✍️ From Final to Final: Five Years in the Making

Paris Saint-Germain's journey to the UEFA Champions League final isn't an overnight success, it's been building since the last final appearance in 2020.

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Paris Saint-Germain is in the 2025 UEFA Champions League final. If you had told someone that was going to happen just one year ago, they would have probably snickered at you. Because just one year ago, the club’s most talented star announced he was leaving the team for allegedly greener pastures. After years of speculation, denials, renewals, and tantrums, Kylian Mbappé officially abandoned the capital of France for the capital of Spain. Seeing as Mbappé was the only thing still holding up the Parisian project, many expected a deep decline and years in the footballing wilderness. Those people weren’t paying attention at all. And while some knew that PSG’s solid project would survive and eventually thrive, none of them could have imagined the rapid success that the club had achieved in a short 12 months.

On January 22, at around 22:15 in France, absolutely nobody would have bet on what would have happened next. Down 2-0 at home to a struggling City side that hardly deserved such luck, it appeared the campaign for glory would not even reach the knockout stage. That is, until Bradley Barcola nutmegged Mathias Nunes, and the paradigm of European Football completely shifted. From that point, Paris has been an unstoppable train headed to Munich, where they will face Inter Milan for a chance at the club’s first Champions League Trophy. And again, while some might call what PSG have done an “overnight” success. This story is five years in the making and started the last time Paris Saint-Germain made a Champions League Final, on August 23, 2020.

The Final Against Bayern

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, everything wasn’t as it usually was. After months of absence, a single elimination tournament in Portugal concluded the Champions League knockout rounds. A tournament that Paris went into injured and aging, but with a togetherness not really seen before in that group. A stunning come-from-behind win against Atalanta, followed by a convincing 3-0 win against RB Leipzig, put the PSG of Neymar Jr., Mbappé, Angel Di Maria, Thiago Silva, Marco Verratti, and Keylor Navas just one win away from a European triumph after years of tragedy. Mired amongst the real tragedy of the pandemic, no fans were allowed to watch from the stands. The tournament had fire and passion, but only from those participating. Everyone else had to watch from their homes.

They would face a juggernaut in FC Bayern Munich. A version of the club that many would say was the best of the last 10 seasons. Paris gave it a real shot, but in reality, it was clear that Bayern Munich were the more deserving side. A Kingsley Coman goal and suffocating defense led to a 1-0 defeat in Lisbon.

A Failed Rebuild

Most realized at that point this version of the PSG project had reached its course. A thin squad with aging stars that gave everything needed to be turned over. But the allure of being that close made the leaders of the capital club take another run with that core of players. PSG would lose Silva after that game (only for him to finally win his Champions League with Chelsea FC the following year), and Edinson Cavani (the former top goal scorer in club history). They were replaced by third-choice center-back Presnel Kimpembe and professional lightning rod Mauro Icardi. Besides those moves, nothing of real substance was done by the then-sporting director, Leonardo, to strengthen the club. What followed was a disastrous fall, which led to the sacking of the then-manager, Thomas Tuchel, the day before Christmas. He was subsequently replaced in January by former Tottenham Hotspur manager and former PSG captain, Mauricio Pochettino.

While it was too late to save Paris from losing out on the Ligue 1 trophy to Lille OSC, they did manage to scrape together knockout round qualifications against FC Barcelona and Bayern Munich, mostly on the back of Mbappé's brilliance. However, the tank ran out of gas in the semis with a 4-1 aggregate defeat against Manchester City, where PSG finished both matches with 10 men. Another close call, but in the end, the core of that incarnation of Les Parisians clearly needed a reboot.

Remember back to that point. The club was built from the front line back. With a constantly injured Neymar and an over-thirty Di Maria. Mbappé and whatever striker of the week PSG happened to put out that day. Behind that was a nearly thirty-year-old Verratti who had immense wear on his metaphorical tires, Idrissa Gueye, who was a once or twice a month performer at the highest level, and a tenacious but nevertheless underwhelming Leandro Paredes. Defensively, it was Marquinhos and Kimpembe (who at that time was still a year or so from a massive injury decline) and the worst collection of fullbacks that any elite team had at the time. Alessandro Florenzi, Juan Bernat, Colin Dagba, and Mitchell Bakker were just some of the names dragged out there for the elite wingers of the sport to blow by, and honestly, by the not-so-elite wingers as well. In goal was the spectacular but also over-the-hill Navas, their best goalkeeper since Bernard Lama, but that honestly wasn’t saying much.

