The Pursuit of Victory: Ligue 1

photo by Philippe Agnifili

Paris and Madrid. Two capitals with two football clubs who have something in common. Both are big spenders, or at least starting to become a big spender. Qatar Investment Authority became the majority owner of Paris Saint Germain last year and made PSG the richest club in France (and one of the richest in the world). Since then, PSG has been doing what Madrid has been doing since 2009. They've been trying to sign everyone on the planet.

Starting in 2009 Real Madrid began their second Galáctico era, led by President Florentino Pérez. The first major signing was Ricardo Kaka, who was acquired from AC Milan for a fee of €68 million, which was a record at the time. That record was broken three weeks later when Madrid acquired Cristian Ronaldo from Man United for €96 million. Karim Benzema was signed a week later from Lyon for about €41 million. To wrap up summer 2009 Madrid signed Raúl Albiol from for Valencia €15 million, and Xabi Alonso from Liverpool for €36 million. Real Madrid's spending spree did not stop there they would go on to hire José Mourinho as their manager and sign Ángel di María (€25m), Sami Khedira (€15m), Sergio Canales (€4.5m), Pedro León (€10m), Ricardo Carvalho (€7.9m), and Mesut Özil (€15m).

PSG has now started their own Galáctico era. Well, more like Galactique era. The club's first major signing was Javier Pastore, who they acquired from Palermo for €42 million. PSG also signed Kevin Gameiro (€11m), Jérémy Ménez (€8m), and Blaise Matuidi (€7.5m). This year PSG is bringing out the big guns, or rather big bags of money. PSG has been involved in rumors regarding the signing of Dimitar Berbatov, Carlos Tevez, Ricardo Kaká, David Beckham, Florent Malouda, and Alexandre Pato. Lets not forget the rumored hiring of former Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti.

By the end of January there may be a new powerhouse in the world of football. One player i'd really like to see in a PSG kit: Neymar. Make it happen, PSG.

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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