Paris (AFP)

Will PSG finally solve its problems as a goalkeeper? The French club loaned Alphonse Areola with no option to buy Monday and enlisted Keylor Navas from Real Madrid, hoping to find in him a calibrated goalkeeper for the big shocks of the Champions League.

The recruitment of the Costa Rican international for four years is in addition to the arrival on loan Sunday of the Spanish goalkeeper Sergio Rico, who should be a substitute goalkeeper.

In five years at Real (2014-2019), Keylor Navas entered the history of the Champions League by winning three consecutive times between 2016 to 2018, but the 32-year-old Costa Rican paradoxically never made the unanimity in Madrid and was currently the N.2 behind Thibaut Courtois. So this is another challenge that PSG is trying.

Because the Parisian leaders have tried everything or almost in the matter in recent years. There was the Italian Salvatore Sirigu, the German Kevin Trapp then the amazing alternation between the French Alphonse Areola and the prestigious Italian veteran Gianluigi Buffon last season. Without success.

This summer, Buffon returned to Juventus Turin, Trapp was transferred to Frankfurt, and Paris coach Thomas Tuchel vowed to clearly choose a N.1 goalkeeper.

In recent weeks, the technician had hinted that he did not necessarily see Areola in this role: "I can not confirm that he will be N.1 this season, because the transfer window is still open.Every player must show the quality, Alphonse too ". A disavowal for the French international, who leaves his training club, to join the Real where he will not hold, a few months of the Euro-2020 for which he postulates as substitute of Hugo Lloris at the Bleus .

- The Panther" -

Navas comes with the heavy responsibility of finally ending the debate on the guardians in Paris. At Real, this guardian with a calm voice, a fervent believer, did not really have the charisma, nor the spectacular side that appeals so much to the "socios" (supporters-shareholders) of the merengue club.

And since the former goalkeeper of Albacete (2010-2011) and Levante (2011-2014) has never been a star, the press has often pointed at each collective performance of the Real - even though he was not necessarily involved.

But the goalkeeper held up: from a poor family, having had for first coach a simple bus driver, Navas has displayed a foolproof mentality to triumph in the ultra-competitive world of Real.

"In Madrid, you are educated to win, only the victory counts," he summed up one day.

The "Panther" (or "Falcon", according to it) survived Iker Casillas, the legendary guardian and captain of the 2000s, who went to Porto in 2015. But also to the merengue president Florentino Pérez, who had sealed the arrival of David de Gea (Manchester United) and intended to ship Navas in the opposite direction without an administrative problem at the end of transfer window of summer 2015.

- "important" for Zidane -

Finally, it was the competition of the Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, recruited for 35 million euros just after the Mondial-2018, which pushed Navas towards the exit, even though Zinédine Zidane did not intend to part with him.

"I do not consider it at all, for a lot of reasons, he's an important player, he has demonstrated it throughout his career," assured the French technician last week ... without being heard of his leaders.

With Navas, PSG recruits a reliable goalkeeper despite its medium size (1.85 m), with a good foot and reflexes on his line.

He is also a mainstay of Costa Rica's selection, with whom he had his moment of glory in 2014: in the round of 16 of the 2014 World Cup against Greece, Keylor Navas had stopped two shots to the other side to hoist the Ticos "in the quarterfinals for the only time in their history.

In Paris, this regular European jousting will have an equally tantalizing challenge: to guide PSG until its first final of C1 ...

It will first face in the pool phase ... Real Madrid, a nice wink for Navas and a small risk for the Spanish club, which hopes not to regret this transfer to a competitor direct this season.

© 2019 AFP