Paris Saint-Germain kissed three English clubs to reach the Champions League final and enjoy a season of bliss.
But you would be a fool to think that serenity is the norm at one of the most notorious clubs of the continent, with a history that has been marred by a toxic ultra -nature and legal arguments.
PSG is doing well to throw that image and become the Family Club of France, but that did not know what has passed before: Hooligans stalks the streets, buses are set on fire, ultras that run malicious on players.
Leading the club is the driven but explosive President Nasser al-Khelaifi, who was liberated from allegations that he threatened to 'kill' an employee of Real Madrid in a heated collision in a heated collision and was accused earlier this season of being a 'bully' TYONTOR.
Nowadays the club is praised to promote a community culture that admirers in France has won, but this era of relative peace should not be considered obvious.
Let us dive into some of their earlier controversies and scandals without further delay.
Adrien Rabiot's 'prison' exile
To start us, in a distant scream of PSGs supplemented, we go back to 2019 when the mother of Adrien Rabiot includes an ominous yarn about the culture of the club.
“Adrien is a prisoner,” Veronique told L'Equipe. “He is even a hostage to PSG. Soon it is dry bread, water and dungeon! This environment is cruel … A football player has been made to play, not to stay in the closet. '
Scandalous claims? Yes. Strictly true? Probably not. But it is fair to say that Rabiot became a persona non grata, because it was reportedly refused to renew his PSG deal in January 2019.
He was fined six minutes late for a team meeting because of a nap – although his mother noticed that an wounded Neymar could party at Rio Carnival.
The midfielder was fined after he had not met his teammates for a winter training camp in Qatar, but that was due to family days – his grandmother had died.
To close it all, Rabiot was banned from the training field for night clubs after Manchester United had dumped them from the Champions League – and liked Patrice Evra's party post.
Then a united team at this stage? Not entirely. Exile was the order.
Robberies, 'violent buglaries' and 'curb-crawling'
So, these were outside the control of PSG, but they did not exactly embellish the reputation of the club and the city as a desired destination.
In March 2021, Angel di Maria and Marquinhos suffered a fate that fears most people – their homes, or those of family members, were broken into.
Di Maria was mysteriously replaced in a match against Nantes and it later came up that there had been a 'violent burglary' in his house in the prosperous Neuilly-sur-Seine Buitwijk, with about £ 420,000 in items. RMC claimed that some of his family members had been there and had taken a hostage.
The French outlet also shared that the house of the parents of defender Marquinhos was robbed.
With teammates' shocked, PSG acted quickly to reassure them by equipping them with complementary 24-hour security at home.
Great work, but the criminals have adapted. If we can't plunder their houses, why wouldn't they just rob them in public, they thought?
That was the unfortunate fate of other Herrera, who was reportedly repelled in his car in his car in October that year.
In the version of the events of his camp: “To get home, he went through the Bois de Boulogne, and at a traffic light someone got into his car and took the phone and wallet that could be seen.”
Herrera was instructed to drive to a specific location to drop her off, at what time he got his phone back – although he found himself € 200 (£ 167) from his own pocket.
Player arrested for exacerbated violence – towards a teammate
This is potentially one of the wildest football stories ever told.
In November 2021, two masked men intercepted a car with PSG women's stars Kheira Hamraoui and Aminata Diallo, the driver. The men dragged Hamraoui out of the car, hit her legs with an iron beam and left her behind with big bruises and took stitches.
Diallo was unharmed.
A few days later Diallo was arrested on suspicion of organizing the attack. Diallo and Hamraoui, both central midfielders, were in direct competition for the same place in both the PSG and the French national team. Could it be that Diallo's ambitions had led to … this?
The story spread like an ongoing fire, but Diallo was released without costs. Yet the police reportedly claimed her phone and the brigade of the crime prevention of the judicial police of Versailles that they had found searches for 'Dangerous drug cocktail' and 'How to break a Kneecap'.
Subsequently, Diallo was placed in September 2022 in before the poll of aggravated violence and criminal association. She was then released under strict judicial supervision and then granted a changed bail, allowing her to play abroad.
The case is never tried. Diallo has always denied all the allegations that have made against her. In February of this year, French public prosecutors told AFP that they had completed their investigation.
Her lawyer Mourad Battikh said: “The judicial investigation ends as it started: without any element to demonstrate the involvement or broader the fault of Aminata Diallo in this case.”
You can read more about the controversial episode here.
Turn on their own stars: Lionel Messi, Neymar, Layvin Kurzawa
The fans of PSG have often behaved fiercely towards their own players – not that they are completely unique in that. Every club has its more … Passionate parts of the fan base.
Link-back Layvin Kurzawa heard that lesson in the hard way in March 2022 when he was confronted with smoking supporters, who opened his car door to protest with him outside of training.
The grievances were furious that the club had been beaten out of the Champions League by Real Madrid, but they directed their anger with the wrong man. Kurzawa had not played in the draw and had only played nine minutes for the entire season.
Lionel Messi and Neymar had it worse to leave in 2023.
After catching reports of reports that Messi was on his way to the exit, a crowd gathered outside the training field to sing, “Messi, son of AB ****.” Not that they had a leg to get up- only a year earlier, they had 'Messi Out' on the walls graffitial after their destruction of the Champions League.
Neymar's silky feet were also not exempt from bitterness. He served PSG for six years, but in the May before he left, a crowd gathered outside of his house to sing, get lost! ” No wonder he ended up in Saudi Arabia.
Even their potential players have felt the wrath of the fans.
When PSG was linked to Juventus Striker Dusan Vlahovic in the summer of 2023, Ultras held a banner up outside the Parc des Princes that read: “If you come, we will cut you three fingers.”
Marca claimed that the message is a reaction to the three fingers that Vlahovic showed after a match with Serbia. This would refer to 'Serbian supremacy over Kosovo' and 'can also mean a greeting that is made by a Serbian guerrilla of unification'.
Needless to say that Vlahovic did not sign. But Lucas Hernandez did the same summer, even though he was warned that he was 'not welcome' because of the fact that his father Jean-Francois had played for Marseille in the nineties, plus how he had defeated them with Bayern Munich in the 2020 Champions League final.
A tough president
Nasser al-Khelaifi has become one of the most polarizing figures in football: for some a visionary and ruthless operator, for others a 'plutocrat' with his fingers in too many cakes.
Not much achieved the top of football without a hard edge. Al-Khelaifi, the bulldozer behind PSG since 2011, has one with many accounts.
We are back on that 3-1 defeat by Real Madrid in 2022, PSG is faltering in frustration after throwing away their Champions League progression, and Al-Khelaifi is singing.
The Qatari would storm through the corridors through the corridors in the Bernabeu after the game, shouted and look for referee Danny Makkelie, according to Marca.
The incident was described by reporter Monica Marcante as 'frankly unpleasant', according to El Partidazo de Cope.
A fragment of the referees's report shared by L'Equipe Leest: “The president and technical director of PSG behaved aggressively and tried to enter the changing room of the referees. When the referee asked them to leave, they blocked the door and deliberately hit the flag of one of the assistant. '
The PSG President, together with sports director Leonardo, reportedly stormed another room and came face to face with Real Madrid representative, Mejia Devila.
According to Diario As, an employee of Madrid, the incident registered with his mobile, Al Khelaifi noticed it and his phone struck: “I'm going to kill you.”
UEFA has investigated and cleared al-Khelaifi, a member of their executive committee. They forbidden Leonardo for one competition.
Moreover, this season, Crystal Palace and Lyon owner John Textor accused Al-Khelaifi of a 'bully' and a 'Tiran' in a discussion between Ligue 1 Chiefs about TV rights.
In a leaked video seen by L'Equipe and Complement d'Huquete, Al-Khelaifi broke back: “John, stop talking, you don't understand anything, you don't come from … I don't know, cowboy, you come, I don't know where and you talk to us.”
However, he also has a generous side. He recently wrote to all 600 of the club employees that they said that they will receive free tickets and travel packages for the Champions League final.
“We are proud of being one family – the Paris Saint -Germain family – who proudly represents Paris and France on the biggest stage,” he wrote.
Fan trouble
Unfortunately, football hooliganism is still widespread in England and on the continent – it is in no way exclusive for PSG.
In their two collisions with Newcastle in 2023, the Paris fans went looking for problems. Cooling images of the French capital showed a mass of black -dressed ultras that roamed through the streets that wanted to eradicate show fans.
Eventually they happened about the Newcastle supporters in a cafe and continued with attacks: glasses were smashed, windows were broken, chairs were thrown and there were also reports that a flare was thrown.
Earlier this month, PSG fans were reportedly plagued in a collision with riot police when the tensions flared up for their semi-final second stage against Arsenal.
And then there is the notorious incident that two buses are set on fire in collisions between PSG and Lyon fans prior to the French Cup final last year.
Collections broke out on the highway when Fans gave their way to the game in the Stade Pierre-Mauroy in Lille.
Images on social media showed two buses on fire through a tolland on the highway in Fresnes-les-Montauban, near Arras, in northern France.
Videos showed supporters on buses, with torches thrown and windows are reportedly smashed.
Allegedly the collisions concerned 100 Lyon supporters and 200 PSG fans, according to police sources, as reported by AFP.
About 20 supporters were injured in the collisions, while allegedly eight police officers were injured.