Article by Dragoș Petrescu – published on Sunday, June 08, 2025 21:04 / Updated Sunday, June 8, 2025 22:05
After more than 13 years of fighting, Nasser Al-Khelaifi (51 years old) finally met his goal when he entered the football world. On May 31, Paris Saint-Germainthe team he has been conducting since October 2011, won the first UEFA Champions League trophy in the history of the club, following a final he won without the right of appeal, 5-0 in front of Inter.
The full program of the first stage of the club world
In recent years, PSG has made great efforts to win the most important interclub competition in Europe, but each time the Parisian team has failed.
Although he had in the lot some of the best players of the planet, such as Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi or Neymar, Al-Khelaifi's formation was not able to award his prestigious title.
However, the chances of triumphing in the Champions League seemed to be even lower earlier this season, given that the current season was the first in which PSG did not have any of the three superstars.
However, the champion of France managed the impossible, and a week away from the happy event, the President of the Parisians offered an interview in which he compared his team now, with the one in recent years, making some statements that have raised some question marks among the lovers of the King sport.
Nasser Al-Khelaifi threw arrows to Kylian Mbappe, but also to the other top championships of Europe
In the interview given to the “talksport”, President Qatarez praised the team spirit he saw at his players this season, but he also filed some subtle attacks on his former stars.
He also wanted to praise coach Luis Enrique and, at the same time, let it be understood that Europe's other important championships are nothing more than Ligue 1.
After all the things we went through, after all the mistakes we made, we decided to change the strategy.
We decided not to have so many stars in team. In fact, it's not right what I said. Even today we have stars. Only these stars play for the team, no longer play the team for stars. This made the difference.
And, of course, it is the merit of Luis (no – Enrique). He proudly represented both the Paris Saint-Germain team and the entire championship of France.
Let us not forget that we defeated four teams from England in the Champions League, and the final I won against a team that at that time was the Italian champion. That's what I think says a lot.
– said Nasser al-Khelaifi for Talksport
Nasser Al-Khelaifi, celebrating the Champions League winning with its players // Photo: Getty Images
Finally, Al-Khelaifi was also asked about the fact that his former player, Kylian Mbappe, won the “golden ice” for the first time in his career even in the debut season at Real Madrid, and the response of the Qatarez was an extremely spicy one: “I was expecting, given that he managed to be a goalscorer year by year in France, and in La Liga it is easier to mark than in Ligue 1”.
