End in sight for PSG on quest for its holy grail

It has taken almost 15 years of huge spending by its Qatari owners, and an overdue shift away from signing glamorous superstars, but Paris Saint-Germain goes into Saturday's Champions League final against Inter Milan as favorite to finally win the coveted trophy for the first time.

A club that, for years, made a habit of collapsing in spectacular fashion in big Champions League games has been transformed this season as a thrilling young team, brilliantly coached by Luis Enrique, that has taken the continent by storm.

Once, it might have been ridiculed by fans around Europe who dismiss its domestic dominance due to the huge financial advantage it enjoys — PSG has just won its 11th Ligue 1 title in 13 years and eighth French Cup in a decade.

Now, however, it draws admiration from rivals. "This is the most complete team we have faced," said Arne Slot, whose Liverpool team lost to PSG in the last 16 in March.

The Parisian bid to dominate Europe began in 2011, when Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) bought a club in dire straits.

Its investment immediately catapulted PSG into the top-10 wealthiest clubs in Europe, and its rise since has been stratospheric.

More than two billion euros ($2.28 billion) has been spent on transfers, and, by last year, PSG's annual revenue of over 800 million euros had made it the third-richest club in the world behind only Real Madrid and Manchester City, according to analyst Deloitte.

City and Madrid are, respectively, the last two winners of the Champions League, while PSG's only previous appearance in the final came in 2020, when it lost to Bayern Munich behind closed doors in Lisbon during the Covid-19 pandemic.

PSG's Qatari president Nasser Al-Khelaifi had initially said the plan was to win the Champions League within five years of buying the club.

That didn't happen, while signing both Neymar, for a world-record 222 million euros, and Kylian Mbappe in 2017 was also not enough to deliver Europe's biggest prize.

Indeed, PSG even seemed to go backwards after signing Lionel Messi in 2021.

Change of approach

"It is a trophy the club has been waiting a long time for, but it is very difficult to win," insisted Pedro Miguel Pauleta, a former PSG star striker from the early 2000s.

The genesis of their current success goes back to 2023, with the departure of the chronically-unfit Neymar and the aging and unmotivated Messi.

That was the summer Enrique arrived, replacing Christophe Galtier to become the eighth coach of the Qatar era.

With its all-time record scorer Mbappe spearheading the attack, PSG got to last season's Champions League semifinals, losing to Borussia Dortmund.

By then, Mbappe had made it clear he would be leaving, yet Enrique kept insisting his team would be better without the France superstar.

"Last season, we were also a proper team. I said we were going to improve the side. Players came in, and all the stats say we are a better team now," the Spaniard said last week.

Hungry young team

The former Barcelona boss needed a young, energetic and hungry squad to make a success of his preferred style of soccer, and the club has recruited some of the world's most exciting young players.

Centerback Willian Pacho, midfielder Joao Neves, and wingers Bradley Barcola and Desire Doue have been outstanding additions.

Ousmane Dembele has been turned by Enrique into a clinical finisher who has 33 goals this season.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia joined from Napoli in January for good measure, and the oldest player in the squad now is Marquinhos, at 31.

"We have the players to win the Champions League this year, next year, or in eight years. We have the base upon which to build a great team for the future," Al-Khelaifi said in a recent interview with German media.

"The new star at Paris Saint-Germain is the team, and I am really proud of the way in which we have transformed the philosophy of the club in such a short space of time."

In fact, it could be said that the new star is the coach, so it is over to him to deliver in Munich.

"We began preparing for this when we started preseason training. It was in the minds of everyone at the club from then," Enrique said last weekend.

"It is a game we have had marked in the calendar. We are coming into it in very good shape, full of confidence, and we are determined to make history for the club."

AFP