Unai Emery has named his winner for the 2026 Ballon d'Or, and he did it in the aftermath of the UEFA Super Cup.
Paris Saint-Germain lifted the trophy last night, beating Aston Villa 2-1 at the Red Bull Arena in Salzburg, Austria.
The PSG star, Emery reckons, is the frontrunner for the game's biggest individual prize.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia caught the eye of the Spaniard. The Georgian winger opened the scoring in the 20th minute.
"Kvaratskhelia is the leading candidate to win the Ballon d'Or in my opinion," Emery said in the press conference. "He is a wonderful player."
Villa had built a plan to blunt his threat. It didn't work. "We tried to stop him, but the quality he showed was astonishing," Emery said.