In late-September 2017, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia made his senior debut for Dinamo Tbilisi. He was just 16 years old.

A matter of months earlier, the skinny teenage winger had been awarded a national merit for his footballing promise while around the same time he signed professional forms with the Blue-White having come through their youth ranks.

Big things were expected of him. Big demands on slight shoulders.

His integration into Dinamo’s first-team squad brought media demands, nothing like of the quantity he is obliged to fulfil these days as a PSG superstar, but to a young, shy teen they were onerous enough.

One such task was to be photographed for the club’s official album and to state below the picture what his ultimate aspiration was.

In the published photo, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is smiling but his eyes give him away. He is a kid, still unsure about the world about to receive him.

Below the snap, he simply says:

“I want to make my family proud”

Two years later, the player’s father Badri got sick, a heart problem that urgently required surgery.

Kvaratskhelia is making career inroads with Rustavi at the time and is perfectly content playing his football in Georgia, surrounded by his friends and family.

But he knows what must be done. He agrees to a loan switch to Lokomotiv Moscow, acknowledging that the steep increase in his wages will pay for his father’s operation.

His dad got better and remains his biggest fan.

Next up, Rubin Kazan, then Napoli, a seismic move that propelled the talented attacker into the realms of the famous. Inspiring Gli Azzurri to two Serie A titles he is christened ‘Kvaradonna’ in reference to the incomparable Diego Armando who the city adores still.

For his sensational wing-play in Naples, Kvaratskhelia is nominated for the Ballon d’Or. He receives his second nomination at PSG, after joining them for a fee exceeding €80m at the start of 2025.

In a short period of just 21 months in Paris, he has conjured up 47 goal involvements and fired his club to a brace of league titles and consecutive Champions League triumphs.

This September he has again been short-listed for the biggest and most prestigious individual prize of them all. 

“Kvaratskhelia is the best player in the world and he’s only going to get better”

That was Dutch legend Clarence Seedorf, in his role of TV pundit, speaking last spring.

For sure, the 25-year-old has made his family proud.