With its new "Hechter" jersey, PSG is treating its supporters

• On the occasion of the friendly match against the Scots Celtic on Tuesday evening, PSG will present to its fans the jersey that their players will wear next season.
• The design is reminiscent of that drawn in 1973 by fashion designer and PSG president Daniel Hechter, a jersey that supporters have never forgotten.
• This is the culmination of a long work of lobbying the ultras with the club and the equipment manufacturer and it's a safe bet that this jersey will sell like hot cakes.

It's madeleine day of Proust at the Parc des Princes for PSG supporters. Admittedly, the stadium has had a makeover and doesn't really look like it was before the Qataris took possession of the club in 2011, the faded red and blue of the old metal folding seats have long since given way to comfortable brightly painted seats smells less of sausage and beer than hot dog and energy drink. However, by disembarking at the Parc on Tuesday for the last friendly match, against Celtic (live on 20 Minutes  from 6 p.m.), before the final of the Coupe de France on Friday, the faithful of the Porte d'Auteuil will take a big shot of nostalgia in the face.

On the occasion of the club's 50th anniversary, PSG has indeed decided to reconnect with a piece of its history, that which clings to the fibers and is the pride of the blue and red people: the Hechter jersey, named after the fashion designer and former Parisian president from 1973 to 1978, who designed what will forever remain as one of the most beautiful liquettes in the history of the club, even of the French championship.

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The new home / away kits for the @PSG_inside 202/21 pay homage to the legendary shirt designed by Daniel Hechter and celebrate the club's 5⃣0⃣th anniversary 🤩

After years of demanding his return body and soul, the supporters have finally won their case. "It may seem a bit strong as a term, but I feel a lot of joy today," slips Boris, 37, a supporter of PSG since always. This return is very good news for the supporters who have not stopped hearing since the arrival of the Qataris that PSG is a club without soul, without history. "

No more bibs, make way for class

After having had to stuff himself for years with swimsuits that he most soberly describes as "commercial shit, products with a banal marketing orientation", Alex, 29, is proud of "this homecoming" and eager to drop a little ticket to pay for it. It must be admitted that in recent years, the club and its equipment supplier have sometimes gone out of their way to offer their fans jerseys with dubious design and, in the court of good taste, PSG should have often taken life. "For me, the worst was the 'bib' jersey, with a big white square and a big red square, horrible ...", smiles Boris. Like "that we dare to go out only to go play football with friends, and more," he continues.

The famous jersey - MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP

The project has been in the pipeline for a while and, like every year, the first images have trickled in on social networks and on specialized sites, until DJ Snake, a sort of unofficial ambassador of the Parisian club, does not reveal the bomb on social networks.

🔴🔵✌🏼 pic.twitter.com/66P2kz9tUz

"It's a marvel, I find it very beautiful", Boris says. However, I am not necessarily an Ayatollah of the Hechter jersey by saying “it is THE only historical jersey of the club”, we have several others who have marked the supporters, but it is true that this one made the best of it of PSG in the 1980s and then the 1990s. "

When the ultras lobby

For the ultras, it is the culmination of a fierce struggle that can be counted in years. Like kids pulling their parents' hand to make a detour to the toy aisle every damn walk in the supermarket, the tactic of usury paid off. "It is true that they have been tanned for quite a few years," laughs Cyril Dubois, lawyer of the Collective Ultras Paris, himself a fan of PSG. At the same time that we prepared the ground for the return of the ultras to the Park, that we worked with the club, we never forgot to put a part back in the machine. One day, maybe to stop pissing them off, Jean-Claude Blanc [the club's general manager] promised us that when Nike's marketing director was in Paris, he would invite us to discuss the matter directly. with him. And he kept his word. "

One day in October 2018, PSG invited a small delegation of supporters to come and plead the cause of Hechter to one of the big bosses of the brand's marketing comma. Cyril Dubois remembers it as if it were yesterday. “We organized a meeting at the club's headquarters, I came with my two vintage jerseys, the Hechter jersey and the white one. He took pictures of the jerseys from every angle with his assistant, we repeated to him the importance that this jersey had in the eyes of the supporters, ”he rewinds.

“I don't know if it was just to please us, but I thought he sounded very interested and listened. I also thought he was going to take them away, laughs the lawyer. I had pulled them out of my bag a bit hard and he started to fold it super neatly for me, I thought he was going to bog them down! I told him “It's not a gift”. In the end, it was just to give them back to me neatly. "

We have often, rightly, shit on filthy swimsuits for 7/8 years to admit that these two are magnificent and will put holes in the finances ❤️🤑🤤 https://t.co/6wROQQylBQ

On the other hand, it is difficult to say how much the words of the supporters counted in this homecoming. "They surely wanted to refer to the history of the club because we are going to celebrate 50 years, I don't think they gave in to popular pressure, it's just contextual but it makes sense compared to the past of PSG ”, reflects Boris. The return of Leonardo, very attached to the respect of the PSG institution, is certainly not foreign to it either.

Our dossier on PSG

We know, for example, that behind the scenes, the Brazilian - who had the chance to wear a Hechter jersey, it was during the 1996-1997 season - braked all four irons so that Paris wears the third jersey as little as possible ( orange) and that he was not against going back in time. “I don't know how much we played in there, but I hope we were able to make a contribution to the building,” concludes Cyril Dubois. Let's say all the planets were aligned. "Neymar, Mbappé and others to make him shine.

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