Sporting Director Leonardo also had another problem. He had extended the top stars of the club to 2024 and beyond, leaving him very little room to maneuver. The club had to get better, but it was going to be close to impossible to do so with the terrible financial situation that he and club president Nasser Al-Khelaifi (let’s be honest) put them in. What followed was the most consequential window in the club’s history (for good and for bad).

Messi Comes to Paris

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Leo started with the major purchase of the window, which addressed the awful fullback position. He spent €68 million to pry young right-back Achraf Hakimi from Inter Milan. A former Real Madrid youth product, he was burgeoning into one of the top fullbacks in the sport at Inter. His move would be the genesis of PSG’s rebuild. The “Big Bang” from which everything followed. Unfortunately for Leonardo, that was about the only bit of money he had. Everything else would either be a loan deal or a free transfer. Included in that window was Sergio Ramos, a solid but aging center-back, midfield engine Georginio Wijnaldum, and a loan move for a little-known left-back from Sporting Lisbon, named Nuno Mendes.

Another free transfer that was controversial at the time was a young Italian goaltender who had just been the MVP at the delayed UEFA European Championships. Gianluigi Donnarumma was one of the last Mino Raiola clients before his passing, and with the relationship the two had, he was shuffled off to Paris after his contract expired at AC Milan. Competition for the one competent goalie PSG had in two decades was a bold strategy that would only pay off years after Leonardo had left. Oh, and don’t forget the small free transfer of Lionel Messi. Not in the original plans, but with Barcelona breaking the Argentinian’s contract after they learned the club was broke as hell, Messi became available, and PSG had no choice but to scoop him up. This formed a super attacking line of Messi, Neymar, and Mbappé. A ceremony was held at the Parc des Princes where all five transfers were put on display. An embarrassment of riches that would slowly turn into an embarrassment of another kind in time.

Lionel Messi never quite fit with PSG. Some would chalk it up to cultural issues like the language or the environment. But it was mostly because PSG didn’t really need him. They needed midfielders, defenders, and depth. He wasn’t bad for Paris; in fact, the numbers were quite good for a player his age. But you’d notice every time the big three, and even the big four with Di Maria, were on the field, Pochettino and his managerial crew couldn’t find a way to make it work. Mainly because the field was so tilted in one direction that PSG were essentially defending with seven to eight men per match.

The Big Three Take On Real Madrid

The league form was fine, and the Champions League campaign started with a decent run of form. However, finishing second to Manchester City in their group would lead to a Round of 16 matchup with Real Madrid. As star-studded an affair as you could get, and a chance for Paris to prove their theory of the case. Could a super team that had been so close before, that had just added the consensus best player of his generation, if not all time, make the final run to the title? The first match at the Parc would prove to be a sluggish affair. Neymar was on the bench to start due to another injury issue. The game started with the typical PSG trick of getting in the box and missing chances, but it was very clear from the beginning that PSG were the better side. Actually, Real Madrid were quite bad, barely sniffing the PSG goal.

It took until stoppage time for Mbappé to finish the match with an exceptional goal to give Paris the lead headed into the second leg. Of note, Messi’s missed penalty in the 62nd minute prevented a much bigger night for Les Parisiens. None of it was overly convincing, but it would set PSG up with an edge. One that they would extend in the first half with another Mbappé goal. His brilliance over the last two Champions League seasons had given PSG fans hope that one uniquely gifted megastar could carry a flawed roster with stars. It was 2-0 headed into the second leg in Madrid. PSG had dominated the tie for all intents and purposes. Mbappé had been the best player by far, and all signs pointed to qualification. Until the 61st minute, until an ancient Karim Benzema stepped on stage.

The collapse began with PSG intently driving for a second goal with an Mbappé finish called back for offside, and a through ball that Mbappé couldn’t quite gather. Paris was throwing all the punches and had complete control. But you never really have control, not against that team, not in that stadium. What followed in the 61st minute was a slow back pass from Kimpembe to Donnarumma, who fiddled on the ball waiting for Marquinhos to come open. He never did. Benzema pounced and forced a loose ball that Vinicius Junior won and quickly passed back to Benzema for the finish. Real needed three to advance and had gotten one, but only one. A poor mistake for sure, but no time to lose one’s head. However, 15 minutes later, PSG would completely lose their heads.

