As Luis Enrique's PSG bid to defend their Champions League crown, European football expert Guillem Balague explores the club's transformation.
As Luis Enrique's PSG bid to defend their Champions League crown, European football expert Guillem Balague explores the club's transformation.
Back in 2011 Qatar Sports Investments were deep in negotiation for the sleeping giant that was Paris St-Germain.
PSG had finished 13th in Ligue 1 the previous season and Nasser Al-Khelaifi, leading the negotiations for QSI, regularly checked the results because there was a fear they could end up buying a second division club.
The Parisians survived and the deal went through, although the club bore almost no resemblance to the modern European contender people know today.
Over the next decade and a half, PSG would undergo one of the most dramatic cultural rebuilds in modern football. Money was about to be spent, stars were going to arrive, but the deep transformation was about reshaping their identity.
The journey unfolded in phases - each necessary, each flawed in its own way, but at the same time each contributing to the club PSG eventually became. The club who will bid to defend their Champions League title against Arsenal on Saturday.
In 2011, PSG were a paradox: a major European capital with a vast talent pool, yet a club lacking structure, prestige and stability.
They had no stars, no sustainable model and no clear footballing philosophy.
Despite having had big names like Ronaldinho, Pauleta, Ludovic Giuly and Claude Makelele in the first decade of the 21st Century, PSG needed to be seen in the eyes of the football world as relevant and credible before they could even dream of competing with Europe's elite.
The ultras were banned after violence ended in the death of a fan, leaving the Parc des Princes without its most passionate supporters for the first five years of the new era. They only came back in 2016 when Al-Khelaifi decided the majority could not be held responsible for the actions of a few.
Averytin News Soccer update.