Say what you want about Victor Orta – Leeds United’s ever-divisive former director of football – when he got it right, he tended to get it very, very right.
While relatively few of Orta’s signings at Elland Road could be considered unqualified successes – the likes of Jay-Roy Grot and Ouasim Buoy will not be remembered with a great deal of fondness, if at all – the-now Sevilla chief did unearth the occasional diamond amongst a treasure trove of fools’ gold.
Raphinha, a revelation during his two years at Leeds United, can genuinely lay a claim to be world football’s most in-form winger at present.
Raphinha captained Barcelona to a 5-2 victory over Real Madrid in the Spanish Supercopa over the weekend, while taking his tally to a career-best 20 goals in just 28 appearances.
If Orta had his way, West Yorkshire would have been home to Cody Gakpo and Josko Gvardiol as well, to name but two. And then there is Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.
A player who, when he held talks with Leeds back in 2021, would have had the nonplused supporters copying and pasting his name into the Wikipedia search bar and wondering just who on earth this little-known winger was.
Leeds United could have signed Khvicha Kvaratskhelia before Napoli
“Negotiations with Leeds? Yes, they have been conducted and may resume,” Kvaratskhelia said back in 2021.
At the time, the Georgia international was plying his trade in Russia with Rubin Kazan.
Three-and-a-half years later, while Gakpo shines at Liverpool, while Gvardiol became a Premier League champion at Manchester City, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is now set to fill a Kylian Mbappe-shaped hole in the Paris Saint-Germain frontline.
The Ligue 1 giants are expected to stump up just shy of £60 million.
“The salary that Kvaratskhelia will receive at Paris Saint-Germain is a very big salary,” Romano explains when asked how PSG managed to fight off competition from the likes of Liverpool and Chelsea.
“My personal opinion, well-deserved because he was on a very small salary at Napoli and he wanted to have an important contract.”
“[The Premier League giants] were well informed on the decision.”
Victor Orta spotted PSG-bound Kvaratskhelia in Russia
Now, Leeds United are not the only club who could accused of letting Kvaratshelia – a Serie A champion and Player of the Year at Napoli – slip through their fingers.
His agent, speaking back in 2021, confirmed that Juventus and Tottenham Hotspur had also expressed their interest, alongside more mid-ranking clubs such as Crystal Palace.
And it’s fair to say that not even the most optimistic of Napoli supporters – underwhelmed by Kvaratskhelia’s arrival at the time – expected to be mentioning the wing wonder in the same breath as the legendary Diego Maradona so soon afterwards.
Victor Orta will always be one of the more divisive figures in Leeds United’s modern history.
But while many of the underwhelming, overpriced players he did sign will always be a stick with which to beat the experienced talentspotter, Orta can hit back with the argument that it was he who woke up to Kvaratskhelia and co long before the rest of the footballing world took notice.
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