Located on one of the lush hills lined with oak and beech forests on which the peaceful Velbert rises, Georgia’s refuge in the Western Plus Park is invaded by silence. Two members of the Georgian expedition’s private security guard the access from the outside parking lot. They only have a fixed point to control while they routinely consume cigarettes with which they pretend to kill time. Leaning on a fence in front of the main entrance, a lonely fifteen-year-old girl wrapped in a Georgian flag tries unsuccessfully to convince an employee of the Georgian federation. His goal is to meet Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (23 years old). This is none other than the inveterate dribbler of Naples and great luminary of the team led by Frenchman Willy Sagnol. Carvajal will have homework 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 men had another conversation the day before the match against Portugal. This time, the French coach did touch the heart of the team’s great. Sagnol invoked the childish pleasure of playing for the sake of playing. The result was that Kvaratskhelia, in addition to his early goal, unhinged half the Portuguese team with his speed and his overflows. “Try to find what made you stand out a year ago, two years ago. Don’t think too much, just play,” Sagnol revealed on Radio Monte Carlo.
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 his fellow countryman, the equally heroic Giorgi Mamardashvili, smiled on Friday after declaring that “Kvaratskhelia is better than the whole of Spain”, he was also appealing to a childish law of football that blackboards and professionalism castrate: the best is the one who dribbles and tricks the most. Maradona was thus enthroned. 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 successfully completed the most (8).
After his display against Portugal, Kvaratskhelia has silenced the criticism. It is not the first time that she has had to win back her compatriots. Accused of being a mercenary when he signed for Russian side Lokomotiv Moscow and then for Rubin Kazan, he was once again a national symbol when Russia invaded Ukraine and returned to Georgia to play for Dinamo Batumi. Kvaradona’s nickname was earned at Naples by becoming the best dribbler in Serie A and the fourth in the five major leagues to guide the Neapolitan club to the conquest of the scudetto33 years after the last one that Maradona won. “The scudettoIt was incredible, but now, when you play for your country, it’s special,” the striker warned on Wednesday after making a comeback against Portugal.
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