PSG were dazed, but still hanging in. A Luka Modrić run followed by an incisive pass to a young Vinicius put the PSG defense on ice skates. One more ball to Benzema (with Hakimi keeping him onside) led to the finish, which tied the match. This was immediately followed by a lost pass, another through ball to Vinicius, and another Benzema finish off a pitiful clearance attempt by captain Marquinhos. A shocking, but honestly not so shocking, ending to another shocking but honestly not so shocking Champions League campaign. A Messi free kick from ten yards outside the box didn’t have a prayer, and just like that, it was over.

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The End of Bling Bling

What made March 9, 2022, so important was that it served as the Waterloo, the key turning point for PSG as it was constituted. While Benzema and Real Madrid ran riot in the second half of that game, the stars that Al-Khelaifi had brought in to prevent a 6-1 like catastrophe from happening again, had allowed an even worse capitulation, simply by the fact that those stars were on the field and could or would do nothing to turn the tide. When the rain came, the PSG Galacticos ran and hid. It would take until the end of another Ligue 1-winning season for both Leonardo and Pochettino to be asked to leave the club. A new era would begin, with an unassuming but talented and well-connected executive named Luis Campos. Campos had been the architect of the Lille 2021 title campaign and was well respected in footballing circles. And what Campos understood was that the “Bling Bling” era at PSG had come to an end. They would have to carry around the corpse for another season, but Campos began his vision with as unlikely a move as his own hiring had been.

Just two weeks or so into the Luis Campos era, PSG made an interesting signing. After years of signing older, more experienced midfielders to pair with stalwart Verratti, Campos decided to sign a young 22-year-old midfielder from Porto who had admirers across the continent. Vitinha had been to the Premier League on loan in an unimpressive spell at Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. However, his return to Porto saw him help them to a league title in the 2021-22 season. It was that form that had the Paris sporting director salivating. For the first time, really since the signing of Verratti from Pescara in 2012, PSG had rolled the dice on a young, not famous, but also full of potential player to anchor their midfield for years to come. It would be a move that would eventually reshape the Parisian club and signal the beginning of the end for the more senior players on the squad.

During this window, PSG would unload many of the players on their senior squad. It was a massive bulldozer job that saw the following players who had received first-team minutes in the 2021-22 season be sold or loaned. Long-time star Di Maria did not have his contract renewed and left the club in July. Fullback Thilo Kehrer was sent off to West Ham United FC for around €12 million. Midfield flop Wijnaldum was loaned out to AS Roma. Paredes was loaned to Juventus FC at the end of August. Backup center-back Abdou Diallo was loaned to RB Leipzig. Julian Draxler was loaned to SL Benfica, Gueye was sold back to Everton FC, and Icardi was loaned to Galatasaray SK. The winter window would also see the departures of Pablo Sarabia, Navas, and Ander Herrera. With the financial strain the club was in due to the large salaries of the top players, this transfer window would end up being wildly imbalanced towards departures, with only six players coming into the squad as replacements. Besides Vitinha, a young, exciting striker from Stade de Reims named Hugo Ekitike would join on loan, and backup fullback Nordi Mukiele would come in from Leipzig. Campos’ favorite Renato Sanches would come in from Lille, and attacking midfielder Carlos Soler would come in from Valencia. An underwhelming window in hindsight, but one other player did arrive at the end of the window from Napoli. A midfielder who had been a solid contributor his entire career, but nowhere near a massive European star. Fabian Ruiz was bought for around €28 million and would eventually become the key cog in PSG’s journey to the Champions League final, but we’re not there yet.

World Cup Derails PSG

That 2022-23 season started with PSG rolling through the early part of the season. They were undefeated going into the FIFA World Cup break in mid-November. A dominant team that had people saying “Galtier Ball” (after new manager Christophe Galtier) without even the slightest bit of irony. With their star players preparing for the World Cup and the great play of summer signing Vitinha, PSG looked to be on the right track in Campos's first year. Also, during that time, a 16-year-old midfielder named Warren Zaïre-Emery emerged from the academy to begin to take first-team minutes. By the end of the season, he would become an undisputed first-team starter.

