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Not as flamboyant or colourful as Maradona, the 22-year-old from the Georgian town of Batumi on the edge of the Black Sea, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia has steered them to the brink of their first league title since the heyday of the Argentine. On him hinges Napoli’s hopes of overturning the 1-0 deficit they incurred last week against AC Milan in the Champions League.
The touch and nutmeg 🥵#UCL pic.twitter.com/AnPKsNHcVa
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) April 17, 2023
No match in Italian football is ridden with as many undercurrents as the one between Napoli and AC Milan. The romantics and the trophy guzzlers (once), the elite and upstart. It required the unconquerable genius of Diego Maradona to stop Milan once, and it has taken the ingenuity of Kvaratskhelia to knock them off their perch this season.
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Kvaratskhelia and Maradona are vastly different players, in style, position and stature. Maradona was a classical No 10, though his flexibility was such that he could easily slip into various roles. Kvaradona is winger-forward, difficult to pin him down structurally. He transcends systems and formations, is technically gifted, and fuses vision with blinding pace. That he has not been nurtured by the typical youth systems of Europe makes him unpredictable and devastating. Like Maradona, he is an instinctive player. Every game there would be a moment when he tears the script and does something unthinkable, inconceivable that freezes the opposition. The manager Luciano Spalletti lets him be, even if the move comes to nothing. A concession for a genius.
But their influence has been similar in lifting the mood and fortunes of the club. The Georgian has scored 14 times and assisted in 16 goals in 34 games in all competitions. But how he, a hybrid-playmaker winger, slipped through the radar of Europe’s richest clubs and smartest scouts, is a mystery.
"It's fantastic the way he plays. He got creativity and power and speed…"@delpieroale explains why Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is so important to Napoli. 🔵 pic.twitter.com/TUW9YHZKAE
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) April 11, 2023
Napoli signed him for a mere 10 million pounds from Georgian club Dinamo Matumi. Then, how Napoli are topping the table is baffling.
This summer, against the wishes of the fans, they shipped out their best and loved players. Napoli is a sentimental club, investing emotionally in the players they like (and making their bitterness evident to those they don’t). But cutting the chord of nostalgia was the first step in their reboot. Dries Meretens, 34, wanted to end his career at the club, but was refused an extension.
So it naturally angered the fans, especially the ultras, when they decided to sell Lorenzo Insigne, Kalidou Koulibaly, Mertens and Fabian Ruiz — the captain, vice-captain, their highest-ever goalscorer and their midfield general, jettisoned not because their eccentric coach Luciano Spalletti wanted a churn to rebuild the side but because the club wanted to make a quick buck before their contracts expired. Beneath what could be perceived as madness was a method — three of them were in their 30s, injury-prone and nearly past their prime, Ruiz, 26, had just one year left in his contract.
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But the bitterness lingered more so after the club had finished third last season, after their season of rejuvenation under Spalletti, their third manager in four years.
They shipped in a bunch of then-unknowns in bargain deals. Their net profit in the transfer window was 13 million pounds, in a milieu where clubs are coughing up billions to buy superstars.
Substance over stardom
In the last few years, they have purchased bargain buys like the dynamic Nigeria striker Victor Osimhen (25 goals and five assists in 30 games), aggressively wooed by Europe’s giants, South Korea international Kim Min-jae, Uruguayan defender Mathías Olivera, Macedonian midfielder Eljif Elmas, Mexican attacker Chucky Lozano, Tottenham discard Tanguy Ndombele on loan, Giovanni Simeone and Giacomo Raspadori. Apart from Osimhen none are world-beaters — they are more than the sum of the parts.
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The agony of the supporters soon turned to joy. Spalletti’s men started playing the most attractive football in the country, the essence of it Spalletti describing as “beautiful rejection of structured football.” His teams are loosely shaped in attacking 4-3-3, though it assumes different shapes throughout a game.
“Systems no longer exist in football, it’s all about the spaces left by the opposition. You must be quick to spot them and know the right moment to strike, have the courage to start the move even when pressed,” he once explained the crux of his philosophy.
Napoli have lost just three matches, and 30 games on, they sit 14 points above second-placed Lazio.
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Their success spreads beyond Italy. They grabbed full points in all but one of their six UEFA Champions League games, topping a group that included Liverpool (whom they hammered 4-1), Ajax and Rangers, which is clearly a better indication of their progress.
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Their foundations are strong, the structure is robust, and if they manage to stave off advances from richer European clubs vying for new talents, they could enjoy a golden spell in both the country and the continent. It could, in turn, rejuvenate Serie A from the clutches of mediocrity, and restore the lost glory of the league. Europe has missed an Italian powerhouse since the slide of AC Milan in the late Aughts. Juventus shone but sporadically, but Italian clubs had long lost their fear and aura. Napoli and Kvaradonacould change that.
