Somebody once told Khvicha Kvaratskhelia he played like George Best. He has clearly thought about it since, because when a BBC journalist raised it in Tbilisi this week, the Georgia captain did not brush it off the way players usually brush off comparisons to dead legends.
"Some people a long time ago told me even when I played it seems like him," he said. "I'm not sure because he was one of the best in football history and it is a pleasure and I'm proud."
Two small countries, one award
The comparison has a point beyond the dribbling. Northern Ireland are still the smallest country by population ever to produce a Ballon d'Or winner, Best having taken it in 1968 off the back of a European Cup with Manchester United. Georgia is now trying to do the same thing, and Kvaratskhelia is on the 30-man shortlist for the award that will be handed out on 26 October.
He was named Champions League player of the season in 2025-26 and has won the competition twice in a row with Paris St-Germain. That is a serious case. Whether it beats the other 29 names is another matter, and he was careful not to say it would.
"To be a Ballon d'Or contender, it's already a pleasure to be among these players in the race," he said. "I feel already that I did something special in the last year."
The line that will travel furthest is the one about the kids back home. "I'm happy that I represent Georgia, a small country. Little kids, they know that even if they are from a small country, they can achieve these things."
O'Neill has to plan for him
Northern Ireland play Georgia in Tbilisi on Friday in the Nations League, and Michael O'Neill was not born when Best won his award. He still knows what one player can do for a nation's profile.
"George Best, an iconic figure in world football and obviously we're very privileged that he came from Northern Ireland," O'Neill said. "In many ways, he puts our country on the map. I think in Georgia, you have that situation now with Kvaratskhelia who I think is a world-class player. For me he was probably the best player in the Champions League last season over the whole competition."
Then the practical bit, which is the part that will occupy his coaching staff for the next 24 hours: "We obviously have to give him special attention. It's the same when you play against any world-class player in any country that you have to be aware that he can win the game in a moment."
Sagnol's dig
Willy Sagnol, the Georgia head coach, used the same press conference to take a swing at the modern habit of players campaigning for the award. Sagnol played alongside Zinedine Zidane for France, so he has been in a dressing room with a winner.
"Too many times in the last weeks, I see players saying 'I'm the best, I'm the best, I'm the best'," he said. "Khvicha never said that and that's why I'm very proud to be his head coach."
Sagnol prefers the old arrangement, where players simply played and waited to find out at the end. He may be romanticising a period that had its own politics, but his point about his own player stands up. Kvaratskhelia has spent this week talking about Georgian children and a Northern Irishman who died in 2005, which is not how a man lobbying for votes usually spends his media duties.
Player context: Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, 25, left winger, Paris St-Germain and captain of Georgia. Named on the 30-player Ballon d'Or shortlist; the award is presented on 26 October 2026. Champions League player of the season in 2025-26, with back-to-back Champions League titles at PSG. George Best won the Ballon d'Or in 1968, making Northern Ireland the smallest country by population to produce a winner. Georgia host Northern Ireland in the Nations League on Friday 25 September. Source: BBC Sport NI, Jonathan Bradley in Tbilisi, 24 September 2026.
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