How Parisian supporters have animated (a little) Lisbon for ten days

Weight reinforcement for PSG a few hours before the final. Anne Hidalgo will be in Lisbon on Sunday night for the Champions League final against Bayern Munich. Thomas Tuchel has not yet decided whether or not he would align the mayor of Paris in attack alongside Neymar and Mbappé but at worst it will always make one more supporter in the Portuguese capital. The arrival of Hidalgo has been part of a certain logic since the start of Final 8. Each Parisian victory was followed by an enlargement of the Parisian contingent on the banks of the Tagus, without we being able to speak of a raz- de-tide. Among the other symbolic presences, Pedro Miguel Pauleta, fresh from the Azores at the end of the week, as well as relatives of the late emblematic supporter, James Rophe.

However, no traces of the CUP (Collectif Ultras Paris) who preferred to play the final at home. The Auteuil tribune group has nevertheless distinguished itself by deploying several banners in strongholds of Paris and urges all its faithful to "wear the Parisian colors wherever you [the supporters] find yourself", just to make the players feel, one way or another, that they are behind the team. Kylian Mbappé got the message. “I would have liked the supporters to be there, I know they are with us. "

#PSGBayern

Act 2 ...
THE INVALIDS
"GO TO PARIS WE ARE YOUR MOST FAITHFUL ARMY" @PSG_inside pic.twitter.com/D3bvzJK8Mz

If Kyky is convinced of this, it is because beyond the spiritual aspect and other vague notions of energy transmission by wifi waves, fans of Paris Saint-Germain in Lisbon have succeeded in creating areas of interaction. with the team outside the stadiums, from where they were ostracized, more or less in compliance with health measures.

• The surroundings of the Estadio da Luz, to be heard (even if a little far from the stadium anyway)
• But above all the Myriad hotel, Lisbon HQ of PSG. This is where you have to be, before and after the matches, to be sure to meet Parisian aficionados.

Small analysis of the Parisian supporter in Lisbon

Protected by a belt of barriers and a lot of cops, the futuristic building, which evokes a famous hotel in Dubai, is the place of communion par excellence. It is here, that after the victory in extremis against Atalanta Bergamo, supporters cracked smoke on the return of the players' bus, here that a triumphant Neymar showed his bluetooth speaker to the crowd after Leipzig and it is also here that we spoke to a few supporters two or three hours before each match. This allows us, after almost a fortnight in Lisbon, to draw a robot portrait of this heterogeneous mass within which we distinguish several categories of people. Pierre Bourdieu, Emile Durkheim are your friends:

• Portuguese and Portuguese-descendant immigrants on vacation in their native lands . The most beautiful anecdote comes from this mother of a family, "who went down to Lisbon to redo her identity card", who wanted to please her child by taking him to the Parisian hotel and who ended up camping more than half a day on the banks of the Tagus to see a piece of Kylian Mbappé's head.
• The lucky vacationers who had taken long-standing tickets .
• Vacationers who have decided to send off their initial vacation en route to Portugal at the last minute. This is the case of three young Ile-de-France residents, Mickael, Kader and Jérémy, who left to stroll for ten days in Corsica before finally getting out on the third day just to be as close as possible to the team the day before the quarter-finals. Ditto for another skewer of supporters arriving from the Balkan beaches just before the half.
• Those who decided to follow the team from the start in Faro. We also saved a supporter and her troop about to return to the Algarve after the victory in the quarters, unaware that PSG had taken over the Sporting training center in Lisbon.
• The Brazilians, which we will focus on.

The diaspora behind Neymar

You should know that Neymar's masterclass against Bergamo completely awakened the Brazilian diaspora, an ally of the occasion. "We Brazilians will all be for Paris during the final, because Ney plays there", balances Vitor, seated in a community bar in the bairro alto. And Marquinhos and Thiago Silva, in all of this? “No, no, it's really for Neymar. "

Confirmation in front of the Myriad hotel. A few hours before the success against Leipzig, a group of young people, canary jersey on their shoulders, screw the zbeul leaning on the barriers as close as possible to the entrance to the building. It sings, laughs and rooms other compatriots posted a little further away, in front of the amused gaze of other Parisian supporters. Not a single “go to Paris” but the name of Neymar which keeps coming back. When the Parisian number 10 comes out, it's the explosion. We thank Mother Nature for giving us solid eardrums, otherwise our hearing functions would be out of order.

Neymar, end of the game pic.twitter.com/03YvBEJunt

A little calmer, the Lisbon population does not hide its Parisian tropism. "Because we have a strong link with France because of the different waves of immigration", explains Jorge Sampaio, employee of the benfiquista restaurant Tia Matilde, whose only regret is not being able to welcome all of Paris in front of his televisions. game nights. Because of the Covid, we have to close early. Too early. To follow the PSG matches, only the few sports pubs in the city and the famous mercado da Ribeira remain, which saw in the event an opportunity to attract customers by posting one or two XXL screens in this old market or a fraternal atmosphere reigns. Ideal for receiving communion in the event of a happy ending for Paris. With his mask and respecting barrier gestures, of course. It would still be to force Anne Hidalgo to put aside her Lisbon weekend to go and pull unruly ears.

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