Paris Saint-Germain won their eleventh French league title on Saturday. Despite this historic success, the club from the capital will find it difficult to be satisfied with another lackluster season.
Paris Saint-Germain now sits alone, at the top of the French football charts. After its draw against Strasbourg (1-1), Saturday May 27, the capital club officially won an eleventh French championship title, one more than AS Saint-Étienne, whose record had stood since 1981. Forty-two years later, the Qatari version of PSG overtakes the Greens, having won nine titles in eleven seasons, but this 2023 version success will not satisfy owners whose big objective is still not fulfilled.
In the Champions League, PSG once again missed the mark, at the stage of the round of 16 in February. This elimination against Bayern Munich obviously marked a turning point in the Parisian season, which finally ended in the joy of a title of champion of France but also the tumult of a club subscribed to controversy. This 2022-2023 financial year had however started off with a bang for Paris. The beginnings of the new coach, Christophe Galtier, seemed idyllic.
The resounding success in Lille (7-1) at the end of August raised the greatest hopes among Parisian supporters. The former LOSC coach seems to have found the formula for the Neymar-Kylian Mbappé-Lionel Messi trio to work in Ligue 1. The first city is floating at the start of the season (11 goals and 9 assists until November 13 ), while the last, who went through his first year at PSG like a shadow, finds his best level (7 goals and 10 assists). The Parisian stars shine (12 goals until the 15th day for the French). Nothing surprising in that: you have to put yourself in the best conditions for the World Cup which is fast approaching.
A spade of controversies
But in Paris more than elsewhere, life is not a long calm river. The first controversy of the season erupted on September 5, when Christophe Galtier was questioned about PSG’s trips by private jet. “We spoke with the company that organizes our trips, we are in the process of seeing if we cannot travel by sand yacht”, quips the Parisian coach. The joke will only make Kylian Mbappé laugh, present at his side at a press conference.
Throughout the season, the controversies will follow one another and come to tarnish the image of the capital club and its internal functioning: recent fracture between the supporters of the Collectif Ultras Paris and the management, Galtier accused of racist remarks during his move to OGC Nice, unauthorized escapade of Lionel Messi in Saudi Arabia… The end of the Parisian season is full of these adventures, also a sign that on the ground, things are not going so well.
Already losing momentum just before the World Cup, Paris lost the thread at the start of 2023… from January 1. Christophe Galtier then concedes his first defeat as a Parisian coach on the lawn of RC Lens (1-3). The defeats are linked (five in two months in all competitions), the elimination against Bayern Munich in the Champions League causes the now eternal questioning of the sports management of PSG at the arrival of spring.
The supporters this time present to celebrate the title
Deprived of Neymar – injured in the ankle, another refrain – PSG are playing half-time in Ligue 1 trying to recover from this umpteenth European disappointment. Only Kylian Mbappé seems able to make the difference and few Parisian players evolve at their real level, except Danilo. The behavior of the latter, who does not hesitate to remonstrate with Neymar or Messi on the ground, is praised by the supporters.
This is less the case with Messi. The Pulga of Qatar, world champion with Argentina, has nothing to do with that of Paris, capable of missing simple passes. The South American, whose future at PSG is uncertain with a contract that ends at the end of June, is the focus of all criticism after the sanction imposed on him by PSG in early May. His reception at the Parc des Princes against Ajaccio, after a week of suspension, is icy.
Whistled and insulted by part of the Park during this match, the Saudi Arabian tourism ambassador is doing what he has done best since his arrival in Paris: ignoring the Parisian supporters. During the title acquired in 2022, the latter had celebrated the coronation without the players, on the forecourt of the Parc des Princes. This time, after putting aside their reproaches vis-à-vis the management and finding common ground with them, PSG could offer more scenes of communion.
A commonplace situation for any club. But Paris hasn’t been a normal club for a long time. PSG have learned to manage disappointments, to be satisfied with little and this newfound harmony is enough to give a little balm to the heart of a club whose ambitions go far beyond a simple peace of the brave with its supporters. This is the paradox of this PSG season which ends the year once again, despite everything, crowned with a title of champion of France.