take home the Ballon d’or. Tengiz, who has lived in the area for decades, says: “Out of millions of people, it’s fate that our neighbour is better than them all.”

Tengiz talks about the history of Georgia, how back in the days of the Soviet Union, Dinamo Tbilisi won the 1981 Cup Winners’ Cup. “Back then it took a whole team to put Georgia on the map,” he says. “Now just one man can do it. It is unbelievable.”

To understand Georgia’s eagerness for Kvaratskhelia to lift the Ballon d’or, you have to understand the country. In a state with a population of 3.9 million and which, in its modern form, is younger than Cristiano Ronaldo, Kvaratskhelia’s rise extends far beyond football.

In many ways, Georgians speak about him less as a footballer and more as a representative of the country; a figure whose global success reflects on the nation, much like Luka Modric’s symbolic importance in Croatia or Mohamed Salah’s in Egypt.

“He is the revolutionary of Georgian football,” says Tsotne Kinkladze, who played with Kvaratskhelia in the Dinamo academy and is a football pundit for Georgia’s national broadcaster. “Imagine how much his success has already changed the country. Now imagine what would happen if he became the best player in the world. That is the level of impact and achievement he has brought to Georgia. Neither the country nor Georgian football will ever truly be able to repay what he has done for us.”

Saba Sapanadze, one of the country’s leading sports journalists, agrees. “For Georgia, this would be … I don’t even know. Even imagining it gives me goosebumps. At just 25 years old, he is already our greatest player of all time and if he could win the Ballon d’or, it would cement his legend for ever.”

Kinkladze remembers how distant this level of success once felt. “During our childhood, it was impossible to imagine that a Georgian footballer could ever reach these heights,” he says. “At the time, most Georgian players were limited to post-soviet leagues. In Europe’s top five leagues, there was basically only Levan Mchedlidze [a forward who spent over a decade at Empoli].”

Giorgi Sirbiladze, also from Kvaratskhelia’s old neighbourhood, is part of Dinamo’s academy now. “If he wins the final and plays how he should play, he has to win it,” he says of the Ballon d’or. “I really look up to him. His success makes me dream too.” And with that Sirbiladze goes back to kicking his signed Kvaratskhelia ball around.

Kvaratskhelia has been arguably the dominant force in this season’s Champions League, scoring 10 goals and setting up six in 15 games and becoming the first player to record a goal contribution in seven consecutive knockout matches. At home to Chelsea on game two of that run he scored twice and assisted another goal in a 5-2 win.

Sapanadze has been the driving force behind the campaign for the ‘Kvara d’or’, as he calls it. “After that dominant performance against Chelsea, I started saying it. I started believing he would become a leading candidate for the Ballon d’or,” Sapanadze says. “Of course, then he went on to do the same to Liverpool and then Bayern [Munich] … his first goal against Bayern was out of this world, and he was the main difference in both games.”

Back in Dighmis Masivi, the kids are still playing, rattling the ball against the cage. They dream of replicating the success of the man who was in their same position 15 years ago. Kvaratskhelia was then under the guidance of Manana Merabishvili, the head of his class in school.

“Let’s not only speak of Khvicha as a player, but as a person,” Merabishvili says. “Since childhood, he was humble and talented … he used to show up the day before and pass all the exams.

“A large amount of it was genetic, as his father was also a footballer and his younger brother is now playing for Dinamo. However, of course I believe I played some part. In the younger ages when he would become lazy I would give him a little slap around the head to keep him focused.”

A lot of factors are in play regarding whether Kvaratskhelia will win the Ballon d’or; it is a World Cup year after all and Georgia failed to qualify. But if PSG win the final and he produces another stellar performance, he would have to be in with a shout.

Before Kvaratskhelia, kids playing in Dighmis Masivi would have associated the Ballon d’or with distant footballing superpowers. Now, the idea of a Georgian winner feels imaginable in neighbourhoods such as this, all over Tbilisi.

***

Luis Enrique saves best for last after league stroll

PSG’S head coach has been able to rest some of his big names in preparation for defence of European crown

‘In modern football you need to have a bit less control in order to surprise your opponents’

30 May 2026 - THE GUARDIAN / Sport

Raphaël Jucobin 

Paris - ‘Every year I have less and less control,” Luis Enrique admitted last week. It may be a surprising remark from a manager whose success with Paris Saint-Germain has earned him unprecedented sway, but it is a good description of his team’s uninhibited performances on the European stage. “We need to be constantly changing,” he went on. “In modern football you need to have a bit less control in order to surprise your opponents.”