The World Cup in Qatar would see PSG players star all over the place. Messi would finally win the World Cup by defeating Mbappé and France in the greatest World Cup final match ever played. Neymar would also suffer an injury that he would play through, but would honestly never recover fully from. Curiously enough, when the squad returned, nothing was as it was before. The players seemed disinterested and mentally drained. They began to drop matches in Ligue 1, slowly losing the large lead they had developed over time. A loss to Olympique de Marseille in the Coupe de France infuriated the fanbase and set the stage for the Champions League knockout tie against Bayern Munich, which only happened because Paris had been passed on goal differential by Benfica, a team they drew twice in the group stage.

The first leg at the Parc saw an uninspiring first 70 minutes, which saw Coman finish a volley right under the arm of Donnarumma. With Mbappé injured and only able to come off the bench, the team rose up at the end of the second half and was fairly unlucky not to get at least one goal. Hope remained but would be snuffed out in Munich in the second leg.

To understand where the team was at that point, only seven players active on that matchday are still with the club. Only one player (Zaïre-Emery) who was on the bench that night is still employed at the club. Neymar was injured as usual, so PSG played an insipid 3-5-2, and were run off the pitch by Bayern to the tune of 2-0 (with a 3-0 aggregate final total). After that match, the Ultras were livid. They boycotted the remaining home matches that season as PSG limped to a league title, but only by one point to an inspired RC Lens side that really should have won it. Only a free-kick goal by Messi in extra time against Lille saved PSG from a trophyless humiliation that season. The Galtier experiment was over. He was clearly in over his head at such a big club, and a racism scandal that followed him from his previous season at OGC Nice would give Al-Khelaifi the excuse to fire him with cause. PSG would be looking for a new manager for the fourth time in three years.

Can Anyone Manage PSG?

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Over the course of PSG’s Qatari era, the club had run the gamut when it came to managers. From expert man-managers like Carlo Ancelotti, potted house plants like Laurent Blanc, tactical geniuses with poor people skills like Unai Emery and Tuchel, nice guys like Pochettino, and whatever Galtier was. The best way to describe him was “Ligue 1 Lifer,” and I don’t mean that in a complimentary way. The one common denominator was that these poor men were always set up as fall guys. Al-Khelaifi was the boss, the leader, the recruiter, the spokesman, chief cook, and bottle washer. He made decisions that the underbosses executed to differing degrees. Some had more success than others, but in the end, all were placed in unwinnable situations. They had unrealistic expectations to meet, with a workforce that, quite frankly, had more power than they did.

That dynamic would shift when, in July of 2023, Al-Khelaifi and Campos hired former Barcelona and Spain national team manager Luis Enrique to be the club’s manager. Hindsight always knows best, but at the time, the hire was met with a mostly tepid response. A manager who had last managed in top-level European football in 2017, and whose last run as Spain boss had been mostly underwhelming. At that point, he was almost better known as a personality and Twitch streamer. How would the man they called “Lucho” handle the spotlight of such high-level egos, given how historically rigid his systems and methods had been? What few had foreseen was how committed Campos and Lucho would be to changing the entire makeup of the club, and how in lockstep they would be to ruthlessly excising the past and making way for the future.

The Campos/Luis Enrique Rebuild Begins

The first move would be to inject the largest group of incoming players in the QSI era of PSG. With multiple roster spots to fill, Campos and Luis Enrique would bring in players at nearly every position. Many of which would not be key contributors by year’s end. The irony of the Campos/Luis Enrique era so far has been that the success-to-failure rate hasn’t been as spectacular as you would think. A lot of misses, but the hits have been stunning, and nothing would exemplify that better than the 2023 transfer window.

The strategy was sound. PSG brought in a slew of young prospects that would provide solid sell-on value if nothing else, but also have the potential to be starters or squad rotation players for the next decade. For example, while Milan Škriniar failed to supply the complementary center-back play Lucho wanted, Brazilian youngster Lucas Beraldo has become a solid backup option with positional versatility. While a last-second shock transfer deal for World Cup star Randal Kolo Muani also proved to be a bad fit for the Lucho revolution, Benfica striker Gonçalo Ramos has offered an excellent goal-per-game ratio as a frequent starter but also as a substitute in major matches. For every Manuel Ugarte (more on him later), PSG signed a Kang-In Lee, who (stop me if you’ve heard this before) provides quality bench depth and solid starts in the league.

