PSG has been mocked as a young club with only 50 years of history, a club owned by Qatari money, people with no football heritage, and also taunted as a local giant with no clout in the Continent.
And it has never reached the Final of the UEFA Champion’s League.
Tonight, all this could change.
PSG has the two most expensive football transfers in history, both fit and hungry: Neymar Jr and Kylian Mbappe. What’s more, they understand each other and read each other seamlessly.
PSG is in form: having won the French League 1 as well as 4 other domestic Cups this season. PSG is coached by Thomas Tuchel was a highly-rated coach before Paris Saint Germain’s semi-final against RB Leipzig, but after landing the French club in the showpiece event, he is on the brink of fulfilling his potential and becoming one of Europe’s elite managers.
Should Tuchel claim the Champions League crown, he will go down in history as the manager who was finally able to provide the club with the trophy they have craved since their takeover by Qatar Sports Investments in June 2011. If PSG win, former Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger will be smiling: he had advised the Qataris to invest in PSG.
PSG was mocked even by French fans once upon a time in the 1990s, but the Club which plays in the Parc Du Princes has managed, over the past decade, to create an atmosphere that brings together the elite of Paris as well as the people of the banlieue, the suburbs who constitute 80% of the population of the Paris Metropolitan Area.
Tonight is the ultimate test of whether the billions invested can bear fruit: standing in their way is the machine that is Bayern Munich. Winner of 5 Champion’s League titles, losing finalist 5 times. Coached by Hansi Flick, the German club is in fine form, following their historic record-breaking 8-2 banishment of Barcelona and 3-0 whitewash of Lyon. It will take a great side to overcome Bayern: can PSG do it?