In the summer of 2021, Paris Saint -Germain apparently had everything you needed to get the only thing that had no: a reputation as one of the top world football winners.
Her list appeared designed from a video game. Kylian Mbappe, the 22 -year -old World Cup champion from France, along with the Brazilian star Neymar, and in a breathtaking signature, Lionel Messi is considered many of the best player in the world ever. A group of three of the best goals in the world-and a overall parallel with a total salary of about $ 430 million-has become the amazing resources of the club.
Since 2011, Paris Saint -Germain has been owned by the sovereign wealth fund in Qatar, which has been spent free to create it among the most accomplished clubs in the world. Although Paris Saint -Germain routinely won the Football League in France, he never won the Champions League, the club’s annual and most famous club in Europe, and only once played for the title.
Through some standards, the range of two years Mababi, Messi and Neymar has achieved great success. The stars PSG has made more than one billion dollars in revenue, according to the club. But by leaving the Champions League in the 16th round of 2022 and 2023, and with MBAPIN, Neymar and Messi playing together in about a third of their potential games, PSG did not approach the oppression of Europe on the field.
She eventually left the three stars, and replaced them with smaller and less expensive successors. For most clubs, this had indicated the beginning of rebuilding.
Instead, just two years later, a lower version of Herld and the lowest cost than Paris Saint -Germain can win the most poisoned title that fades its ancestors in the starring role when it plays the role of Internazionale of Milan in the Champions League final in Munich.
The Champions League Cup will be noticeable not only for Paris Saint -Germain, one of the most prominent clubs that did not win the championship. Only one team won from France, and that was 32 years ago.
Ruby Mustto, NBC sports analyst, a former English Premier League player, said that PSG enters as a favorite because he is under the leadership of director Luis Enrique, he no longer works as a stars system but as one team.
“There is a lot of evidence that the presence of players in a team in a team does not make a team, and that Paris Saint -Germain is a great example with Neymar, Lionel Messi, Mbappery and everyone else there is there.” “It takes a comprehensive team, and you cannot really have more passengers now. What I mean is the players who run the ball when there is no ball.
“PSG is a great example of this, as they changed the manager, and they are clearly getting rid of all the players of the stars, they were younger, and they went on.”
Even with MBAPE, he is only 22 years old in 2021, the average age in the Paris Saint -Germain list in that season 27.8 was older than his ordinary opponent, thanks to Messi, 34 years old in Neymar, 29 and 33 years old.
This season, the average age of the team is 25 years old, younger than two years than its ordinary opponent, a reflection of the Paris Saint-Germain decision after the 2023 season “to completely change its strategy”, Alice Levber, a correspondent for Agence France-Presse covering Paris Saint-Germain, by e-mail.
“The club administration has stopped obsession with the Champions League, as they did so far, and they officially mentioned that they are giving themselves time to build a project about young players and youth coming through the Parisian training program.” “With the progress of the season, despite some internal tensions between a few players and Luis Enrique at the beginning of the season, a new spirit began to permeate the team. Everyone plays for everyone, and everyone presses the ball, just as the coach wants.”
Enrique and sports director Luis Campus employed younger players, including French winger Diseri Doui, 20, a star of the team paid $ 54 million to gain last summer, Joao Nevis and Willian Basho. The oldest pillar is the 31 -year -old Brazilian defense Marcinus. The majority of the team either in Primah, like the top scorer of Osman Dembele’s top scorer, or enters him, such as Bradley Barcola, who is 22 years old, who Enrique called “the best passers -by in Lego 1; he is one of the best criminals in Europe.” The arrival in January from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia from Italy strengthened Paris Saint -Germain’s ability to attack.
All her weaving together is Enrique, who used to high -level jobs, highly pressure before, after he managed to Barcelona in the Champions League title, then trained the Spanish national team. When Paris Saint -Germain rented him in 2023 after he left Messi and Neymar was in the exit phase, Enrique arrived with a particular project, as Levber wrote, from obtaining young players who defend and attack in complete harmony. In the European Champions League, PSG has the highest highest traffic and the third highest accuracy The percentage of possession.
“As long as Luis Enrique here, the strategy will remain one of the youths instead of stars,” Levber wrote.
Enrique has also been assigned to fix a change in the situation. The team will not be built on the potential brilliance of three players, but on every 11 players.
“The Paris Saint -Germain player must get used to starting, get out of the bench, or even not be called,” Enrique told reporters in the Champions League race. “We make sure that every player comes 100 % and gives everything to him.”
Perhaps the best coach’s work was to persuade the best professional season outside Dembele, whose potential was always clear. Barcelona Dembele signed in 2017 with ambitions to become a successor to his outgoing star Neymar. Instead, during six inconsistent seasons combined, he scored 24 goals and helped 34 goals.
When PSG needed to replace Neymar in 2023, her hopes were placed on Dembélé as well. This season, Dembele II in Paris Saint -Germain scored 21 goals during the local season and eight in 14 Champions League matches, and added 10 decisive passes between the two.
Dembele said that Enrique’s training simulated Dembele’s role early in his career in clubs in France and Germany, which allowed “more freedom to go everywhere on the field.” this week.
He said, “I have my pregnancy,” I just try to create a space and cause a little chaos in the midfield. This has been guess so far. “
For its past, Paris Saint -Germain was affected by its salaries this season to 220 million dollars, a number that is still larger than the three teams spent by the highlands in Upper France combined and that will occupy the second place in the Premier League in England, the richest local Sachs in the world.
What is different is that Paris Saint -Germain can have a cup to show all this spending. “While the PSG teams were not precedent” to suffer, “said Mustoe, a word of tannah in world football, with a loose definition of the team’s ability to withstand its struggles – this year,” They have a team that suffers from a tremendous capacity. “
PSG has proven this during the Champions League knockout phase, when Advanceing depends on the overall result of two games. Paris Saint -Germain lost in round 16 against Liverpool at home, then he detained a company to beat the road on penalties and progress. After beating Aston Villa in the quarter -finals, he won again on the road to open the semi -finals against Arsenal, then advanced to the second Champions League final only by beating home on May 7.
“If we want to analyze everything that happened in the UEFA Champions League this season, I think it will make a wonderful movie, a horror movie or even a very good series, because he had a little of everything,” which managed to Barcelona, in the Champions League title a decade ago,, He said this week.
“I think we should be proud of what we have achieved. However, we have to end the task because what we really aim is to make history.”