Some moves proved to be solid stopgap options for the 2023-24 season. Think of Marco Asensio, who signed on a free from Real Madrid. Think of former Bayern center-back and full-back mix Lucas Hernández. Both slipped into the roles perfectly and gave a professionalism that the young club sorely needed.

Some moves proved to be way more than stop gaps. The two hallmark moves of that offseason were the signings of Bradley Barcola from Olympique Lyonnais and the activation of the release clause of Barcelona winger, Ousmane Dembélé. Those moves were facilitated by the departure of two icons of the sport. Messi and PSG mutually decided to part ways at the end of the 2022-23 season, a move that, quite frankly, everyone wanted. The other departure came as a little more of a surprise, but not a shock. Paris had been trying to offload the mercurial Neymar for at least two previous seasons. His salary had made that nearly impossible, not to mention his growing list of major injuries. However, PSG were able to get lucky for once. A Saudi footballing revolution saw clubs in the Saudi Pro League splash massive amounts of cash for the top names in football. Luring the likes of Ronaldo and Benzema away from Europe. Al-Hilal Saudi FC, wanting a star of their own, made an unlikely deal with the Qatari owners to send Neymar to Saudi Arabia for nearly €100 million. A staggering, not quite believable fee for a player with a lengthy injury history. He would not even play 10 matches for the club in his time there, and PSG would have the cash to find his replacements. First came a former Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year, Dembélé. After a disappointing stint in the Camp Nou filled with degradation and injuries, Paris took a chance on one of the most unrealized talents in Europe. A €40 million release clause did the trick, as Barcelona hardly put up a fight, knowing it had young Lamine Yamal waiting in the proverbial wings.

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Barcola had been a Lyon academy graduate who was on the cusp of being an elite winger in Ligue 1. While he did not have the statistics yet, you could clearly see the potential in his pace and passing ability. PSG wooed the player and would eventually sign him at the end of the window for a €45 million fee.

Another departure was even more foundation-shaking. Ever since 2012, Italian midfield maestro Verratti has been the heartbeat of PSG. A sparkling player that worked hard, never complained (unless it was to a referee), and established himself as the only truly indispensable player the club had. Every time he would get injured, the club would struggle not just to replace his production, but to even win games. Life without “The Owl” was nearly impossible to imagine. Until Luis Campos and Luis Enrique decided that it wasn’t. They decided that Vitinha was ready to not only step into the Italians’ shoes but thrive in them. A sale to Qatari Club Al-Arabi SC for €45 million seemingly closed the door on an era of PSG football.

The 2023-24 season was truly one of discovery. What was mostly discovered was that some of the signings that were made in the summer did not fit the long-term vision of Lucho and his backroom team. Three names were Škriniar (whose lack of ball-playing ability stunted the offense), Kolo Muani (whose lack of ball-playing ability stunted the offense), and Ugarte (whose, say it with me, ball-playing ability stunted the offense). That last name was truly emblematic of the culture shift at the club. A high-profile young signing who was meant to be the stalwart holding mid for the next decade was quickly discarded to the bench by a manager who knew what he wanted in a way that other managers before him might have been able to articulate but were not able to manifest due to their position at the club. Luis Enrique wanted a team where everyone could play the ball at their feet, where players changed positions like they changed socks, where you never knew where the danger was coming from. Lucho would slowly replace Kolo Muani with young Barcola and Ramos. He would slowly replace Škriniar with Hernández, and Ugarte would slowly lose his place to Ruiz and academy star Zaïre-Emery.

