PSG’s star winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia making case as most impactful January signing in soccer history

The common refrain around the reconstituted Paris Saint-Germain of this season is that this is a club light on superstar attacking talent. If Ousmane Dembele’s continued presence already brought questions over such an assessment, the arrival of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia belies that cozy narrative. The Georgian may lack the name recognition of past marquee additions, but in pure quality terms, he is eminently worthy of following in the Neymar, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe lineage.

He may prove to have been even more significant than those players, certainly that will be the case if he brings them their much-coveted Champions League trophy. That seems eminently plausible after Tuesday’s 1-0 win at Arsenal, and if PSG do finally achieve their raison d’être, there will be a compelling case to be made for Kvaratskhelia being the most immediately impactful January signing in history. Virgil van Dijk and Nemanja Vidic would go on to win the biggest prizes in due course. Luis Suarez and Bruno Fernandes would swiftly set their leagues ablaze. None of them quite had such a profound impact on immediate winning. 

Given the talent led by Dembele and PSG’s midfield, there is an intriguing counterfactual as to whether Luis Enrique’s side might have hit European champion level without their $90 million January addition. That is unknowable. What isn’t is that adding Kvaratskhelia to the mix has dramatically raised both the floor and ceiling at the French champions.

That much was crystal clear on Tuesday night. Throughout this season, Arsenal’s right flank has felt like an impenetrable shield wall. The best wingers in the world — not only Vinicius Junior but Savinho, Luis Diaz and even Kvaratskhelia’s PSG teammates back in October — have tried and failed to get any joy out of Jurrien Timber. Mikel Arteta might instruct his wingers to help the cause, but make no mistake, he trusts, indeed demands, that his fullbacks win their one-on-one duels. It nearly always works, but no one has given Timber a roasting like Kvaratskhelia did. 

In barely 10 minutes, it went from hurriedly scrambling to help Timber as Kvaratskhelia teed up Dembele for the opener to Arsenal having to chuck three bodies out to the right just to test the mercurial Georgian. The end result? A dancing dart between two of them, a despairing arm from the right back, and what ought to have been a penalty for PSG.

Kvaratskhelia had less success as the game continued, though the menace never truly subsided. With 80 minutes gone, a Timber and Bukayo Saka double team was still unable to stop their man dancing onto his right foot and slapping a shot at goal. They were just fortunate that, for once, Kvaratskhelia’s technique let him down. Arsenal would be well advised not to plan on that happening too often in the Parc des Princes.

This was a near evisceration by Kvaratskhelia, the sort that has been utterly normalized since he arrived in Europe’s big leagues from Batumi in the summer of 2022. When their new No. 77 arrived, the best-case scenario for Napoli looked to be a season of consolidating Champions League qualification and maybe pushing the Serie A big beasts to the final days of the season. Instead, he unlocked new possibilities for the Partenopei, a club that had for so many years been chasing the ghosts of their heyday at the end of the 1990s. Within a few games, his name was being whispered in hushed tones around Italian football circles. Months later, they were shouting it from the rooftops.

There is a reason why they were calling him Kvaradona long before he had ended the wait for Napoli’s third Scudetto. (Sidebar: without wishing to go all Sam Allardici, might Kvaratskhelia have gotten more Ballon d’Or votes in 2023, when Yassine Bounou and Emiliano Martinez outpolled by far and away the best player in Italy, if he were from a more traditional footballing nation?)

Like Diego Maradona, this is a player who gets fans on their feet whenever the ball is at his. His scything runs tend to end in staggering end product, the hammer into the roof of Emi Martinez’s net in the Champions League quarterfinal or the gorgeous chip over the Bologna backline to tee up Giovanni Di Lorenzo in the dying days of his stay in southern Italy.

Kvaratskhelia has already captured the hearts of one of Europe’s most emotive fan bases, and he seems to be well on the way to winning over another crowd. Within weeks, the Parisians were chanting to the Kvara drumbeat. In clutching him so close to their hearts, they have eased what might otherwise have been a challenging midseason move for such an esoteric talent.

 “The fact that they welcomed me into the family so quickly and that I felt really happy and comfortable really helped me find my place on the pitch, and I’m doing my best to make the most of it,” said Kvaratskhelia. “From the very first moment, I felt strong support from the fans. Then, when I stepped onto the pitch, I felt both happy and like a great footballer.”

That is what he is. When he has the ball at his feet, Kvaratskhelia might have the feel of the mercurial dribbler that was supposed to have gone the way of the dinosaur, and yet what he does without the ball speaks to the future of modern wingers. It is what separates him from the Neymars and post-prime Messis that were indulged at old PSG. On Tuesday night, he made five tackles, led his team in interceptions and recoveries and was even back getting a clearing boot on Arsenal’s dangerous deliveries into the box.

It was hard to shake the sense that if Arsenal, who have long been in the market for a new left winger, had taken the big swing on Kvaratskhelia this winter, then it might have been them who looked like the tournament’s best side come the semifinal stage. They never even got close once Napoli concluded it was time to part ways with their star man, the groundwork PSG had laid in the summer coming to fruition in a matter of hours at the midpoint of the midseason market.

That is proving to be $90 million exceedingly well spent. PSG paid superstar money, got superstar talent, and may well find before too long that they’ve finally won the trophy befitting of super teams. Without Kvaratskhelia, that might never have happened.