Club Overview

Paris St. Germain is a French football club that is based out of Paris. Founded in 1970, it is the most successful and popular club from the Paris region. The club was won awards on both the international and French stage including French Cup and UEFA Cup Winners Cup. French football legends such as Youri Djorkaeff and Joël Bats once wore the famous PSG jersey. Currently Paris St Germain is the French league champion.

Club History

Paris St. Germain (PSG) was founded on August 12th 1970 with help from 20,000 subscribers, in order to have to a club team representing Paris to become a dominant force in the league. A number of inhabitants from Paris including the CEO of CALBERSON, Guy CRESCENT helped convince local leaders to join the project. Paris St. Germain became an instant success as after the club’s first season in the Second Division, it won the first place trophy and got promoted to the First Division.

However, the following year PSG finished 16th place in the division and were under pressure by the Paris City Council to drop “Saint-Germain” from the team’s name. The club split up in May of that year. The professional part of the organization joined CA MONTREUIL, who under the name Paris FC continued to play in the first division, while the amateur part of the team continued to play under the name “Paris St. Germain” in the second division.

After only its first year in second division Paris Saint Germain got promoted to the 1st division following the disqualification of US Le Petit-Quevilly. The squad defeated VALENCIENNES by a score of 2-1 in order to advance into the higher division. Ironically that same year Paris FC was relegated, resulting in PSG playing at Parc des Princes, the home field for Paris FC. From that point on the PSG has not been relegated from the First Division.

In 1978 Francis Borelli took over as chairman of the organization. Under Borelli the club started to make a name for it, consistently finishing in the top three of the French First Division. The club earned its first major trophy, the French Cup, in 1982. Following that season earned the squad earned yet another French Cup trophy. While on the European stage Paris St. Germain went to the quarter finals of the Cup Winners Cup, losing to WATERSCHEI. That same year PSG won the French League. Amongst some of the most notable players during this period were Safet Susic and Joël Bats.

In 1991 Borelli resigned as chairman and gave control to the media group Canal + after it invested money into the organization to recruit talented players so that PSG can compete with Olympique de Marseille, the top team at the time. Michel Denisot became the new president of the organization.

With its newly acquired talents the club continued to be successful during the 1990s. It reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup during the 1992/1993 season winning the Ligue 1 Championship and League Cup in 94 and Coupe de France in 95. The club made history by becoming the first team to go undefeated for 23 consecutive games. Former PSG striker Luis Fernandez became coach of the organization and instantly made his presence felt, leading the club to a successful run in the Champions League and a 10 game undefeated streak. The superstars of that era were Bernard Lama, Ricardo Gomes, and Youri Djorkaeff.

Joel Bats took over Fernandez’s position in 1997. Despite a younger squad the side qualified for a second consecutive European final in the Cup Winners Cups and finished second in the French League. That same year Ricardo Gomes Raymundo became the general manager of the organization and Canal + became the leading shareholder of the club. Under their leadership the team won the Coupe De France and Coupe de la Ligue the following season, but fell short in the Champions League.

After seven years under Denisot’s rule, Charles Biétry took over as president. However, he quit after six months due to the amount of debt he put the company in. The former director of sports for CANAL + and member of France’s Magic Four, Alain Giresse became the head coach of the organization. A premature elimination in the 32nd round of Cup Winners Cup and poor performances by the team at the start of the season forced him to resign from his job. Giresse was replaced by Artur Jorge and Denis Troch in order to take the club out the poor situation in which it was in. Unfortunately, the team’s results did not improve and both Jorge and Troch gave up their position to Philippe Bergeroo and his coaching staff at the start of the new millennium.

Bergeroo was able to recruit fresh talent and completely rebuilt the team. His main recruits were Anelka, Luccin, Dalmatian who were meant to carry PSG to the summit of Ligue 1. He saved the club from relegation at the end of the season and even qualified them for Champion League. However during the winter of the following season the club success was starting to go down hill. PSG was ninth place in the league and after a 5-1 loss to Sedan, Bergeroo handed over the coaching position back to Luis Fernandez.

Fernandez instantly made his presence felt on the team. The first decision he made was to recruit Aloisio, Heinze and Ronaldinho. He also signed other professional but less known player such as Cristobal. With Ronaldinho gaining even more fame and success, becoming the lead scorer with 13 goals, and having of the hardest defenses to score on in the league, PSG finished fourth place in their division and qualified for the UEFA Cup. However, during the competition the club got eliminated in round of 32 on penalty kicks by the Glasgow Rangers. During the French Cup, the team got eliminated by Bordeaux in the semi-finals. After those two upsets the only hope that was left for Paris St. Germain fans was for a better next season.

Despite beating such teams as Lyon and Marseilles and Ronaldinho the club finished 11 out of the 16 during the season. It was plagued by financial hardship and many other internal problems.

Armed with new coach, Vahid Halilhodžić and a new president the fans of Paris St. Germain were again looking forward to a more successful season in 2003/2004. They ended up winning the French Cup and finishing second in the league, which earned the club a spot in the Champions League. However the club performed poorly in the European competition. Due to ongoing internal battles and the club’s lack of success on the European stage, Canal + changed the coaching and management of the organization. This move amongst made supporters of Paris St. Germain very angry at Canal +’s management.

As a result of the mounting debts and lack of support Canal + sold the organization to American investment company Colony Capital, French investment company Butler Capital Partners and Morgan Stanly. Alain Cayzac became the new president of the organization. The club was not performing well after the sale, being 16th place in the table and losing to an Israeli club during the UEFA Cup.

However Paris St. Germain’s fortunes have recently been turned around. Under the coaching of Paul Le Guen the club won has recently won the 2008 League Cup and reached the semi-finals of the Cup final against Lyon. The club also recent acquired Claude Makélélé, in order to add to the pool of talent in the midfield. They have been chosen by football magazines in France to be the top competitors for the French Cup.

Club Rivalries

Stars of the Current Squad

Claude Makélélé-- After playing Defensive midfielder with Chelsea for 5 seasons, Makélélé recently joined the French club. He also plays for the French national team.

Jérôme Rothen- Plays the left wing position for the club. He has 13 caps for the French National Team. He is known for his free kicks, crossing and passing.

Club Legends

Most Appearances

Most Goals

Player Recognition & Awards

Team Honours

   * Ligue 1 Championnat de France
         o Champions : 1986, 1994

   * Coupe de France
         o Winners : 1982, 1983, 1993, 1995, 1998, 2004, 2006

   * Coupe de la Ligue
         o Winners : 1995, 1998, 2008

   * UEFA Cup Winners' Cup
         o Winners : 1996

   * UEFA Intertoto Cup
         o Winners : 2001

   * Trophée des Champions
         o Winners : 1995, 1998

   * Ligue 2
         o Champions : 1971

Club Management

Charles Villeneuve- chairman

Paul Le Guen- Manager

Uniforms

Home	Away

Stadium

Parc des Princess was designed to be a true football and rugby stadium by Roger Taillibert and built by Taillibert . It is one of the largest stadiums in France, holding a capacity of a bit under 60,000 people. It has been the home of Paris St. Germain ever since 1972. World Cup matches and concerts have also taken place at the stadium.

Sponsors

Important Links

http://www.clubentreprises.psg.fr/ http://www.psg.fr/

References

http://www.clubentreprises.psg.fr/ http://www.psg.fr/