Mbappé Departs and a Young Team Finds Success

These tweaks would pay dividends in the later stages of the season. Securing Lucho’s first Ligue 1 title and sparking a magical run to the semi-finals of the Champions League. Barely qualifying on the last day of the group stage by a Zaïre-Emery second-half strike against Borussia Dortmund. Followed by an Mbappé-led victory in two legs over Real Sociedad, and a stirring comeback win over 10-man Barcelona. The luck would run out as PSG hit the post and the crossbar, but not the back of the net in a 2-0 aggregate defeat to Dortmund. A Champions League defeat, but not a failure. PSG’s young squad was poised to take the next steps. Vitinha had been amazing in this run and would get the most Ballon d’Or votes of any PSG player not named Mbappé. Barcola was on the cusp of breaking out as a goal scorer. Dembélé had gone through the season healthy and had taken the Di Maria role as a double-double man on the wing. Hakimi and Mendes were both brilliant as usual. WZE would cement himself even more as a big-time young talent. And Ramos had become one of the top goal scorers in Europe based on goals per appearance and rate of scoring per 90. This team was on the cusp, but there was one major problem. The star of the team was about to leave.

Mbappé had been the face of the PSG project since his arrival from AS Monaco in the Summer of 2017. He had become the vice-captain, the team’s all-time leading goal scorer, top merchandise seller, and friend of Emmanuel Macron, the president of France. You couldn’t get a more French institution than Mbappé. However, the running joke had always been that his eyes leered towards Spain. It had been the worst-kept secret in European football that Mbappé would eventually leave PSG for Real Madrid and the waiting arms of Madrid President, Florentino Perez. However, in 2022, right after the capitulation at the Bernabeu, it seemed most likely he would leave. But for whatever reason, he re-signed with PSG for two seasons at the end of the season with an option for a third. He continued to thrive, and the fans of the club began to embrace him even more as their star. However, the summer of 2023 saw a permanent fracture between the club’s talisman and the board. He made it clear that at the end of 2024, he would not sign the player extension and leave for Real Madrid. Al-Khelaifi and Campos were furious and chose to freeze Mbappé out of the summer camp and the first four matches of the season. An untenable situation that Lucho would eventually put a stop to. Mbappé would finish the year as the club’s top player, in fairness, giving his all for the club (even if that still meant never playing defense), and announcing his departure the week after the Champions League semi-final exit.

Replacing a player like Mbappé would be extremely difficult. Campos and Luis Enrique would choose to replace him not by a flashy signing, but with a commitment to Lucho’s playing system and some very key acquisitions in the summer of 2024 and one major acquisition in the winter of 2025. The club would no longer be beholden to one mega star, or even a cabal of superstars. PSG would finally, by force or design matters not, become the kind of collective group of great players bound together by a unified goal. This would be a club of the many, not the few. Mbappé’s departure, once again by force or design, would lead the club into a brave new world that would begin on July 1, 2024.

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Three Signings That Changed PSG

The club would continue to offload players on loan or otherwise. Those players would include the permanent transfer of Ekitike, the free release of a lot of the club’s deadwood after years of them being on bad contracts, and most surprisingly, the admission of mistakes by the club’s board. Players just signed one year ago would be loaned out or flat-out transferred. Ugarte was sold to Manchester United for €50 million after being the star signing of the 2023 window. Others like Kolo Muani, Cher Ndour, and Škriniar would be shipped out the following January. One thing you could never accuse Luis Campos of is throwing good money after bad. A hallmark of this current regime is not being fixated on keeping players who didn’t work out to prove a point. With their sales came the arrival of three massive summer additions that would instantly make the club better.

The first being Portuguese young star João Neves, one of the best young prospects in European football. Campos, with his connections, was able to beat out multiple clubs for his signing at just €60 million. What amounted to a straight swap out of Ugarte for Neves would go down as one of the shrewdest moves any PSG executive has ever made. An instant upgrade that fits the Lucho system with room to grow into one of the continent’s best players. Pair him alongside the metronome of Vitinha and the consistency of Ruiz and WZE, and for the first time in a decade, PSG could claim to have one of the best midfielders in the sport. Alongside his signing came another young star, this time from Stade Rennais. Désiré Doué was highly coveted as well, with his decision coming down to either the Capital Club or German giants Bayern Munich. In another time, PSG would lose out on these kinds of French homegrown talents to outside clubs. Not anymore, as Doué was convinced to join Paris for a €50 million transfer fee.

