Luke's Football blog

Paris Saint-Germain have been a dominant force in European football in recent years, but it hasn’t always been that way for the French club. Prior to the takeover, they were a midtable French club that hadn’t won anything notable, with Lyon and Marseille being the dominant teams in French football. All they could muster up before the takeover were three Ligue 1 titles and a bunch of Coupe de France titles, but the takeover changed that.

In 2011, PSG was taken over by a group called Qatari Sports Investments, making them one of the wealthiest teams in world football. It was led by chairman Nasser bin Ghanim Al-Khelaifi, who has been chairman since 2011. He was a former professional tennis player, playing 43 times but never reaching the heights of the sport. His plan was to take the club to the heights of French football and dominate it, which he has done, making them one of the best teams in world football.

With his lucrative spending, he has managed to lure some of the best players in the world to the Parc de France. In 2017, he paid a world record fee, which stands to this day, for Neymar from Barcelona, and in that same summer, they brought Mbappe. Those signings catapulted them to the next level, as they had a frightening attack with Cavani at the start. Then in 2021, they signed one of the best footballers to play the game with Lionel Messi, which established them as one of the best teams in world football.

The French side has been dominating their league for the past decade, but one trophy that has always escaped them is the Champions League. They have made it far in the competition many times, but they never seem to get over the final hurdle. They came the closest in 2020, when they played Bayern Munich in the final without any crowd, as we were in lockdown at that time. They didn’t end up getting the win, with their former player Kingsley Coman scoring the goal to win Bayern the Champions League, causing heartbreak for the French side.

The reason they probably haven’t won the famous trophy is because of the lack of togetherness and hard work they had, as they had a lot of individuals and not enough fight and desire, which other teams had a lot of. This is a shame, as a team that has been invested in a lot should be winning a trophy like that already.

I reckon if they work as a team and show their togetherness and talent at the same time, they could win it in the future. For this to happen, they will need to let their egos slide and focus on working as a team first. That will be difficult for them, but I reckon once they’ve done that, they will become more of a dominant force in European football.