🏆 Ballon d'OneFootball: A breakout MVP in 15th place ... | OneFootball

Welcome to the fourth annual edition of the Ballon d’OneFootball as we begin our countdown of the top 25 players in the world right now. Here’s an explainer how we decided on a top 25.

Here’s the list so far.

Today we have …

15th: Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Napoli and Georgia

(New entry)

The king is dead. Long live the king.

After more than 30 years without a championship, Napoli shocked the Italian public by breezing to the Scudetto in 2022/23 – the only time they’ve ever won it without Diego Maradona in the side.

The impact of last summer’s signing Kvaratskhelia was akin to that of the iconic Argentine in ending that drought.

It wasn’t just because of the difficulty of pronouncing his surname that fans quickly took him to their hearts and bestowed the ‘Kvaradona’ nickname upon the devastating winger.

‘Kvaravaggio’ was another loving moniker bestowed upon him by his adoring public, an ode to the kind of artistry he can produce on his own canvas.

Any right-back who faced him last season will be thankful of a summer to recover – so much did he torment them, twisting and turning opposing defenders in all directions with his lightning fast footwork which captured the attention of everyone across Europe.

“Gorgeous. Magnificent. Delightful,” was how his coach Luciano Spalletti responded when asked to describe him and all of those adjectives are accurate.

Kvaratskhelia is a throwback attacker which we don’t see enough of anymore – a player whose first thought is always to attack, to torment his marker (or markers such was the case later in the season when he frequently found himself doubled up on) and try to create chances at every opportunity in the most direct way possible.

When he did carve out those openings, both for himself and others (particularly partner in crime Victor Osimhen), the results were devastating.

The Georgian ended the campaign with 14 goals and the same number of assists across Serie A and the Champions League.

His 76 successful dribbles were bettered only by Rafael Leão, while his 70 attempts and 50 chances created were both a league high.

It was no surprise to anyone when he deservedly scooped Serie A’s Most Valuable Player award.

He became the first player since Diego with Werder Bremen 16 years ago to register double figures for goals and assists in his debut campaign in one of Europe’s top five leagues and was the second youngest player to achieve the feat last season after Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka.

That’s a point worth emphasising.

So seamless was his adaptation to life in the high-pressure environment that is Naples and so supremely assured were his performances that it became easy to forget that he wasn’t a veteran presence but rather a player who was still just 21 at the start of this year.

The best is yet to come. Long live the king.

Click here for every player named so far and their profiles.