with eleven titles, the giant PSG of the giants of the French championship

With 46 titles to their name, Paris Saint-Germain was already the most successful French club in history. But PSG now has 47, after that of French Ligue 1 champion 2022-2023 just acquired, Saturday May 27. The eleventh for the capital club, which thus becomes the most crowned team in Ligue 1, and settles at the top of the hierarchy of French football.

In the rearview mirror of the Parisian Formula 1, we find the other clubs that marked their era: Reims, Saint-Etienne, Marseille and Lyon. Emblematic teams, which PSG now downgrades from a statistical point of view, without forgetting the other big names in French football such as Nantes, Monaco or Bordeaux, which have never dominated over time, but which have built up a nice prize list thanks to their regularity.

Reims: post-war pioneers

We are talking about a time that people under 60 cannot know: that of football in black and white, with heavy leather balls and the first cleats. The one who saw the Stade de Reims play two Champions League finals (1956, 1959) against Real Madrid. And especially the one who saw France being passionate about “Grand Reims”, who often relocated his meetings to Paris.

Chaired by Henri Germain, and largely financed by money from Champagne (in particular the Pommery house), the Stade de Reims then aligned magic eleven, with the backbone of the France team (Just Fontaine, Roger Piantoni, Raymond Kopa…). All orchestrated by Albert Batteux, himself coach of the Blues. It was also the era of champagne football, the name given to the shimmering game developed by the people of Rémois, who thus won six French championship titles after the war (1949, 1953, 1955, 1958, 1960 and 1962), thus becoming the first giant of French football.

Saint-Etienne: the phenomenon of society

When the Stade de Reims began its decline in the early 1960s, AS Saint-Etienne emerged on the national scene. Carried by the Casino Geoffroy Guichard group (hence the name of the stadium), the Saint-Etienne club then began what was later called “the great period of the Greens”, i.e. a domination of nearly twenty years over French football, with ten championship titles gleaned between 1957 and 1981. At the heart of this splendor period, the Greens reached their peak between 1967 and 1976, nine seasons which saw them crowned seven times.

Their Champions Clubs’ Cup final lost in 1976 remains in everyone’s memory. At the time, more than a football team, the AS Saint-Etienne of Dominique Rocheteau, the Revelli brothers or later of Michel Platini and Johnny Rep is a real social phenomenon. While the France team struggles to exist, the Greens fill this void and establish themselves as the club of the country. Outside the championship, they collected six French Cups in passing, before experiencing a dizzying fall in 1982 and the slush fund affair. Since then, Saint-Etienne has only won one trophy: the Coupe de la Ligue in 2013.

Marseille: excess Bernard Tapie

In 1986, the Parisian businessman Bernard Tapie took over Olympique de Marseille, encouraged by the mayor of Marseille: Gaston Defferre. After succeeding in the business world and in cycling, Bernard Tapie made a promise: to make OM the biggest club in France, and win the Champions League. A promise that will be kept by “Nanard”, with OM’s European title in 1993 against Milan, whose 30th anniversary is being celebrated.

But to realize this European dream, OM de Tapie first had to make their mark in France. With great blows of stars and glitter, Marseille reigned over the D1 from 1989 to 1993, with five consecutive championship titles, although that of 1993 was finally withdrawn from the club following the VA-OM affair. With its stars Papin, Waddle, Pelé, Francescoli and Boksic, OM was then the flagship club in the championship, despite fierce competition from Bordeaux, Monaco and PSG. A golden era that came to an abrupt end with the administrative relegation of the club to D2 in 1994. Since then, the Marseille club has only won the championship once and has 9 league titles.

Lyon: the hit of the 2000s

If he left the world of football through the back door, Bernard Tapie left a forgotten legacy: indeed, if Jean-Michel Aulas took over Olympique Lyonnais in 1987, it was indeed thanks to the help and advice of Bernard Tapie, who sees in this “young industrialist an excellent president for OL”. Forty years later, Tapie’s vision has been largely confirmed, as Jean-Michel Aulas made Lyon, then an anonymous mid-table team, THE stronghold of French football in the 2000s.

One figure is enough to measure it: 7, like the number of consecutive French championship titles for OL between 2002 and 2008. Even the current PSG has never achieved such a feat (4 titles in a row between 2013 and 2016) . At the time, Lyon nourished (like OM de Tapie) assumed European ambitions, but which would never be confirmed. Gradually, and despite an aggressive recruitment strategy among French-speaking competitors, Lyon’s hegemony ran out of steam at the dawn of the 2010s. But since then, there have been few years without seeing OL at the top of the table. After 36 years of presidency, Jean-Michel Aulas can retire with the feeling of accomplishment.

Paris: The Qatari Revolution

When Qatar bought PSG in the summer of 2011, the Parisian club was above all a Cup team. And for good reason: Paris only had two French championship titles (1986, 1994), against 8 French Cups and 3 League Cups. But the substantial investments made by the new owners of the club will change the situation, while no club has managed to take over from Lyon in France. Thus, between the end of the reign of Lyon in 2008, and the beginning of Parisian hegemony in 2013, four champions succeeded one another: Bordeaux (2009), Marseille (2010), Lille (2011) and Montpellier (2012).

The coronation of the Héraultais in 2012 marks a first hitch in the plans of PSG, but which will only happen twice afterwards: in 2017 with Monaco, and in 2021 with Lille. Two exceptions in a decade dominated head and shoulders by PSG, which has won 9 league titles. With now 11 national crowns, and financial means that place it far ahead of the rest of the championship, PSG seems untouchable. As Reims, Saint-Etienne, Marseille and Lyon seemed in their time, they too were well helped by their finances.