Napoli has begun the 2022/23 season in high-flying form, obliterating opponents both domestically and across Europe as they target Serie A and Champions League glory.
Sitting atop the Serie A table as October came to a close, the high-flying club has scored a whopping 30 league goals in just 12 matches, plus another 20 goals in just five Champions League games in a difficult Group A.
Young playmaking wizard Khvicha Kvaratskhelia has been a big part of Napoli’s early success, dazzling crowds across Europe with his impressive playmaking and speedy dribbling runs.
At just 21 years old, the young winger with a difficult name is sure to become known across the globe as fans continue to learn about the Georgian rising star.
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Who is Khvicha Kvaratskhelia?
At just 21 years old, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia joined Napoli in the summer of 2022 and exploded onto the scene almost immediately.
Arriving from Georgian club Dinamo Batumi, Kvaratskhelia began tearing opponents apart, in both the Italian top flight and the Champions League.
Playing either on the left wing or as a No. 10 attacking midfielder, Kvaratskhelia has torn teams apart with both creativity and a goalscoring prowess. Through the month of October, Kvaratskhelia has collected six goals and seven assists in Serie A play, plus another two goals and three assists in four Champions League matches.
According to Opta, Kvaratskhelia’s mark of 0.33 expected assists per 90 minutes leads the entire Italian top flight for all players with at least eight league appearances, and his six goals are more than anyone among the top 20 chance creators in the league.
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What country does Khvicha Kvaratskhelia play for?
🇬🇪 Khvicha Kvaratskhelia 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 🤩
How impressive has he been this season? 🤔@GeorgiaGff | #NationsLeague pic.twitter.com/Sv4DLHsfli
— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) October 20, 2022
At 21 years old, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia already has 19 caps and 10 goals for his home country of Georgia.
Kvaratskhelia was born in the Georgian capital city of Tbilisi. He played for every level of the Georgian national team youth setup before making his senior debut in 2019 as an 18-year-old against Gibraltar in Euro qualifying. Even prior to that, Kvaratskhelia had been identified by The Guardian as one of the 60 best young players in the world.
Kvaratskhelia scored his first international goal against North Macedonia in a 1-1 UEFA Nations League match, and scored three times in four games across the first phase of 2022/23 Nations League play.
His first and only international brace came against Sweden in 2022 World Cup qualifying, helping to secure a shock 2-0 victory. Georgia has never lost across the nine games that Kvaratskhelia has scored a goal.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia transfer fee
Napoli signed Kvaratskhelia from Georgian club Dinamo Batumi in what is considered one of the best signings of the 2022 summer transfer window.
Incredibly, Kvaratskhelia cost Napoli just a measly €10 million, which could rise up to €12 million with add-ons.
Of course, he made an immediate impact. He scored two goals and assisted another in his unofficial debut for the club, a summer friendly win over Italian fifth-tier club Anaune Val di Non. His official debut came on August 15 against Hellas Verona in Napoli’s first Serie A match of the season, where he scored a goal and assisted another in a 5-2 win.
Kvaratskhelia scored his first career Champions League goal in a 6-1 win over Ajax in early October, and bagged another goal and assist to earn the Man of the Match award in the return fixture against Ajax at home a week later.
On his current trajectory, Kvaratskhelia could be worth ten-fold what Napoli paid to bring him to the Italian club.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia nicknamed “Kvaradona”
It didn’t take long at Napoli for Kvaratskhelia to earn himself a coveted nickname.
Supporters have started calling the youngster “Kvaradona” in reference to club legend Diego Maradona, for whom the Napoli stadium is named after.
Maradona, known for his incredible technical abilities on the ball which allowed him to dance around defenders and dazzle crowds, played for Napoli from 1984 to 1991. The Argentine is considered the greatest player to ever play for the Italian club, and the team’s stadium was renamed to “Stadio Diego Armando Maradona” in his honor following his death in 2020.
Kvaratskhelia plays with a similar style, dazzling fans with his mazy runs on the ball. He is a high-risk, high-reward type of player, who will often lose possession as a result of attempting to run at opponents one-on-one.
As of October 31, Kvaratskhelia was eighth among all players in Europe’s top five leagues in dribbles attempted with 64, but he has by far the lowest success rate, completing just 19 of them for a 29.69 percent success rate.
Yet despite those figures, the 162 times he lost possession does not stand out among the high frequency dribblers, and his 3.26 expected assists ranks higher than all but two players above him in that top dribblers list.
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How to pronounce Khvicha Kvaratskhelia?
Hailing from Georgia, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia has a difficult name for many English speakers to pronounce.
An important to remember is that of the three “K’s” in his name, two of them — both which proceed an “H” — are silent.
His name is pronounced “hv-EETCH-uh k-var-uts-HAY-lee-uh” with both “H” sounds coming from deep within the throat.
Khvicha has decided to help us all out… Here’s how to pronounce his name from the horse’s mouth!
💙 #ForzaNapoliSempre pic.twitter.com/rcnRNv8rHY
— Official SSC Napoli (@en_sscnapoli) July 10, 2022
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia FIFA 23 rating
The young Napoli playmaker has yet to earn total respect in FIFA 23, but future iterations of the game are sure to give him an increased rating as he continues to prove his class on the field.
The most recent edition of the popular video game has Kvaratskhelia with a 76 overall rating. His best attributes are an 84 in agility, an 83 in dribbling, an 83 in acceleration, an 82 in ball control, and an 81 in sprint speed. His lowest attributes are defensive, while he also scores extremely low in volleying and jumping.
Kvaratskhelia does earn an 88 potential rating, and has four stars in skill moves, coming in just under the maximum five stars. His starting value of €18.5 million is sure to balloon in future editions of the game.
