When the ticker-tape cannons exploded in Munich and the fireworks wormed into the night sky, PSG’s delirious footballers clung onto the giant ears of the trophy, felt its curves and contours, and celebrated with joyous hysteria. This night was a dream and obsession, since the Qatari acquisition scaled up their ambitions. But rather than the realisation of a dream, the night breathed the vibes of a new beginning, the start of an era, the rise of a powerhouse in European football. The 5-0 thrashing of Inter Milan felt not so much as a triumph as a coronation. Paris, the city of arts and cafes, can now take pride in being the home of the strongest football club on the continent as well.
Paris has abundant footballing riches. The city and its les banlieues have produced more talented footballers per square kilometre than most other metropolises in the world. Yet, absurdly, in the glitzy stage of European clubs, Paris was an afterthought, a comma or a semicolon to be paused and passed over. For decades, it has nourished football empires across the English Channel, in the Iberian peninsula and Bavaria, or over the Alps, past Mont Blanc, producing iconic footballers like Thierry Henry and Kylian Mbappe, its flag-bearers. But it did not have one of its own. It did not wield the awe and aura of Milan or Madrid, Amsterdam or Barcelona, Manchester or Liverpool. Paris has stormed into this rarefied space.
The seeds of ambition were sown in 2011, when the Qatari state acquired the club, a competitive but not an elite side, their last title achieved in 1994. But the real journey began in 2023, when the vanity of the club owners had waned after staging the World Cup in their homeland. Then, they began to build a team, rather than stud the club with superstars. The ascent began in the summer of 2023 when Lionel Messi and Neymar left the club for America and Saudi Arabia, continued in 2024 when Kylian Mbappe departed, and gathered impetus this season, when the ideals of its visionary manager, Luis Enrique began to assume a bewilderingly brilliant form and shape.
Superstars and their vestiges swept aside – centre back Marquinhos and Gianluigi Donnarumma remain their only link to the chaotically underperforming era – they invested wisely. Enrique’s brief was simple: buy quick, young technicians, mostly from the city’s sprawling talent pockets. The starting XI cost them 403 million pounds. The swift rebuild came at a cost, but the sum was a pittance considering that just three years ago, their front two of Neymar and Mbappe combined cost 400 millions pounds, and Messi earned roughly 30 million pounds a year. The revolving door for managers—four in three seasons—spun the impression of an upstart prince spending wantonly on his new toy.
There was ambition and desire, but little purpose, or foresight and understanding of the sport’s dynamics in Europe. The project was deeply flawed. Or perhaps, it was a sideshow, or an over-elaborate opening ceremony preluding the Qatar World Cup. Real football had to wait till the grand show was over, till there were no more distractions.
The events that unfolded were the exact opposite of the events that had preceded the quadrennial tournament. A modern manager with a definite ideological faith was installed; he was vested with the powers to paint the team with his concepts, lavished the money to buy men of his liking, granted the authority to snub egos. In a different milieu, the management would not have tolerated Enrique’s handling of Mbappe. From a highly individualistic, star-driven culture, it veered to the opposite spectrum, where system trumps stars, when the team was a sum of the collective parts, when function and flair coexisted, when there was no dispute over roles and spaces.
Nowhere on the field was the difference as brutally evident as the forward line. The trident of Neymar, Mbappe and Messi could waltz into an all-era dream team. But it seemed like an opera without a rhyme, a juxtaposition of antithetical characters, repelling in each other’s shades. In delicious contrast, the triumvirate of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Ousmane Dembele and Desire Doue spin, switch and shimmy with such devastating togetherness that they evoke memories of the Messi-Neymar-Luis Suarez trifecta Enrique had managed to glory in Barcelona.
The tired and ageing legs of Inter Milan’s back three could not contain neither their pace nor their trickery; the younger and quicker legs of Arsenal too could suffocate them; Aston Villa’s defiance was ruthlessly dismembered; Liverpool’s tactical traps were surgically avoided. Dembele, repurposed from a wasteful winger to a clinical false nine, netted 33 goals and assisted 15 times in 49 games this season. Kvaratskhelia, a ball-carrier of graceful athleticism, or ripping pace and bewildering control, contributed 12 goals and nine assists in 44 games. Desire Doue, only 19, chimed in with 15 goals and 16 assists. They not only filled the Mbappe-vacuum, but also contributed more defensively.
Enrique showered praises on their defensive commitment before the final. “If you analyse our defensive improvements, it is about the way our attackers defend. They do an exceptional job. You can see how many ball recoveries they have. This is one of the concepts that is hardest to instill because attackers have to change their mindset,” he pointed out.
All three are young, Doue is 19, Kvaratskhelia is 24 and Dembele is 28. As is the dynamic midfield, who, like the forwards, swap roles and positions, occupying unusually advanced positions like Vitinha for the first goal. The Portuguese playmaker is 25, his accomplices Joao Neves and Fabian Ruiz are 20 and 29. Apart from Marquinhos (31), none of the backline is more than 26. There is ample squad depth too, to suggest that PSG would not be a one-season wonder, but would rather build an empire, as their merciless dismantling of Inter Milan portends. The night in Paris was not the culmination of a dream, but potentially the beginning of a Parisian dynasty in European club football.
PSG players celebrate with the trophy after winning the Champions League final soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany, Saturday, May 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader) 
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