Leeds United missed out on the chance to bring Napoli sensation Kvicha Kvaratskhelia to the Premier League before he took Serie A by storm, legendary Georgian international Shota Averladze tells De Telegraaf.
Every club has their own story of ‘one that got away’.
Michael Essien and Burnley. Cristiano Ronaldo and Arsenal. Luis Diaz and Everton. And missing out on Kvaratskhelia, one of 2022/23’s breakthrough stars, could be Leeds’ very own ‘what if’ moment, with the Napoli winger taking his street footballer’s skillset onto the biggest of stages.
They don’t call him ‘Kvaradona’ for nothing.
“Is Kvaratskhelia a surprise? For those who didn’t know him, we were already following him when I was at Napoli,” former Partenopei boss Carlo Ancelotti said this week. “He is a special player.”
You can say that again. Five goals and three assists from just 10 games is a remarkable return for a man who, having spent last term in Russia and back home in Georgia, was a million miles away from a household name when he replaced the legendary Lorenzo Insigne at Napoli over the summer.
Kvicha Kvaratskhelia could have joined Leeds United
The surprise Serie A pacesetters paid just £9 million. A fee that, according to Kvaratskhelia’s former Lokomotiv Moscow coach Yuri Semin, could increase ten-fold if he continues to run rings around Italian football in Napoli blue.
“Khvich is comparable in talent to (former Russia and Arsenal ace Andriy) Arshavin. Such masters of football can be counted on your fingers. He can cost even 100 million,” Semin says, via Championat.
This is not to say Kvaratskhelia has come completely out the blue, of course. Plenty of clubs were keeping tabs on him before Napoli made their move, with Tottenham Hotspur, AC Milan and Juventus among them.
“Khvicha has class. He is strong and a complete player. The special thing is that he is good in small and large spaces,” says the recently-departed Hull City boss Averladze, claiming that Leeds, Lazio, Atletico Madrid and even Ajax missed out on his elastic-limbed compatriot.
“He can read the game, and he’s a killer. He gets on the ball and kills it. Ajax wanted him in January, but the asking price was 15 million euros and their offer was only nine. Napoli then bought him for ten million euros. Sometimes it goes like this.”
Kvaratskhelia held talks with Leeds during the summer of 2021, when he was still a Rubin Kazan player. The 21-year-old admitted as such at the time.
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