Barcelona already have the most fearsome attacking quartet in world football, as Hansi Flick has turned Lamine Yamal, Raphinha, Robert Lewandowski, and Dani Olmo into a multi-faceted machine capable of averaging well over three goals per game in any competition.
Flick has brought Lewandowski back to his status as being world football’s finest goal-scoring machine – sorry, Erling Haaland – and he has gotten much more out of Raphinha and Olmo than any manager who had ever coached either before.
And Yamal? Well, he didn’t really have to do anything with him, but it also feels like the teenage sensation has more freedom to be himself and pull the strings as a wide creator under the German manager.
Despite the embarrassment of riches in the attack, Barcelona are still looking to make that big splash in 2025 that they had been eying coming into the season when they were less certain about their attacking quality in juxtaposition to a Kylian Mbappe-reinforced Real Madrid.
Barcelona have blown Real Madrid’s offense out of the water, but Joan Laporta is still fixated on Rafael Leao as a right-footed left wing option while the club remain heavily linked to top strikers Haaland and Viktor Gyokeres as possible long-term Lewandowski replacements.
But the best possible transfer for Barcelona isn’t a striker. Nor is it Leao, though it is another world-class, right-footed left winger from a big Serie A club. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who grew up idolizing Cristiano Ronaldo and Guti and Real Madrid, is the man to help lead the next era of Barca as Europe’s main juggernaut.
Although Kvaradona was linked to Barcelona as early as last season, the rumors out of Italy are only just starting to heat up, even as it’s clear Napoli will ask for a king’s ransom in return for their most valuable player since Diego Armando Maradona, who has his own Barcelona legacy.
Make no mistake, this will always be Yamal’s team. But if Barcelona want to sign a top young player across from Yamal to dominate the next decade and if they are going to spend well over 80 million euros on someone, then they might as well go for the best guy there is.
After Vinicius Junior, Kvaratskhelia is the best left winger in world football, and he proved it in 2022/23 when he led Napoli to the Scudetto in fairytale fashion as the MVP of Serie A and the face of the team.
Kvaratskhelia was brilliant for Napoli last season, too, even without his right-hand man Victor Osimhen banging home the goals for much of the season due to injury.
Napoli struggled, but Kvara did not. And this season, Napoli are back on top of Serie A under Antonio Conte, with Kvaratskhelia bringing the same two-footed sweetness, finessed goal-scoring touch, and violently explosive playmaking and dribbling that captured the hearts of footballing romantics all the world over in 2022/23.
Barcelona love players like Kvaratskhelia who have heart, skill, end product, and that ability to transcend the game with equal parts joy and efficacy. And you know Flick would love to work with a winger who is as passionate and hard-working as he is.
Especially with Flick taking over in an all-out attacking approach where pressing, countering, and goal-scoring are king, Kvaratskhelia is an absolute dream fit on that left flank for the Blaugrana.
Leao is a monster when he’s at his best, but Kvaratskhelia is younger and more consistent. And until Lewandowski can’t do it anymore, Barcelona don’t need to throw 100 million at a striker; they can go after world football’s most romantic baller instead.
