{"id":62956,"date":"2026-10-05T13:29:39","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T09:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whatabout.live\/?p=62956"},"modified":"2026-10-17T14:36:27","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T10:36:27","slug":"why-kvara-can-win-the-ballon-dor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatabout.live\/ka\/why-kvara-can-win-the-ballon-dor\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Kvara Can Win the Ballon d&#8217;Or"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-lfile-container=\"6f58c548-4ea4-407b-b399-363f0b6e7b99\" data-pm-slice=\"1 1 []\"><em>Two Champions League titles in two seasons. The best player in Europe&#8217;s biggest competition. And a whole nation behind him. On October 26, the world finds out whether Khvicha Kvaratskhelia becomes the first Georgian to lift the Ballon d&#8217;Or.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The 2026 Ballon d&#8217;Or ceremony takes place on Monday, October 26 at the London Palladium. Thirty men are on the shortlist, and one of them is ours. Kvara has earned his place among Mbapp\u00e9, Haaland, Yamal and Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 not with hype, but with the season of his life<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>He was the best player in the best competition.<\/strong> The Ballon d&#8217;Or rewards individual brilliance and big trophies. Kvara has both: the Champions League and its Player of the Season award.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Back-to-back European champion.<\/strong> Since arriving in Paris in January 2025, he has won the Champions League twice. Few players on the shortlist can say that.<\/li>\n<li><strong>He shows up in the biggest games.<\/strong> Two goals against Bayern in the semi-final. The decisive foul won in the final. Big nights are where Ballon d&#8217;Or votes are made.<\/li>\n<li><strong>He makes football exciting.<\/strong> Dribbling, speed and fearless one-on-ones. Voters are journalists and fans of the game, and Kvara is the kind of player people pay to watch.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id=\"standing-out-in-a-stacked-field\">Standing out in a stacked field<\/h2>\n<p>The competition is fierce: Mbapp\u00e9, Haaland, Kane, Yamal, Vin\u00edcius, and his PSG teammates Demb\u00e9l\u00e9, Vitinha and Hakimi. Kvara is also the only nominee who did not play at the 2026 World Cup, because Georgia didn&#8217;t qualify.<\/p>\n<p>The critics see that as a weakness. We see it as proof. Kvara made the shortlist on club football alone, and he still stands next to the biggest names in the sport. The last player to be nominated without a World Cup was Samuel Eto&#8217;o in 2006. Unlike Eto&#8217;o, Kvara brings the Champions League Player of the Season award with him.<\/p>\n<p>The World Cup lasts a month. Kvara was brilliant for a whole season.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"a-golden-ball-for-georgia\">A golden ball for Georgia<\/h2>\n<p>No Georgian has ever won the Ballon d&#8217;Or. A country of under four million people now has a player that the whole football world is talking about. For every kid kicking a ball in Tbilisi, Batumi or Kutaisi, Kvara already proves that the top of world football is within reach.<\/p>\n<p>On October 26, all of Georgia will be watching London. Whatever the result, one thing is already true: Kvara belongs among the very best. And this year, he has every reason to believe the golden ball could be his.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u10d9\u10d5\u10d0\u10e0\u10d0, \u10e7\u10d5\u10d4\u10da\u10d0 \u10e8\u10d4\u10dc\u10d7\u10d0\u10dc \u10d5\u10d0\u10e0\u10d7!<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two Champions League titles in two seasons. The best player in Europe&#8217;s biggest competition. And a whole nation behind him. On October 26, the world finds out whether Khvicha Kvaratskhelia [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62957,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatabout.live\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatabout.live\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatabout.live\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatabout.live\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatabout.live\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62956"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/whatabout.live\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62959,"href":"https:\/\/whatabout.live\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62956\/revisions\/62959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatabout.live\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatabout.live\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatabout.live\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatabout.live\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}