However, it was a third move that would really prove to be the signing of the summer. With the need for a ball-playing center back, Luis Campos signed a little-known but gifted Ecuadorian center back, Willian Pacho, from Eintracht Frankfurt for €40 million. Little known because just a couple of years prior, he was still in Ecuadorian football and only had two years of experience on the European continent. He was a left-footed center-back who would not only contribute in his first year but also become an undisputed full-time starter and the best center back on the team. A physical presence who could also play the ball with the best of them. A true gem unearthed by Campos and his exhaustive scouting. These three signings would provide Lucho with starters capable of changing the game at each level of his squad.

PSG’s Attack Stumbles in the Champions League

The 2024-25 season started as a paradox. The team was dominant in France in a way they hadn’t been in many years. Not only were they winning, but they were winning convincingly, by 3-4 goals a game against the league’s best competition. For years, PSG had feasted on the dregs of Ligue 1 while struggling to match the intensity of the top Ligue 1 teams trying to knock them off on any given weekend. This team completely steamrolled the top teams. Marseille, Lyon, and Monaco all fell to the buzzsaw that was the PSG attack. However, the Champions League form was straight up bad.

Poised to have a breakout season, Ramos fractured his ankle in the first 15 minutes of the Ligue 1 opener. This left PSG with a conundrum that would shape the face of the season. Would Paris reach into the transfer market to replace Ramos with a true 9, give Kolo Muani another crack at the striker position, or take option C? While most PSG fans and pundits begged for reinforcements, Lucho decided to go back to a classic staple of his coaching. That being the false 9. First, it was Asensio, an old reliable who would take that role and do quite well. But then he received an injury, leaving PSG in an even deeper quandary. This would not manifest in Ligue 1 play, but PSG’s first three Champions League matches would see them barely squeak past Girona FC, get hammered 2-0 by Arsenal at the Emirates, and secure a draw against PSV Eindhoven.

With two tough Champions League matches against Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich on deck, it would be vital for Luis Enrique’s men to pull it together. However, the issue of the attack was a major concern that Paris had a difficult time fixing. It would lead to only one goal against Atleti and Bayern combined, a last-second loss to Madrid, and a 1-0 defeat at the Allianz Arena against Munich. With four points through five matches, PSG saw themselves at the bottom of the Champions League’s new large group stage format, likely needing three wins in their last three group stage matches to make it through. Very few, including your humble narrator, would have expected PSG to return to the Allianz any time soon, let alone May 31 for a potential final. At that point, a final seemed light years away. However, something funny happened.

Dembélé Finds the Back of the Net

Dembélé, a player that Lucho had benched for the Arsenal match for poor conduct in practice, had returned to the manager’s good graces, but not in his traditional winger role. Call it desperation, call it madness, call it manager’s intuition, but Luis Enrique saw his floundering false 9 attack and instead of inserting the returning Ramos as soon as he was fit, decided to stick Dembélé in the middle as the false 9. A job the likes of Kang-In Lee and the struggling Doué couldn’t fill. Like most great things in life, they come when you least expect them. Dembélé started scoring, something he had struggled to do his entire career. He was always the play generator and creator, but his finishing had been historically awful for a player of his skill. But he just…started scoring and scoring…and he didn’t stop. His form rounded into shape heading into the winter break, where a 3-0 victory against RB Salzburg gave PSG hope headed into what was a potentially decisive matchup at the Parc des Princes against Manchester City, who were another squad that had struggled for form in the late fall months.

That match would prove to be the turning point of the season for the capital club. A familiar formula was playing out. PSG dominated the possession, had a goal called back for offside, and then immediately surrendered two cheap goals at the start of the second half. Another season lost to poor defending and bad finishing. That was until the 56th minute when Barcola nutmegged Mathias Nunes and changed the course of the season. First, it was Dembélé off the pass from Barcola, then it was Barcola off a rebound on a post hit by Doué, then it was a Neves header on the back post from a free kick, capped off by a Ramos strike in extra time. PSG had flipped the tie on its head and kick-started the season. This was followed up by a brilliant 4-1 road victory on Matchday eight against VfB Stuttgart. That match saw the emergence of Doué, his scorpion assist lit the match a flame, and PSG would pour it on with a Dembélé hat-trick. PSG had pulled themselves off the scrapheap and advanced to the new knockout round playoff of the Champions League. There, they would play familiar French opponent FC Brest and proceed to drop 10 goals over 2 legs on the Pirates. Their form was at its peak, and they would be matched up against Liverpool FC, the top team in the Champions League group phase and Premier League leaders.

