Champions League: When Blanc believed in PSG, standing alone against all

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·29. Juli 2025

Champions League: When Blanc believed in PSG, standing alone against all

Laurent Blanc, 59, former Paris Saint-Germain coach, spoke to the media outlet Sport after the club's historic victory in the 2025 Champions League. He looks back on the time when, against the advice of experts, he predicted this triumph. His optimistic vision sheds light on the path taken by PSG.

Blanc: "Everyone said that PSG would never win it"

"When I was there, the main goal was to win the Champions League and everyone said that PSG would never win it, that it wasn't worth investing so much money. I had a completely different opinion. I told them: 'No, I think you're wrong.' Many people, not just in the press, but also among football specialists, so-called football experts, said that they would never win the Champions League, that if they hadn't won it with Messi, with Mbappé, with Neymar... I said that they should keep investing because, sooner or later, they would win it. And that's what happened.

Blanc: "Maybe they'll win it again because they're investing a lot"

And maybe it's not over yet. Maybe they'll win it again because they're investing a lot, because they're hiring great coaches. He has to be even more demanding with his players than with himself. Today, he also advocates for a game based on possession, the desire to recover the ball, movement, competition. That's his vision of the game. I can only accept and share it. Plus, he's courageous."

Since 2011, the QSI (Qatar Sports Investments) era has shaped Paris Saint-Germain with billions, "bling-bling" recruitments, and assumed European ambitions. However, the club has multiplied disappointments in the Champions League: eliminations in the quarterfinals or round of 16, legendary "remontadas" against Barcelona or Manchester United, repeated fiascos while ambitions were oversized.

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These failures, far from condemning the project, have mainly served as a laboratory: they have revealed the flaws in management, the mental fragilities of the group, and the importance of building a real team culture, beyond star individualities. Over time, QSI has corrected its copy: from locker room management (fewer internal conflicts, more discipline) to the evolution of recruitment (more key players invested in the collective), including the ambition of a high-performing training center.

Finally, these years of repeated mistakes were not in vain: they forced Paris to question itself, to reinvent itself, to finally understand what the European conquest requires and to live its consecration, relying on the maturity forged by defeat.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇫🇷 here.