MANCHESTER, England (AP) — After going back-to-back in the Champions League, the next target for Paris Saint-Germain is the threepeat.
The French team, built with Qatari riches and styled by a Spanish perfectionist, looks capable of setting all kinds of records in European club soccer’s biggest competition. And after triumphing 4-3 in a penalty shootout against Arsenal in Saturday’s final, there is no indication that PSG is ready to relinquish its position of dominance.
“Of course we’re going to go to the market,” president Nasser Al-Khelaifi told TNT Sports while celebrations were just getting started in the center of the field at the Puskas Arena in Budapest.
Those words will ring ominously around Europe. When Qatar-backed PSG goes to the market, it goes hard.
That was the case when signing the world’s biggest stars during its Galactico era of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Neymar, Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi. And the same is true in its current incarnation, where it has amassed a remarkable array of young talent that has swept all aside and taken a stronghold on the Champions League in a manner only bettered by Real Madrid in the modern era.
The team that started against Arsenal had an average age of 25.8 years. Ten of the starting XI was in the starting lineup that won the trophy 12 months earlier.
In other words, Spanish coach Luis Enrique has built a squad that looks capable of dominating for years to come.
“It’s whet our appetite,” said man of the match Vitinha. “You always want to win again. Never give up. Never stop. Luis Enrique is probably guilty of that and I hope that he will continue to push us so we can win more and more.”
How to make the best better
The best don’t stand still and Luis Enrique demonstrated his ruthless side when discarding goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma last year and promoting back-up Matvey Safonov as his replacement.
The 20-year-old midfielder Warren Zaire-Emery could have more of a prominent role next season and potentially break up the central trio of Fabian Ruiz, João Neves and Vitinha. Luis Enrique made a point of saying how unfortunate Zaire-Emery was not to start the final.
Perhaps a long-term successor to 32-year-old captain Marquinhos will be sought, but it is difficult to see how PSG can improve on a team that, even when it was not at its most fluid, totally dominated Arsenal.
“What they are able to do with the ball, individual actions, I haven’t seen it (before),” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said afterwards.
And while the usually lethal Ousmane Dembélé, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Désiré Doué were subdued by Arsenal’s suffocating defense, PSG still found a way through when trailing to Kai Havertz’s early goal.
Its incessant pressure paid off when Kvaratskhelia’s dribbling forced Cristhian Mosquera into a rash challenge in the box to concede the penalty that Dembélé converted to take the game to extra time.
As mesmerizing as PSG’s attacking talent is, maybe a more consistent back-up to Dembélé than Goncalo Ramos would add depth. Bradley Barcola still has room to improve as demonstrated by his errant touch when given the chance to score a late winner at the end of regulation time.
Only the best will do
“We are going to follow the same line. We do not need a lot of players because it is very difficult to find the right players to play in our team,” Luis Enrique said. “We already have a great squad and we need some players to change some different positions. But we are the champions of Europe the last two years.”
It is an important point. Not only is PSG the best team in Europe, but it is also unlike any other team in Europe.
Luis Enrique’s insistence on high-intensity, high-pressure soccer with electrifying forwards that dribble through defenses has created a rare blend — arguably even improving on Pep Guardiola’s two-time champion Barcelona. It has expanded on the possession soccer of Spain’s best teams with the addition of the risk-taking and attacking approach.
It is perhaps uniquely suited to such a young team and PSG’s shift away from Galactico signings has seen it become an industry leader in identifying emerging talent, albeit still at a great cost.
Doué is a two-time Champions League winner at the age of 20. João Neves is 21. Nuno Mendes is 23.
“We are really hungry. We are a young team, and we know we are really ambitious. So next season we have to go again,” said Doué.
A question of longevity
How long the players can cope with the demands of Luis Enrique and an overloaded schedule is not known.
Last year, PSG was one game away from winning a quadruple of trophies, but ran out of steam in the final of the newly expanded Club World Cup.
While it has the benefit of playing in a relatively weaker domestic league in France compared to Europe’s other top teams, the Champions League final was its 56th game of the season and came after a 65-game campaign the previous year.
Ballon d’Or winner Dembélé has not quite hit the same heights as last year. Ruiz has had an injury-disrupted campaign, which has given Zaire-Emery room to emerge. When Luis Enrique talks about the need to add to his squad, it may be in acknowledgement of the strain on his players.
PSG has the power to keep hold of its best talent
PSG is not the first team to amass such an array of young talent. Ajax, through its famed academy, has repeatedly done as much. The Monaco team of Mbappé did likewise.
Those teams were broken up when European giants came calling.
That should not be a concern for PSG, which has been owned by Qatar Sports Investments since 2011, and can withstand any approach from the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona or Manchester City. And that is what makes this team different and gives it the potential to emulate or even better Madrid’s three Champions League titles in a row from 2016-18.
“It’s normal that big clubs want PSG players because they are at the top right now,” Vitinha said. “Today we can say we are the best in the world, the best in Europe and we take a lot of pleasure being here to play in this incredible group.”
The biggest signing of all
Maybe the biggest challenge will be to keep hold of Luis Enrique, who has joined an elite group of coaches including Bob Paisley, Zinedine Zidane and Pep Guardiola by winning three European Cups.
He has done what the likes of Carlo Ancelotti, Thomas Tuchel and Mauricio Pochettino could not in Paris, by leading it to the summit of European soccer. Keeping it there may be dependent on keeping him in the French capital.
“I want to thank all the managers, ex-managers who trained Paris Saint-Germain, but he’s very, very special as a coach, as a human being, as a person,” said Al-Khelaifi. “He’s fantastic. He’s the best coach in the world.”
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James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer