photo by funky1opti

• by Braydon de Liberato, writing from Canada

For the past 10 years, French football has been a one-horse race. Olympique Lyonnais has won Ligue 1 an astounding seven times in the past 9 years. However, in the past two seasons Lyon has fell off their lofty perch, with Marseille and Lille winning the most recent titles. In the midst of Lyon’s drop, a new French team is set to take their place atop the French league: Paris St. Germain. One of the youngest Ligue 1 teams (established 1970), PSG skyrocketed up the league table, from 13th two years ago up to 4th in 2010-11. They have achieved this through reckless spending, bringing in the likes of Nene and Ludovic Giuly in the past few years. This ‘spend as you please’ policy will surely still occur under PSG’s new ownership, the Qatar Investment Authority.

The Qatar Investment Authority purchased a 70% stake in PSG earlier this year for 150 million Euros. The QIA is owned by the Qatari government, and controls all of the extra oil and natural gas surpluses in Qatar. They also control Qatari Diar, a very large and lucrative real estate business in Qatar. The Qatar Investment Authority controls over $60 billion in assets, a number that will surely increase in the coming years. The QIA is very willing to put money into PSG, as evidenced by the transfers already done under their new ownership, and the players rumored to be tracked by PSG.

Paris St. Germain has all the potential to become one of the best teams in Europe. Ownership is willing to buy the team into the Champions League, and the team already has the right core in place to be competitive for many years to come. The competition in Ligue 1 is, however, getting stiffer, so In order for PSG to keep ahead, they will have to continually spend to bring in star players. PSG’s is a very similar situation to Manchester City, in the sense that PSG is a European ‘bubble team’ helped over the hill by new oil money brought in by a Middle Eastern owner. Only time will tell if the Parisians spending, however, matches that of the Citizens.

PSG have made a pair of notable signings this summer, acquiring Nicholas Douchez from Rennes and Kevin Gamiero from Lorient. Douchez was brought in to replace the now-retired Gregory Coupet on a free transfer. Douchez was instrumental in Rennes’ 6th place finish in Ligue 1 last year. In the past 3 seasons, Douchez has let in an average of 34 goals/season. In comparison, Inter Milan has let in 36 goals/season in that same time span. Douchez achieved these numbers with a similar workload to Julio Cesar (Inter’s starting goalie in that time frame), making 333 saves in the 3 seasons compared to 328 for Cesar. PSG’s second notable transfer was bringing in Kevin Gamiero. Gamiero was brought to PSG from Lorient in an 11 million Euro transfer. Gamiero scored 22 goals in Ligue 1 last year, good for 2nd in the league. He is still young, and at 24 still has several years until the nominal peak age of 28. Gamiero is a small, tricky forward that will fit in well with PSG’s other emerging attacking talents. Along with these two, PSG are linked with several star players, including Alou Diarra, Samuel Eto’o, Wilson Palacios, and Park Chu-Young, among others.

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