05/31/25 04:39:00
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05/31 16:37 CDT Paris Saint-Germain routs Inter Milan to win the Champions
League for the first time
Paris Saint-Germain routs Inter Milan to win the Champions League for the first
time
By JAMES ROBSON
AP Soccer Writer
MUNICH (AP) --- Paris Saint-Germain, Champions League winner.
At long last the club that was transformed by Qatari billions and bought and
sold a succession of the world's greatest players in an extravagant bid to get
to the top has its hands on the big one.
European club soccer's grandest prize has a new home after PSG thrashed Inter
Milan 5-0 in Saturday's final in Munich.
The trophy that not even Lionel Messi, Neymar or Kylian Mbappe could deliver to
the French club was finally claimed by Luis Enrique, the Spanish coach who has
overseen PSG's shift from the era of galactico signings to one of genuine
team-building.
Fitting then that Dsir Dou, the 19-year-old French forward emblematic of the
club's new generation, was the chief inspiration on a balmy night. He became
the third teenager to score in a Champions League final, following Patrick
Kluivert and Carlos Alberto.
Dou scored twice and set up another goal in little over an hour on the field
before being substituted in the second half.
Achraf Hakimi, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and substitute Senny Mayulu, the fourth
teenager to ever score in a final added to Doue's double as PSG recorded the
biggest win in a final in the Champions League's 69-year history.
Now PSG can truly sit alongside the royalty of European soccer. Not by virtue
of turnover or merchandizing, but on the merits of its achievements on the
field.
The Champions League is the ultimate barometer of the continent's elite clubs
and up until now PSG has been a flashy contender that always came up short.
That all changed at Allianz Arena, the home of Bayern Munich, one of the titans
of Europe, and a fitting stage for PSG's crowning moment. Not least because it
was against Bayern that it lost its only other Champions League final in 2020,
leaving Neymar in tears in an empty stadium in Lisbon where fans were locked
out because of the pandemic.
On this occasion, thousands of PSG supporters were there to revel in the
moment, waving flags, lighting flares and drowning out their rivals from Inter,
many of whose supporters left the stadium long before the final whistle.
They'd been partying in the streets of Munich throughout the day, but that was
nothing compared to the scenes of joy when Marquinhos held the trophy aloft in
front of teammates, with fireworks and golden confetti exploding behind them.
Celebrations, however, threatened to get out of hand as what looked like
thousands of PSG fans had to be stopped from rushing the field by a line of
police.
PSG truly delivered when it mattered after so many setbacks in this
competition. If there were any nerves from Luis Enrique's players it did not
show as they dominated Inter from the start.
It took just 12 minutes for the French champion to go ahead with a move of
speed and precision when Vitinha's threaded pass into the box found the feet of
Dou. The forward could have shot, but instead slid in Hakimi to tap into an
open net.
Former Inter player Hakimi's celebrations were muted but PSG's fans erupted.
Eight minutes later and the lead was doubled --- though this time it relied
more on luck than precision as Dou's shot from the right of the box deflected
off Federico Dimarco and past Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer.
He got his second in the 63rd, sliding the ball into the bottom corner when
through on goal.
Kvaratskhelia added a fourth 10 minutes later and Mayulu then found the back of
the net in the 86th, just two minutes after coming on to add his name to the
list of teenage scorers in a final.
Luis Enrique, who won the Champions League with Barcelona in 2015, has become
the seventh coach to win the competition with two different teams and follows
in the footsteps of greats like Carlo Ancelotti, Pep Guardiola and Jose
Mourinho.
He is the 21st coach to win multiple European Cups. In a treble of trophies
with PSG this season --- with the Champions League being added to Ligue 1 and
the French Cup --- he matched his same achievement with Barcelona 10 years ago.
For PSG, this moment has been 14 years in the making since it was bought by
Qatar Sports Investments in 2011 and, awash with newfound riches, started
targeting marquee signings to speed up its route to the top.
In came superstars Zlatan Ibrahimovic, David Beckham and Edinson Cavani. The
ante was further upped with the arrivals of Neymar for a world record $262
million, Mbappe and finally Messi, allowing PSG to field possibly the richest
array of forwards ever assembled, but still no Champions League trophy to show
for it.
It was the departure of that last stellar trio over the past two years that
appears to have been the turning point, with a greater focus on the team rather
than a collection of stars.
Not that PSG's transformation hasn't come at a cost.
It may make for a nice narrative that PSG has eschewed the big spending
approach of before to organically assemble a team to beat all-comers from
across Europe. The opposite is true. While it may be without the marquee
players of the past, this is still one of the most expensive squads in world
soccer.
The win will also raise more questions about nation state involvement in soccer
and so-called sportswashing, given Qatar's lavish backing of PSG in enabling it
to conquer Europe. It's victory comes just two years after Abu Dhabi-backed
Manchester City won the trophy, again against Inter.
Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund owns Newcastle, which will return to the
Champions League next season with ambitions of its own.
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James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
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