The Guardian: "‘Kvaradona’ has Napoli fans daring to dream after summer of discontent"

The Napoli forward Victor Osimhen (left) congratulates his teammate Khvicha Kvaratskhelia after he opened the scoring in a 4-0 win against Monza on Sunday. The skilful Georgian winger is inviting comparisons with Diego Maradona. Photograph: Giuseppe Maffia/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

Agenda.ge, Aug 23, 2022, Tbilisi, Georgia

British daily newspapwer The Guardian has published an article about a Georgian footballer Khvicha Kvaratskhelia who plays as a winger for Serie A club Napoli and the Georgia national team, saying that "some big names are gone but the goals of Georgian winger Kvaratskhelia have helped Napoli top the early table".

The article reads that while it was difficult to pronounce Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s name in Naples, a more obvious abbreviation of 'Kvara' became adopted elsewhere, however later a new nickname has taken hold. 

From the alleys of Naples’s Spanish Quarter to the headlines of national newspapers, the Georgian was being hailed on Monday as ‘Kvaradona’", reads the article. 

The Guardian wrote that the season began with Kvaratskhelia scored Napoli’s opening goal, that helped his new club SSC Napoli win their first match of the new Serie A season last week.

Signed from Georgian club Dinamo Batumi last month, the 21-year-old made the contribution to help Napoli to a 5-2 win against Verona.

Scoring his debut goal for the team on the 37th minute through a header, Kvaratskhelia followed it up with an assist to Piotr Zieliński on the 55th, leading to the club’s match report praising his first match for the side as “impressive”.

The article also mentioned another game of Kvaratskhelia, who scored twice to lead Napoli to a 4-0 win over Monza in the second round of the Italian championship at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona again last week.

In two games, Kvaratskhelia has completed a perfect hat-trick – one goal with his head and one with either foot. Not bad for a player who arrived for a modest €10m fee", wrote The Guardian.

The article reads that the Napoli manager, Luciano Spallett believes Kvaratskhelia has "much more to show us". 

“He still has too much pressure on him,” said the manager. “As soon as he frees himself from that pressure, he will show people what a player he is. Today there were a few more times when he held up the ball and doubted himself in the one-on-one.”

Read the full article here.