{"id":9624,"date":"2026-10-01T15:13:35","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T15:13:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/?p=9624"},"modified":"2026-10-01T15:13:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T15:13:35","slug":"khvicha-kvaratskhelia-is-footballs-understated-superstar-adidas-mark-psg-wing-wizards-ascent-as-ballon-dor-opportunity-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/?p=9624","title":{"rendered":"Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is football&#8217;s understated superstar: adidas mark PSG wing wizard&#8217;s ascent as Ballon d&#8217;Or opportunity looms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div aria-label=\"main body\">\n<div>\n<p style=\"text-align:start\"><span>Kvaratskhelia might have made a fairly quiet start to the new season after missing out on World Cup qualification, but <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goal.com\/en\/lists\/khvicha-kvaratskhelia-champions-league-mvp-psg--ballon-dor-favourites-missing-world-cup\/blt89d28bf4d3510733\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-affiliate-type=\"NONE\"><span>his individual exploits throughout PSG&#8217;s 2025-26 Champions League campaign<\/span><\/a><span> could well be recognised next month, with the 2026 Ballon d&#8217;Or ceremony now looming large.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:start\"><span>No player was directly involved in more goals in last season&#8217;s competition than Kvaratskhelia (17), who scored 10 himself, including seven in the knockout stage alone, which feels hugely significant in terms of how his achievements should be judged.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:start\"><span>The Georgian was absolutely outstanding in both legs of the 8-2 demolition of Chelsea in the last 16 and in the quarter-final win over Liverpool at Parc des Princes, but it was arguably only after the epic 5-4 semi-final first-leg win over Bayern Munich that Kvaratskhelia established himself as one of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goal.com\/en-gb\/lists\/ballon-dor-2026-power-rankings\/blte900f51820beae01\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-affiliate-type=\"NONE\"><span>the leading contenders to win this year&#8217;s Ballon d&#8217;Or<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:start\"><span>Inevitably, he made a telling contribution in the final, too, drawing a rash challenge from Arsenal&#8217;s makeshift right-back Cristhian Mosquera to earn the penalty that yielded a crucial equaliser before PSG triumphed on penalties. He was predictably crowned Player of the Year for the 2025-26 edition of the competition.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:start\"><span>Having been named on the 30-player shortlist for football&#8217;s most prestigious individual honour, Kvaratskhelia told the <\/span><i><em>BBC<\/em><\/i><span>: &#8220;To be a Ballon d&#8217;Or contender, it&#8217;s already a pleasure to be among these players in the race. I feel already that I did something special in the last year, I&#8217;m really happy and let&#8217;s see what&#8217;s going to happen.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:start\"><span>Typically humble, &#8216;Kvaradona&#8217; has actually backed his PSG team-mate Ousmane Dembele to retain the award. &#8220;Of course it&#8217;s him (Dembele), the season he had last year, he deserves it,&#8221; he added.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kvaratskhelia might have made a fairly quiet start to the new season after missing out&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"two_page_speed":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/16-9201.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}