Off the pitch, though, PSG run a tight operation. Last Wednesday’s UEFA-mandated media day offered a glimpse at the club’s preparations before the Champions League final, including a rare chance to witness a full training session. Such was the domestic and international interest that dozens of journalists were left watching a stream of Luis Enrique’s press conference from a room upstairs.

PSG will have gone two weeks without a game before facing Arsenal in Budapest. A schedule of intrasquad friendlies and tactical breakdowns was put in place, rather than an intensive boot camp. “I think we do things a bit differently to the majority of teams,” Luis Enrique said. “Rest is very important to me, to have those moments where you can decide where you want to be. I want the players to be happy to come to training.”

One of the areas in which Luis Enrique does exert control is in his meticulous squad management. Given the team’s lack of time off last summer owing to the Club World Cup and a spate of injuries this season, this aspect of the Spaniard’s management has been increasingly important. Ousmane Dembélé is one of several senior players to have missed a large part of PSG’S Ligue 1 campaign.

A couple of weeks ago, the France international was voted by his peers as Ligue 1’s player of the season despite starting only nine games up to then. His reduced playing time was not entirely down to rotation, however, given that he struggled with hamstring and calf injuries at separate stages.

Marquinhos, meanwhile, was mostly spared from Ligue 1 duties from mid-february. Conveniently, the captain’s absence from domestic matches coincided with Illia Zabarnyi finding form after a shaky start to his first season in Paris.

None of the Champions League starters played more than 2,000 minutes in the league apart from Warren Zaïre-emery and Vitinha (for context, Declan Rice played 3,099 league minutes for Arsenal and was one of six starters against Burnley this month north of the 2,000 mark). Only Zaïre-emery, by virtue of his tireless versatility, made more than 30 league appearances. The 20-year-old, in his fourth season in the first team, filled in impressively at right-back at the start before reverting to a more familiar midfield role while Fabián Ruiz was injured.

Opposition fans have lamented what they regard as preferential treatment for PSG, the team having benefited from schedule readjustments on their way to a fifth consecutive title. In order to accommodate their European title defence, the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) agreed to push back two matches, against Nantes and Lens, which would have been sandwiched between knockout European ties.

Whereas Nantes agreed to postpone their match, Lens made a public show of going against their title rivals’ request. The eventual runners-up argued that postponing the match meant “adapting to the demands of the most powerful, in the name of interests which seemingly go beyond the domestic scope”. PSG pointed to an imperative of helping Ligue 1’s Uefa coefficient and the precedent set in previous seasons when other clubs’ continental campaigns were accommodated.

When both matches were eventually played in midweek slots, opposition fans were loud and clear in expressing their discontent. “Qatar is killing French football” read one banner in Lens, where fans also criticised the LFP. A similar message unfurled by Nantes fans at the Parc des Princes a few weeks back led to clashes with stewards.

By the time the top-of-the-table clash was played, PSG had a six-point lead with two games remaining. Luis Enrique’s second XI, featuring academy graduates and bench players, had managed more often than not to grind out wins against defensive opponents, with the help of late cameos from the usual starters.

It left the leading lights in Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Désiré Doué, and Dembélé to focus on shining in Europe.

PSG were troubled in a few matches, with Monaco achieving the league double over them, but no challengers other than Lens managed to offer any resistance in the second half of the season. This is in part down to the poor state of French teams’ finances, a situation exacerbated by successive broadcast deals collapsing and a lack of long-term planning by the league authorities.

PSG’S ability to absorb most of those financial blows has widened the gap to other teams, and the TV rights fiasco stirred up disagreement between clubs. As Lens have shown, though, it remains possible to mount a credible challenge on a limited budget.

The Ligue 1 trophy was presented one hour before kick-off on the final day, in a stripped-back ceremony in front of the away fans at Paris FC’S home, a minute’s walk from the Parc des Princes. The ceremony made for a somewhat anticlimactic crowning moment before PSG’S upstart neighbours went on to clinch a derby win late in stoppage time.

“I had already celebrated the title,” Luis Enrique said after, brushing off questions about the ceremony. His team had been out of sight for several weeks, although the 56-year-old recognised that this year’s title was the most difficult of the three he has won in France.

Since the start of the Qatari era, PSG have geared squad-building towards European success. None of the managers previously entrusted with that project, though, had gone as far in rotating the team as Luis Enrique. Under the Spaniard, the club have tightened their grip again on the French league, often winning games in a controlled if unconvincing manner. He has left the chaos for the European stage.