Kvicha Kvaratskhelia has just won the Champions League title for the 2nd consecutive time with PSG. Last season, he came to the French team in the middle of the season, so he did not really explode. However, when he was prepared from the beginning of the season and reached his peak performance, the 25-year-old Georgian star had the best performance ever.
In the 2025-2026 Champions League, Kvara has 10 goals and 6 assists after 16 matches. He is the player who holds the record for the most goals and assists in the knockout round in Champions League history. This is also the 2nd consecutive season that a PSG player has received this individual title, after Ousmane Dembele last season.
The UEFA Champions League Player of the Season award has been given since 2022 when Real Madrid won the championship and the person who received this honor was Karim Benzema. After that, Rodri (Man City) and Vinicius Jr (Real Madrid) were the next stars to be honored, corresponding to the Champions League titles of the team they are playing for.
Last season, Kvaratskhelia joined PSG from Napoli in the winter transfer window but immediately made a strong impression. He joined Ousmane Dembele and Desire Doue to become the strongest attacking trio in Europe. This season, when Dembele had many periods of decline in form in the Champions League, Kvara stood up to lead the attack of the French champions.
In the Champions League final against Arsenal, it was the Georgian striker who brought home a very valuable penalty when PSG was completely deadlocked against the opponent's deep defense. That was when PSG was led in the first half very early and faced the possibility of not scoring a goal. That moment helped PSG equalize the score, pull the opponent to a penalty shootout and win.
Last season, the Champions League replaced the "Young Player of the Season" award with "Discovery of the Season". This is an award to honor young players with breakthrough contributions. The person named in the recent campaign was Arda Guler of Real Madrid. The most notable moment of the Turkish midfielder was his shot from near midfield straight into Bayern Munich's net in the quarter-finals. In 14 Champions League matches, Guler has had 4 assists and scored 2 goals, both goals were scored in the second quarter-final match against Bayern.
Along with the best player of the season award, this award was also awarded 4 seasons ago. The previous young stars honored were Vinicius Jr, Kvaratskhelia, Jude Bellingham and Desire Doue.
With good results and reaching the final, both PSG and Arsenal contributed many names to the list of typical teams of the Champions League this season. Only 3 players in the 4-4-2 formation do not belong to the final teams: Marcos Llorente (Atletico Madrid), Michael Olise and Harry Kane (Bayern Munich).
Champions League Team of the Year 2025-2026
David Raya (Arsenal)
Defenders: Marcos Llorente (Atletico Madrid), Marquinhos (PSG), Gabriel (Arsenal), Nuno Mendes (PSG)
Midfielders: Michael Olise (Bayern Munich), Declan Rice (Arsenal), Vitinha (Paris Saint-Germain), Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (PSG)
Strikers: Ousmane Dembele (PSG), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich)
