The thing that changes from the past is (now) I think of a team, I don’t think of a player.”
Hugo Coll, PSG fan on the evolution of the club’s philosophy
Add to them the wizardry of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and the quick feet of Désiré Doué, and there is the sense that, for the first time in a long time, PSG is not reliant on a very small number of superstar players who may have felt they were bigger than the club.
In fact, with one of the lowest average ages in the whole of the Champions League, Paris Saint-Germain this season has become a team known for its young, hardworking and likeable core group of players – Vitinha, Nuno Mendes, João Neves, Barcola and Doué have all garnered plaudits.
“The thing that changes from the past is (now) I think of a team, I don’t think of a player,” says Coll. “It’s a team that we’ve grown to love.”
“That’s why I love and we love PSG this season,” agrees Messina. “Because it reminds us a little bit of … not the old football but, you know, a big collective. They want to fight for the jersey.”
Changing priorities
The elephant in the room with PSG, of course, is its ownership. The club is owned by Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), an investment fund backed by the Qatari government.
Over the last three decades, Qatar has built its visibility and profile in the West through a number of sporting ventures, including the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the Qatar Tennis Open and the purchase of PSG in 2011. Critics have condemned QSI’s actions as nothing more than an attempt to “sportswash” the nation’s poor human rights record.
Al-Khelaifi has repeatedly rejected such accusations and said that QSI operates simply to make money from its investments.
“We are an investment fund. We bought the club for €70 million. We have since received offers in the multi-billions,” he told BBC Sport in 2022. “This is the brand we built as a real investment – across men’s and women’s teams. People criticize because it is sovereign wealth.
“What about other forms of ownership – is the private equity takeover of sport about social good? What about clubs leveraged to the sky by private individuals – is that good? Barcelona is a fan-owned club with €1.5 billion debt – does that work?”
In that sense, despite not achieving Al-Khelaifi’s stated aim of winning the Champions League within five seasons of the takeover, can it really be said that QSI’s project with PSG has failed?
“They definitely achieved their objective of building a brand,” says Coll. “PSG 15 years ago and PSG now is completely different. I think they’ve been very successful in this marketing aspect. I see people in the street wearing PSG clothes and they don’t really care about the club, it’s just what they like to wear. People know PSG all around the world.
“The sporting aspect of recruiting Messi, for example, I don’t think was the right one,” he adds. “But to think that Messi played for PSG, it just gives you something else.”
Nonetheless, there is the sense that this phase of the project has run its course, that PSG is not going to get any more famous. What the club needs now is to be liked – not just by fans like Coll and Messina who have finally found a group of players they can get behind, but by those in the wider soccer sphere.
One way the club has begun to achieve that, according to French soccer expert Jonathan Johnson, is by finally starting to lean more on its French contingent.
“Certainly, for other fan bases in France, they’re a bit more likeable,” he told CNN Sports. “I think the fact that the team is starting to be composed of quite a high number of domestic talents – which isn’t something that’s always been the case under the Qatari ownership – I think that’s something that helps their popularity a little bit within France.”
With French soccer already in financial turmoil and facing another potential crisis after talks over a Ligue 1 TV rights deal broke down again in April, even some fans of PSG’s bitter rival Olympique de Marseille (OM) have gotten behind Les Parisiens.
“Obviously, Marseille fans are not going to become PSG supporters overnight,” says Johnson. “But fairly prominent and high-profile OM supporters have issued their public support of PSG, wanting to see PSG succeed (in the Champions League) for the best for the young (players) and French football.”
But admiration and respect from fans of other French teams is only ever going to be begrudging at most. How can the club improve its image around the world, where international fans are less concerned with local rivalries?
Well, the thing about soccer, which is perhaps one of the reasons it has proven so attractive to nation states trying to exert soft power, is that there is one surefire way to improve your reputation: win.
Crunch time
Winning is so important, says Johnson, that PSG’s improved image could be under threat should it lose in Munich.
“It’s a critical juncture in terms of these changing attitudes towards PSG because I think if PSG do manage to succeed then I think that change of perception is more likely to remain than should PSG fall short against Inter,” he explains.
Should PSG win, though, this young team would go down in history as the first ever to bring the Champions League to Paris, and only the second to bring it to France, following Marseille’s triumph in 1993.
“I’m pretty confident in the team and I will dare to dream that we can win this trophy,” says Messina. “Me and Hugo, we’ve seen a lot, we’ve cried a lot, we’ve enjoyed a lot. And now we can potentially celebrate something together.”
If PSG is to make history and beat Inter on Saturday, the transformation from spoiled superstars to a likeable collective will have an ending that the club’s ownership has been dreaming of, and there will likely be even more fans joining Coll and Messina next season.
The post From spoiled superstars to hunger and hard work: How PSG changed its image appeared first on CNN.
