ALT An image of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, in a red PSG kit, walking alone against the backdrop of a packed stadium. Caption: 'The long read: DRIBBLING IN THE DARK'

ALT An image of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia with the caption: "Eastern Europe once produced a kind of footballing maestro with a specific aura: Gheorghe Hagi, Dejan Savićević and Robert Prosinečki were individualists, mavericks who dictated matches on their own terms, and a far cry from the system players we’ve become accustomed to watching."

ALT "Then came Khvicha. In Moscow, alone in the dark, Kvaratskhelia found a quiet space away from the crushing micro-management of modern player development. He filled the vacuum of his isolation with endless experimentation and refinement so that when the lights came back on, his muscle memory was absolute. It’s hard not to draw a parallel between those lonely days and the streets of Tbilisi he spent his youth on. Now at Paris Saint-Germain and inarguably one of the best players in the world, Kvaratskhelia is obviously the star of Eastern Europe. But his nation, Georgia - a country of just four million - is leading the quest to preserve the maverick Eastern creator on a wider scale. Khvicha’s story is a tale of persistence and outlandish talent, but he is no glitch in the matrix; he is the natural product of a nation finally re-learning how to unleash its mercurial heart."