Most people know who PSG are.
We certainly do; Newcastle United having taken four points from the Parisians in the so-called European Champions League group of death in the 2023/24 campaign.
On 4 October 2023, in our first Champions League tie at St James’ Park in two decades, a raucous crowd saw Eddie Howe’s side dismantle the French aristocrats, whose first eleven boasted the likes of Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele, United winning by four goals to one.
Local lads Dan Burn and Sean Longstaff on the scoresheet ,as well as Miggy Almiron and Fabian Schar, with a cracking effort from outside the box right at the death.
If that was a truly unforgettable experience, so was the return fixture in the Parc de Princes at the end of November, when an absolutely disgraceful decision saw Polish referee Szymon Marciniak consult the pitchside monitor before awarding a penalty, Tino Livramento bizarrely adjudged to have handled inside the box.
Mbappe equalised from the spot kick, the goal registering in the 98th minute, breaking United hearts and depriving us of a famous double after an Alexander Isak goal in the 24th minute followed by some of the best, most resolute defending I’ve ever seen from a team playing in those famous black and white shirts.
Of course, the French aristocrats, owned by Qatar Sports Investments since 2011, have been an ever present at the top table of European football for well over a decade now, reaching the pinnacle by winning the Champions League last year with a 5-0 rout of Inter Milan in the final in Munich.
What is perhaps less well known is that compared to most other football powerhouses, PSG are a relatively young club.
Paris Saint-Germain Football Club only came into being in 1970 when Stade saint-germanois, founded in 1904, and Paris Football Club, established only 18 months before PSG, were brought together.
They actually split again in 1972 with Paris FC maintaining pro status and obtaining the Parc des Princes, while PSG dropped into the amateur Division 3. Just two years later, Paris FC were relegated to the second tier as PSG moved into the top flight.
Incredibly, the French capital had not had a professional football club since the demise of Racing Club de France and Stade français in the 1960s and inspired by the great Ajax team of Johan Cruyff, the club’s first president, fashion designer Daniel Hechter, placed a large vertical red stripe in the middle of the shirt, a design that has been reprised many times since.
Red and blue are the colours of the city of Paris with white alluding to the royal connections of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the city just outside the capital where PSG’s training centre and youth academy are currently based. The club’s badge features the Eiffel Tower and a cradle, representing the badge of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the birthplace of legendary French king Louis XIV.
Not surprisingly, PSG immediately drew the support of the Parisians, who finally had a football club that could contend for domestic trophies. Shortly after earning promotion to Ligue 1 in 1972, the club moved into the legendary Parc des Princes, which would serve as their home to this day.
The early 1980s saw PSG win their first major trophies by claiming back-to-back French Cups in 1982 and 1983 and consequently trying their luck in European competitions, although they failed to advance past the quarter-final stage, reaching the last eight of the Cup Winners’ Cup quarter-finals in 1984.
Under Gérard Houllier, PSG claimed their first French top-flight title in 1986. With a side featuring French internationals who had won the European Championships in 1984, they went unbeaten over the last 27 games of the campaign to pip FC Nantes to top spot by just three points.
The arrival of TV company Canal+ as a shareholder in 1991 did much to change the face of PSG. Ex Newcastle United star, David Ginola, along with Bernard Lama and George Weah, were among the big names that arrived in the capital, and unsurprisingly with that sort of talent, success followed.
In addition to claiming their second Ligue 1 trophy (1994), three French Cups (1993, 1995, 1998) and two League Cups (1995, 1998), PSG became the second French club to win a European trophy by defeating Rapid Vienna in the 1996 Cup Winners’ Cup final.
These golden years were followed by a period of relative decline until 2011, when the club was bought by Qatar Sports Investments who have had phenomenal domestic success.
Bearing in mind David Beckham inspired PSG to only their third League 1 title in 2013, after winning the league again in 2023, with 11 League 1 titles to their name, PSG surpassed Saint-Étienne’s record haul of 10 French titles.
Success on the domestic front had not been matched by success on the continent until last year however. PSG’s quest to win the Champions League had seen them spend record-breaking sums on star players, but it took considerable time for that investment to pay off.
Despite smashing the world transfer record in 2017 when they paid Neymar’s €222 million release clause to acquire the Brazilian from FC Barcelona, and spending a further €180m to pair him with the French international Kylian Mbappe a year later, the closest PSG had come to winning the Champions League was in the 2019/20 campaign, when they reached the final, but were beaten 1-0 by Bayern Munich in Lisbon, with Kingsley Coman (ironically an ex-PSG player) scoring the winner in the 59th minute.
Despite winning ten French titles in the eleven years prior to last season, PSG had failed to get beyond the Round of 16 of the Champions Cup on five occasions with that solitary appearance in Lisbon in the final of 2020 being the only time they’d progressed that far.
However, that all changed in the 2024/25 campaign.
An inauspicious start led to a 15th place finish in the Swiss league, PSG losing three of their opening five group games before a late rally saw them win their final three games, including a 4-2 win at home to Manchester City. In the play-off, Paris saw off fellow French side Brest, winning 10-0 on aggregate before a succession of English clubs were put to the sword.
Liverpool were beaten on penalties at Anfield (a few days before they lost the 2025 League Cup Final), Aston Villa were despatched 5-4 on aggregate in the quarter finals, before Arsenal exited the competition at the semi-final stage, PSG comfortably winning both legs against the side from north London to set up only their second appearance in the final of Europe’s most prestigious club competition, this time going one step further by landing the big cup.
This is who we’re up against tonight, the defending champions.
But, we’ve played this lot very recently and after last week’s convincing win over PSV Eindhoven, United stand on the brink of automatic qualification to the last sixteen. To do that, we’ve got to get all three points in the Parc de Princes and that will be extremely difficult.
Avoiding the qualifying round has got to be the objective, especially given the fixture congestion and you never know, where there’s a will, there’s often a way.