The 55-Year Experiment to Turn Paris Into a Capital of Soccer

BY JOSHUA ROBINSON

Most of Europe’s biggest clubs were founded more than a century ago. But Paris Saint-Germain was a more modern invention, one designed to put the France’s capital city on the soccer map.

BParis efore Paris Saint-Germain’s players left this week for the most important match in the club’s history, they already knew what awaited them when they returned. If they become European champions on Saturday night in Munich, then by Sunday, they would be back in the French capital parading past a million people on the Champs-Elysées.

More than a cause for celebration, though, victory in the Champions League final would be the culmination of a plan to put Paris on the map as a global soccer city, 55 years after the club was founded to do precisely that.

“We have a short history,” club historian Michel Kollar says, “but a history that we respect.”

Most of Europe’s major soccer teams were founded over a century ago, by sailors, factory workers, and concerned citizens hoping to keep rowdy men out of pubs. Inter Milan, its opponent on Saturday, was founded in 1908, before the invention of the traffic light.

Paris Saint-Germain was a more modern invention, created from whole cloth by French businessmen who couldn’t believe that Paris was Europe’s only major city without a top-tier team. Now, nearly six decades later and lavishly funded by the sovereignwealth fund of Qatar, PSG is one of the richest, most powerful clubs on the planet. And on Saturday night, against Inter Milan, it hopes to win the Champions League for the first time.

Back in the early days, however, the club’s raison d’être was simply to provide a tenant for the newly renovated Parc des Princes, a brutalist stadium in the capital’s genteel 16th district.

“It was a total paradox that a city like Paris didn’t have a major football club,” Kollar says. “Paris was a city that had everything, a capital of fashion, art, history. But there was a real void for a sports team.”

The project was nearly abandoned at least once. Not all Parisians were clamoring for a soccer team—many viewed the sport as little more than a working-class pastime. Still, the founders pressed on.

Created through a rocky merger of an entity known as Paris FC and a club called Stade Sangermanois from the suburb of Saint-Germainen- Laye, PSG found that its toughest rival in the early days was paperwork. It took a media campaign and a 20,000-member subscription drive just to get the club off the ground. But from 1973, it found its footing once it was taken over by the French fashion designer Daniel Hechter, the man responsible for the red stripe on the navy jersey.

What it couldn’t find quite as quickly was a broad base of fans. In a culture where fandom is transmitted through parents, grandparents, and the deep roots that bind a club to a city, relevance couldn’t be manufactured. Fans would visit the Parc des Princes as if they were going to the theater. Players looked around the stands and saw an audience, not supporters.

Initially, Paris tried to fix that problem with glitz. The club that would one day sign the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, David Beckham, Neymar, and Lionel Messi had developed a taste for superstars early. Within a year of its formation, PSG went after the biggest name in soccer, an aging Brazilian forward named Pelé.

The deal was all but signed, only to fall through at the last minute. True relevance would have to come the old-fashioned way: on the field. PSG’s first league title finally came in 1986, a full half-century since the departed Racing Club de France had last brought a championship to Paris.

Fans began flocking to the Parc des Princes, too. Club president Francis Borelli had supported the creation of supporter groups known as Ultras, who made it their singular goal that PSG overtake older clubs such as Saint-Etienne and the hated Olympique Marseille as the biggest club in France.

Only the rise of violent fan clusters in the 1990s gave a hard edge to home games that made the Parc des Princes a deeply inhospitable place. It took the death of a fan during a brawl between rival PSG factions in 2010 for officials to ban the Ultras. They only made a negotiated return in 2016.

By the time they came back, the club had undergone existential change. No longer owned by fans or local businessmen, Paris Saint-Germain had become the property of Qatar Sports Investments in 2011. The tiny Gulf state had been growing its influence in France, buying aircraft and luxury property, while winning the favor of French President (and noted PSG supporter) Nicolas Sarkozy.

Now Qatar, which also controls French soccer’s biggest broadcaster, had a flagship. Under the slogan “Dream Bigger,” the Qatari owners plowed in money and set about turning the club into their best approximation of a luxury fashion house.

PSG imported A-listers from Hollywood and exported team stores to Tokyo, Seoul, and Fifth Avenue. The club inked merchandise collaborations with Air Jordan and The Rolling Stones, while. Jerseys showed up at Fashion Week.

What did any of it have to do with winning soccer matches? Absolutely nothing. But in the club’s latest iteration, sports was only part of the plan. As a vehicle for Qatar, PSG’s ambition was to become an icon for the City of Light—much the way a Yankee cap represents New York, even if you’ve never heard of Aaron Judge.

“Because, Paris,” Fabien Allègre, the club’s longtime brand director, told The Wall Street Journal in 2022. “Without being arrogant, all that’s best in the world—in terms of architecture, design, food—is all made here.”

Except PSG wasn’t the best in the world, especially when it came to the Champions League. For all of its investment in talent, and its 11 French league titles over 14 years, PSG still hasn’t conquered Europe.

The closest it came was 2020 when a billion-dollar side led by Neymar and Kylian Mbappé finished as runner-up to Bayern Munich. The irony these days is that PSG is back in the biggest match in club soccer without them.

Neymar moved to Saudi Arabia, Mbappé signed for Real Madrid last summer, and Messi came and went after two unhappy seasons. All of them left having failed to deliver the trophy that Paris craves most.

“Players like those brought even greater expectations,” Kollar says, “but Parisians aren’t a patient lot.”

The current version of the squad, whose average of 24 made it the youngest in the Champions League, is viewed as a little more sympathetic. But after 55 years, Parisians feel that they’re done waiting.

“Winning a trophy for the first time is always the hardest,” manager Luis Enrique said. “We need to finish the job.”

Flags with the PSG logo are waved before the French Cup final between Paris Saint-Germain and Stade de Reims

FRANCK IMAGES