One day before the end of the season, PSG has 85 points and can no longer be joined, after a draw (1-1) in Strasbourg.
Paris succeeds in revolutions, but not the ones it would like. The city that guillotined Louis XVI made the affront of whistling King Lionel Messi. The Parisian club has not managed to reverse the image of a club of divas, and has still not won this famous Champions League, easily released in the 1/8 finals by Bayern Munich (1-0/2-0).
Another revolution, the institution with Qatari capital has been able in just eleven years to become a global sports brand, always at the forefront of marketing, but not a club that wins beyond its borders, reigning over a Ligue 1 not competitive enough.
This eleventh title does not unleash passions, yet it is an authentic feat. PSG, born in 1970, took only 53 years to double Saint-Étienne (founded in 1919) and its ten titles, from 1953 to 1981.
But PSG QSI (Qatar sports investments) seems to want to be judged only on the European list, and its 2022-2023 campaign is a failure. "That's what we're at our best," Kylian Mbappé said after the elimination in Munich.
The 2018 world champion remains the only sporting glimmer of a generally failed season, despite the title, and even participated in the crises that punctuated the season.
Failed recruitment
In August, there was the "penaltygate" with Neymar, to find out who was hitting from 11m, in October the rumor just before a C1 match against Benfica that he could leave the club, and in April his tweet to denounce the use of his only image for the subscription campaign.
PSG coach Christophe Galtier and Kylian Mbappé, on May 27, 2023 in Strasbourg © PATRICK HERTZOG / AFP
Mbappe is called to become for good the leader of this team, once the departure of Lionel Messi, probably in Saudi Arabia, is confirmed. Neymar could leave too, but the boss now it will be "Kyky", for yet another palace revolution at PSG.
The previous one, which president Nasser Al-Khelaïfi had announced in L'Équipe ("bling-bling, it's over"), failed, the national title not enough to the appetite of this club that would like to be great of Europe.
The recruitment led by Luis Campos was missed, Hugo Ekitike, Fabian Ruiz, Carlos Soler and to a lesser extent Vitinha did not advance the team. And that the football advisor of the former Monaco, where he had known Mbappe, continues to "draw" for Celta Vigo, is surprising for a manager of a club of the stature of PSG.
If he stays, he will have to manage the many loan returns that could well pollute the summer of PSG (Kurzawa, Wijnaldum, Paredes, Draxler ...).
The Christophe Galtier revolution did not work either. After a thunderous start, the coach ran out of steam and lost control of the team.
The World Cup has certainly cost Paris internationals dearly, but the year 2023 has been catastrophic, with nine defeats in all competitions, while the club had finished the first half of 2022 undefeated.
Spun
Galtier has no longer managed to make his team shine, has never resolved the imbalance created by the "MNM" Messi-Neymar-Mbappe. He even ran out of steam in communication.
Brilliant and open, the Provençal finished in warm water, committing some oddities as when he pointed to the young El Chadaille Bitshiabu (17 years old) for a goal at Bayern mainly attributable to the frame Marco Verratti.
Paris hopeful Warren Zaire-Emery (l) overtakes Strasbourg's Ibrahima Sissoko, on May 27, 2023 in Strasbourg © Jean-Christophe Verhaegen / AFP
Suspicions of racism from his former club, Nice, which he denies outright, have also shaken him a lot.
He finished the season drained, like other Parisian technicians before him, almost always alone to carry the speech of the club where we almost never hear Nasser or Campos and where the players drop, one per game, only a few agreed sentences - except when it is Mbappé - in the mixed zone.
Even the question of the stadium was the occasion of a crisis with the mayor of Paris who does not want to sell the club the Parc des Princes.
This season in hell ends in the sulking of the supporters of the CUP (Collectif ultras Paris), some of whom went so far as to sing "Neymar casse-toi" under the windows of the Brazilian.
One of the few glimmers, besides the title, all the same, comes from the very promising Warren Zaire-Emery, midfielder of 17 years full of authority. But this Gavroche is very young to lead the next revolution.
© 2023 AFP