By Samuel A. March 9, 2023
For their 11th consecutive time in 11 years, PSG’s attempt at winning the Champions League ended in more misery, leaving the manager, Christopher Galtier, in between a rock and a hard place. With their project, which just started a couple of years ago, failing to deliver, I think I speak for the world when I say they need to liquidate and start all over.
Bayern Munich dumped them out in the first knockout round 3-0 on aggregate, with a convincing 2-0 win Wednesday in Germany sealing the victory. Les Parisiens, a team with the three of the five best players in the world right now in Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Leo Messi, failed to score in over 180 minutes. When asked about the defeat, PSG manager, Christophe Galtier said: “It’s a big disappointment. We have to deal with it and accept it. I don’t know if it’s a lesson to be learned, but there’s a lot of frustration. If we had scored first, it would have been much different, but we didn’t.”
PSG have spent over £1bn since a Qatari takeover in 2012 and have won 8 of the last 10 Ligue 1 titles and 12 domestic cups under the new ownership, but the Champions League was the owners’ dream and it doesn’t look any closer to coming true. After reaching the quarter-final in each of the first four seasons, they have gone out in the last 16 in five of the last seven seasons. Their most successful campaign was in 2020, where they reached the final, but lost to the same parasites, Bayern Munich. This, thereby, leaves us with a question. What next for the lethal front three?
Kylian Mbappe, on one hand, became the club’s all time topscorer last weekend, after a brace against Nantes. The 2018 World Cup winner is one of the few home grown players on their team, but he may feel he has to leave to establish himself as one of the game’s greats, after accomplishing quite a lot for the club.
Leo Messi, on the other hand, is in his last year of his contract this summer. The 35-year-old Argentina captain is thought to be interested in staying but has not signed a new deal yet. He has won a record seven Ballons d’Or and scored 29 goals in 64 games for the french side since leaving Barcelona two summers ago – but he has failed to be the catalyst for PSG’s elusive Champions League crown. Time for a new challenge for him?
Lastly, Brazilian forward Neymar, who left Barcelona, where he was in Messi’s shadow, for PSG in 2017 for a world-record £200m has had his time with the club plagued by injuries, and his season was prematurely ended last week with the news he needed knee surgery. Many think it’s time for Neymar Jr to leave the club. I personally think his time is up. There is just too much drama when Neymar is in the lineup, if it’s not with the coaches or players, it’s with the media. For PSG to fully reach its potential of winning the Champions league they will have to make tough decisions and that starts with parting ways with Neymar.
