No World Cup? No problem!: Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is this season's Champions League MVP - and PSG star should be among Ballon d'Or favourites

Humble character that he is, Kvaratskhelia has actually spent more time of late championing Ousmane Dembele's Ballon d'Or bid than his own. "Ousmane is an exceptional player. We saw that again this evening," Kvaratskhelia enthused after Dembele's double in the 2-0 win over Liverpool at Anfield on April 14. "He showed why he won last year's Ballon d'Or. And he is capable of winning it multiple times."

Dembele certainly has a real shot at retaining his crown, particularly as the France forward is a certain starter for one of the favourites to win this summer's World Cup.

However, it is Kvaratskhelia who has been PSG's outstanding player so far this season - not Dembele - and the Georgian has arguably performed even more impressively during the business end of the current campaign than his team-mate did during the second half of last season.

While the Ballon d'Or now covers the entirety of the club season, it's worth remembering that, at the start of 2025, Dembele was still regarded as one of the game's great under-achievers. It was only by moving him into the middle of PSG's attack that Luis Enrique unlocked his world-class potential.

All of a sudden, Dembele went from a notoriously wasteful winger into one of the most dangerous all-round attackers in the Champions League, with the former Barcelona man playing a pivotal part in PSG's maiden Champions League win with four goals and five assists in the knockout stage.

Kvaratskhelia, by contrast, has remained in his preferred position wide on the left flank - and yet he's been central to PSG reaching a second consecutive final.

No player has been directly involved in more goals in this season's Champions League than Kvaratskhelia (16), who's scored 10 himself, including seven in the knockout stage alone.

The Georgian was absolutely outstanding in both legs of the 8-2 demolition of Chelsea in the last 16 and picked up his third consecutive Player of the Match award with another scintillating showing in the quarter-final win over Liverpool at Parc des Princes.

However, it was arguably only after the epic 5-4 win over Bayern Munich at the same venue that Kvaratskhelia established himself as one of the leading contenders to win this year's Ballon d'Or.

"Kvaratskhelia is the best player in the world and he’s only going to get better," Dutch legend Clarence Seedorf enthused on Amazon Prime after watching the 25-year-old shine brightest in a game illuminated by a plethora of superstars. "I don’t know if he will stay on the left side because he just knows what to do in every situation.

“He carries the team in certain moments, so I like his intelligence. He’s the extra man in midfield and also goes to make a difference up front. He's unbelievable."

It's been clear for some time now that Kvaratskhelia is one of the most technically gifted footballers in the game today. Napoli fans were so blown away by his dribbling skills that they were comparing him to their god, Diego Maradona, less than two months after his unheralded arrival from Dinamo Batumi in July 2022.

Luis Enrique loves the 'Kvaradona' nickname and recently admitted that he uses it himself. However, his favourite thing about the Georgian is not his skillset, but his mindset.

Kvaratskhelia has a well-earned reputation as a 'big-game player' and Luis Enrique even joked after the winger's two-goal outing against Nantes on April 22, "He got it wrong today - he thought it was the Champions League, didn't he?!"

However, while there is an undeniable perception that some PSG players save themselves for European nights, that is very much not the case with Kvaratskhelia.

"Khvicha has been at a high level all season," Luis Enrique pointed out. "And I'm not speaking about his attacking quality, because everyone already knows about that. I'm talking about his character, the way he defends, no matter the match." It wasn't always like that, though.

Kvaratskhelia has admitted himself that he neglected his defensive duties at Napoli. "Since I've been in Paris, I've improved a lot in that regard, and have also become a warrior on the pitch," he told Le Parisien earlier this season. "I always try to give 100 percent, even in defence, and the manager has helped me improve a lot in that respect."

Indeed, Kvaratskhelia has regularly been at pains to point out just how big an impact Luis Enrique has had on his development over the past 18 months.

"It was his humanity that made the biggest impression on me," Kvaratskhelia revealed in an interview with UEFA shortly after his January arrival from Napoli. "The role of the manager is incredibly important in a footballer's career. When someone comes to you calmly and explains everything, then the player tries even harder to understand and perform even better.

"Luis Enrique makes you feel, both on and off the pitch, that you have to give your all – for him, for the club, and for all the fans. He treats you with such respect and clarity."

The net result of this mutually respectful relationship between player and coach is Kvaratskhelia becoming the perfect player, a hard-working winger with ridiculously fast feet that never takes too much out of the ball, meaning he's now as industrious as he is efficient.

Essentially, when Kvaratskhelia is not beating opponents, he's constantly closing them down, making him a 90-minute nightmare for every team with the misfortune to come across him.

In an interview with GOAL, Arsenal legend Ray Parlour has already identified Kvaratskhelia as the PSG player that Mikel Arteta's men need to "worry" about most going into Saturday's Champions League final in Budapest - and with good cause.

'The Georgian George Best' is on a historically good run of form. With his brilliant assist for Dembele in the second-leg draw with Bayern at the Allianz Arena, Kvaratskhelia became the first man to register a goal involvement in seven consecutive games in the knockout stage of the Champions League.

Were he to maintain that remarkable run in Budapest, he would almost certainly move to the top of the Ballon d'Or power rankings ahead of the World Cup. Staying there without participating in the biggest competition in sport would obviously be difficult, and doubtless depend on how his main rivals fare in North America.

Since non-Europeans became eligible for the Ballon d'Or in 1995, four of the seven victors in 'World Cup years' also won the latter trophy: Zinedine Zidane (1998); Ronaldo (2002); Fabio Cannavaro (2006), and Lionel Messi (2023, due to the delayed 2022 World Cup). A fifth victor, Luka Modric, claimed the Ballon d'Or primarily due to the fact that he won the Golden Ball at Russia 2018.

Kvaratskhelia can, however, take inspiration from Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. They not only failed to win the World Cup in 2010 and 2014, respectively, they also performed poorly at the tournament in question - and yet it didn't prevent either from finishing first in the Ballon d'Or voting.

Of course, Kvaratskhelia may not have yet reached that level of play, or perhaps more importantly, popularity, but the point is that Toni Kroos could yet be proven wrong. Just because Kvaratskhelia definitely won't be a world champion this year, it doesn't necessarily mean he won't win the Ballon d'Or. With one more dazzling and decisive display in this season's Champions League, he would become the worthiest of winners.