BEFORE French football turned professional in 1932, assorted amateur clubs from Paris were often crowned champions. Names like Standard Athletic, Club Francais, Gallia, CA Paris and Stade Francais have largely been forgotten, but in the early days of competitive football in France, they were dominant clubs.
Paris Saint-Germain were founded in 1970 with the aim of giving the French capital a top class football club. Even as recently as the early 2000s, the French game’s better known clubs were Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille and Saint-Étienne. And then, Qatar took over PSG and everything changed. PSG are the current European champions and they are defending their title on May 30 when they play Arsenal in the Champions League final.
But before PSG targeted the very top prize, they picked up their first European honour in 1996 when they beat Rapid Vienna 1-0 in the European Cup-Winners’ Cup final at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels. A year later, they reached the final again. This was something of a golden period for PSG as in 1994, they had won the Ligue 1 title, finishing eight points clear of Marseille and from 1992 to 1997, they never finished lower than third in the table. Their record in the Coupe de France was also impressive as they won the competition in 1993, 1995 and 1998. PSG also made their mark in the Champions League, reaching the semi-final in 1994-95 and beating Bayern Munich and Barcelona on the way before losing to Barcelona.
PSG’s success came after the club had been taken over by Canal+, the French TV channel. Originally, the club was fan-owned with 20,000 members but in 1973, a group of wealthy French businessmen bought PSG. Canal+ became majority shareholders in 1997 and gained total control in 2005. They spent heavily in their bid to make PSG successful, bringing in big names like George Weah, Alain Roche, David Ginola, Youri Djorkaeff, Raí, Ricardo Gomes and the up-and-coming Patrice Loko of Nantes.
In 1993-94, PSG were champions for the second time in their relatively short history, boosted by a front-line pairing of the brilliant and enigmatic Ginola and the power of Liberian centre forward Weah. They were beaten just three times in Ligue 1 and did not lose a single game at home. They also reached the last four of the Cup-Winners’ Cup, narrowly losing to eventual, winners Arsenal in the semi-final.
Winning the title gave them entry to the Champions League in 1994-95 and the Parisians clearly enjoyed their campaign among Europe’s elite. PSG made their mark in the competition, reaching the semi-final after beating Bayern Munich and Barcelona before losing to Barcelona and the original Ronaldo. Although they lost their Ligue 1 crown, they did, at least, win the Coupe De France, beating Strasbourg 1-0 in the final. In the close season of 1995, however, PSG lost Ginola and Weah to Newcastle United and AC Milan respectively. Gomes also went back to Benfica. Djorkaeff arrived from Monaco and PSG also took a chance on Julio Dely Valdeś from Cagliari, a Panamanian striker who proved to be a good buy.
In 1995-96, PSG’s performances tailed-off badly in the second half of the season and they lost six of their last 13 games. They had only lost twice in the first 25. They finished runners-up to surprise club Auxerre, who won their one and only Ligue 1 title. It was the European Cup-Winners Cup that saw PSG shine most brightly, starting with a first round win against Norway’s Molde and then a comfortable 4-0 aggregate victory against Celtic. Into 1996, PSG met the 1993 winners of the cup, Parma, a talented side that had finished runners-up in Serie A in 1994-95. They lost the first leg 1-0 to a Hristo Stoichkov goal but responded in style in the second meeting with a resounding 3-1 victory, thanks to two penalties scored by Raí.
PSG were now favourites to win the competition and overcame Spanish side Deportivo La Coruña in the semi-final with two 1-0 wins. Their opponents in the final were Rapid Wien, a grand old name from the past but still capable of competing in Europe. They had beaten Romania’s Petrolul Ploiesti, Sporting Clube de Portugal (after losing 2-0 in the first leg), Dynamo Moscow and Feyenoord. They had some very notable players, including Austrian striker Christian Stumpf, midfielder Peter Stöger and the formidable German Carsten Jancker, who was on-loan from Köln. Both Stump and Jancker players were regular scorers of vital goals and netted 10 between them in the ECWC run.
The final was a close-run affair and Stöger had an early chance for Rapid, but it was PSG that went in front in the 28th minute with a low, hard free kick that deceived goalkeeper Michael Konsel. Both teams had chances in the second half and late in the game, PSG goalkeeper Bernard Lama pulled off a superb finger-tip save from Rapid’s Bulgarian centre back Trifon Ivanov. PSG thought they had scored again in added time, but Patrice Loko’s effort was ruled out for offside.
A year later, PSG were back in the final in Rotterdam to face Barcelona. They had scooped another big signing in the form of Brazilian midfielder Leandro, who had joined the club from Kashima Antlers of Japan. He scored some important goals for PSG in the Cup-Winners Cup, including one in the semi-final against Liverpool. Their opponents in Brussels, Barcelona, were managed by former England coach Bobby Robson and would include future managers Luis Enrique and Pep Guardiola, Portugal’s Luis Figo and Vitor Baiá and Gheorghe Popescu and Stoichkov. The star of the show was 20-year-old Ronaldo who would score 47 goals in the 1996-97 season, his only campaign for Barca. One of those goals was a penalty that won the Cup-Winners Cup for his team.
PSG had reached the semi-final stage of European competition for four consecutive seasons and twice won through to the final. They were, suddenly, recognised as a credible power across the continent, although it would take extraordinary levels of investment to make them kings of Europe. Just how solid their status is standing astride Europe will be tested in Budapest on May 30.
Game of the People was founded in 2012 and is ranked among the 100 best football websites by various sources. The site consistently wins awards for its work, across a broad range of subjects. [View all posts by Neil Fredrik Jensen](https://gameofthepeople.com/author/georgefjord/)