Kvaratskhelia: The Final Piece of the PSG Puzzle

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While all of this was going on, PSG decided to make one of the boldest January moves in their history. With Kolo Muani out of favor, PSG wanted to make a major move to bolster their attacking front. That would come in the form of Napoli winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who Paris had tried to sign in the previous summer. A €70 million transfer would complete the deal and finally make this PSG side whole. The pieces had all finally been put into place, and a run to the final would begin with the first leg at the Parc.

PSG would lose that first leg 1-0 on a Harvey Elliot late goal for Liverpool, but that hardly told the story. The best team in England had been dissected over 90 minutes. It was a lucky result for the team from Merseyside, and everyone knew it. Most importantly, the PSG players knew it and would not let that deter them heading into the second leg at Anfield. Where once again they would play well, scoring the first goal from a great counter, topped by a Dembélé tap-in. Both teams would go scoreless the rest of the way in what many described as the best match of football of the season up until that point. It would come down to penalty kicks, and the man whom the fans had derided for years, Donnarumma, saved two spot kicks, setting the stage for the final penalty taker, Doué, to power one into the left corner, advancing PSG to the quarter-finals. One major test had been passed, with more to come.

PSG Take On The Villans

Aston Villa in the quarter-finals would present another challenge. Former Paris manager Emery had done a wonderful job getting more out of less with his side. A lightning counter goal put PSG behind, but it was the pure elite skill of Doué and Kvaratskhelia that grabbed the lead in the second half. A stoppage time goal by Mendes off a precise assist by Dembélé would make the lead 3-1, heading into the second leg at Villa Park. That leg would kick off with goals from the fullbacks, Hakimi and Mendes, to give PSG what appeared to be an insurmountable 5-1 aggregate lead. However, Villa fought back with a goal in the first half and two quick second-half goals to send the fans into delirium. It appeared, like in ties gone by, that PSG was poised to capitulate. To falter and then sink. But that was the old PSG, the one with the stars as bright as the heavens. This PSG hunkered down. Led by a herculean goalkeeping performance from Donnarumma, Paris straightened up and locked down the match. A Pacho clearance off the line ultimately secured qualification. PSG were in the semi-finals, where yet another English club awaited.

Another Final For PSG

Arsenal, who had defeated PSG earlier in the season, presented a tough matchup problem: PSG’s poor set-piece defense versus one of the elite set-piece teams on the continent. However, it was from open play where Ballon d’Or favorite Dembélé swiped in a pass from Kvara off the right post to give Paris a 1-0 lead that they would hold the entire match. Despite a litany of set-piece plays, PSG dominated over 90 minutes and sent a statement that this wasn’t the same PSG side that came to London in October. The second leg would be filled with more set pieces, some brilliant saves from Donnarumma, and a masterful volley goal in the 27th minute by 2022 signing Ruiz, who had been stellar over both legs, but saved his first Champions League goal for when it mattered most. A Hakimi goalazo would silence the Gunners for good. A stirring, masterful 3-1 aggregate win, with the Parc des Princes in a frenzy around them. For the first time, the PSG faithful could celebrate a finals qualification in the stadium with the team.

So, what to make of this journey, from August 23, 2020, in the height of the pandemic, to May 31, 2025, where PSG will take on Inter Milan in their second attempt at a first-ever Champions League trophy. From final to final, PSG transformed itself completely. From a star-studded outfit with names that lacked substance, to a fully realized team project built out of the frustrations of Al-Khelalifi, the vision and shrewdness of Luis Campos, and the tactics and tenacity of Luis Enrique. The five years in between had been an odyssey of trial and error, failure and rebirth, career ends and career beginnings. While this 2025 version of the trophy is still up for grabs, Paris Saint-Germain has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the path they have embarked upon from stars to solidarity has been the correct one. This club, this city, these fans, and these players were here to stay at the upper echelons of European football. From final to final, it was a journey in the darkness, not knowing when the light would arrive. But now, it is morning in Paris, the Eiffel Tower illuminated by the hope that in its city, anything is possible, even PSG’s impossible dream, now just 90 minutes away.