After almost 15 years of huge investments, frequent disappointment and incidental humiliation, Paris Saint-Germain received the UEFA Champions League trophy on Saturday, causing their Qatarese owners to cherish in the glory of an emphatic triumph.
PSG could not win the biggest prize of European football in previous seasons with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, or later with Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, and even afterwards when they added Lionel Messi to the mix.
But they have done it now after they have shifted the focus of signing glamorous superstars and having a brilliant coach in Luis Enrique with a hungry, dynamic young team.
PSG has been the best side in Europe in 2025, but the display against Inter Milan in Munich was against it all when they called a 5-0 win, the biggest victory in the final in the history of the competition.
In the end, it was worth waiting for the golf owners who arrived in 2011 when Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) bought a distressed club.
Qatar received the perfect World Cup final in 2022, when Messi's Argentina defeated Mbappe's France on an epic evening in Doha, and now PSG has the most amazing Champions League-final victory of Qatari ownership.
It is easy to forget now, but they lost three of their first five games in the tournament this season.
“We had a difficult start. Everyone criticized us and doubted us. Many people did not believe in our project,” PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi told BriverCaster Canal Plus.
“The goal is now to win again. It took 14 years of hard work, but we are building something for the future.”
Khelaifi, who is close to the ruler of Qatar and holds various influential positions in football, including as chairman of the European Club Association, when he celebrated with the trophy.
The first of many?
It is only the second time that every French club won it in 1993 after Marseille. It will certainly not take more than 30 years before PSG wins another Champions League, especially since this exciting young side would now have to stay together for a long time.
The average age of their starting line -up on Saturday was younger than 25 and their oldest player is Marquinhos at 31 – he has been there since 2013.
“I was ago and I grew with this team,” De Brazilian told Broadcaster M6.
“My thoughts are with all the players who played here but couldn't win it.”
It needs 14 years, eight coaches and more than two billion euros ($ 2.27 billion) spent on transfer costs for QSI to get here.
In the last 12 campaigns before this season, PSG reached a final and lost in 2020 to Bayern Munich in Lisbon.
There were two semi -final defeats, but there were also humiliating collapses in the last 16 against Barcelona in 2017, Manchester United in 2019 and Real Madrid in 2022.
“I said when I came in that the goal was to win important trophies, and the only one missing was the Champions League,” said Luis Enrique, appointed in 2023.
Club World Cup the following target
After the victory of Abu Dhabi-ownership of Manchester City two years ago, also against Inter, it is another triumph for a club with mega-rich golf owners.
PSG's victory was always just a matter of time. Their turnover last year of just over 800 million euros (£ 674 million) made them the third-rich club in analysts Deloitte's Football Money League.
They were behind only real and city, and just before the traditional European Aristocrats United, Bayern and Barcelona.
The last reported annual wage account from PSG was close to the full income of Double Inter.
The difference with the past years is that they now spend the money more intelligently, such as Saturday's two-purpose hero, Joao Neves and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.
Luis Enrique and Sporting Director Luis Campos have recently signed new contracts with the club that also won all three available titles in France this season.
PSG now takes more than 100 million euros away only in prize money from winning the Champions League, and there is the chance of more glory and wealth if they go to the very lucrative FIFA Club World Cup in the US.
PSG's search for Qatar domination will not stop Europe.
“I think it is an incredible competition,” said Luis Enrique, whose side face Atletico Madrid in Los Angeles in Los Angeles in two weeks.
“Our goal is to be competitive and try to win a fifth trophy of the season.”