No stopping Ibrahimovic and PSG from dreaming bigger in France and Europe

Paris Saint-Germain's Swedish forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been the team's mascot. Franck Fife / AFP

The busiest man following Paris Saint-Germain’s 3-1 win against Ajax Amsterdam on Wednesday was not a player, but an agent, Mino Raiola.

The Italian, 47, who represents three PSG players, including global star Zlatan Ibrahimovic, conversed with journalists at length in French, Italian, Spanish and English.

Most football agents prefer a low profile and most football clubs like it that way, but Raiola is an influential figure at PSG, which has been transformed with Qatari money since a 2011 takeover.

From being an underachieving club in perennial cycles of crisis, they boast the fifth-highest revenues in world football, though the source of those revenues is an issue.

Founded in 1970, PSG are one of football’s youngest clubs.

The French capital was never a footballing hotbed, but it was still odd that a city of seven million did not have a major football club to compete with France’s provincial powers, let alone the European football cities of Barcelona, Munich, Milan and Manchester.

Paris finally has a team to challenge the best in the world and the location helps attract players, yet Ligue 1 is Europe’s fifth-most important league, with average crowds averaging half the size of those in neighbouring Germany.

The Qatari Investment Authority saw the positives in buying a cheap and troubled club for €100 million (Dh457m) that had been beset by some of football’s worst hooliganism.

PSG’s rival ultra groups may have created a famously febrile atmosphere inside their 48,300-seat Parc de Princes home, but they fought with rival fans, authorities and among themselves.

After the death of fans in 2006 and 2010, PSG began a clean-up. Offenders were banned and a 2,500-name blacklist was compiled of fans who were barred from attending matches.

Groups of more than six were prevented from buying tickets together. As fan groups complained of violations to the French Constitution by preventing the right to organise, politicians turned a blind eye.

What mattered to them was that the violence decreased, a problem club leaders had long been reluctant to address.

Fans thought the club was being sanitised to be sold, and it is true that the Qatari owners have experienced no major problems with fans, though the atmosphere has diminished and some disenfranchised supporters complain that the club is not the PSG they fell in love with.

The club will counter that they are the French champions, that the stadium sells out every week and that families now feel safe to attend games, where they watch some of the best players in the world – if not the celebrities in the stands.

The management were keen to see high-profile figures associated with their club and country. Former president Nicolas Sarkozy is a regular, while Beyonce, Jay-Z and Shakira have been spotted at games. A stadium located in the chic 16th arrondissement helped, as did players like David Beckham.

PSG have been in the market for the best since 2011, when they signed the Argentine Javier Pastore, though rivals initially questioned their aspirations.

When PSG were linked to Carlos Tevez in January 2012, but instead signed 30-year-old full-back Maxwell from Barcelona, Montpellier’s outspoken president Louis Nicollin cheekily asked: “Maxwell, isn’t that a coffee?”

PSG were clear favourites for the league in 2011/12, but Montpellier, a team who spent almost nothing and whose playing budget of €36m a year was only 13th among Ligue 1’s 20 clubs, triumphed.

Ligue 1 remained Europe’s most fascinatingly unpredictable division, but 2012 would be the last year Paris were not champions.

They registered their third and fourth league titles in 2013 and 2014, first under Carlo Ancelotti and then current coach Laurent Blanc, who was not their first choice to succeed the Italian.

Blanc has sufficed and the spending spree has attracted big names signed for huge fees.

Ibrahimovic, nicknamed “The ponytail” by a league rival, came on a contract worth €14m a year.

Thiago Silva cost €42m, while Edinson Cavani, Beckham, Lucas Moura and David Luiz followed.

It saddened some fans that locally born Mamadou Sakho departed for Liverpool after a tearful speech on the pitch. He was right to allude to the importance of the club’s soul as they went in search of marquee players.

Paris were also fined by Fifa for breaching their financial fair play rules, which are supposed to control runaway spending.

PSG argue that they should be able to challenge for titles, and that investing is the best way forward. Club president Nasser Al Khelaifi, 41, said: “In five years, we want to be one of the best clubs in Europe and to win the Champions League. Our brand to be worth €1bn. And we will be there.”

They are constrained by the relatively limited capacity of their stadium, with its self-assured “This is Paris” message on one stand, but are content to stay rather than shift games to the 80,000-capacity Stade de France.

Ancelotti appeared exasperated by the criticism after losing one game and left for Real Madrid in 2013, with his English assistant, Paul Clement.

The transition have been relatively easy for many top players. All of PSG’s Brazilians (Thiago Silva, Lucas, Marquinhos, Maxwell and Motta) speak French, while Luiz, the son of schoolteachers, is learning. Like many of his teammates, he loves living in Paris.

Ibrahimovic has been the undoubted star in his new club’s rise, with a profile to match.

In 2012/13, the Swede was mentioned 800,000 times in the French media, second only to scandal-prone president Francois Hollande.

Accusations that his club were overly dependent on him were true, with Blanc stating: “It’s obvious PSG perform far better with Ibra than without him.

“Of course, we do. I don’t know why everyone seems surprised by that.”

Though this lessened after they went on an unbeaten run when the Swede was injured for two months.

Then, Uruguayan striker Cavani shifted into his preferred central striking role. Paris are unbeaten in 20 games in all competitions this term and have won their last eight.

PSG need only a draw to win their Uefa Champions League group, ahead of Barcelona, whom they meet in their final group game.

The Parisians have reached the last eight in each of the last two seasons, before being cruelly eliminated on away goals by Chelsea and Barcelona.

Arch-rivals Marseille are the only French club to have won the European Cup and the improved form of France’s best-supported club under new manager Marcelo Bielsa has re-ignited the important of France’s biggest rivalry.

The days of Olympique Lyon dominating are long gone. They had to sell their best players when they stopped qualifying for the Champions League, while AS Monaco’s expensive vanity project derailed when they let James Rodriguez and Radamel Falcao depart.

“For us, we aim to win the league and be serious contenders to win the Champions League,” Luiz said after Wednesday’s victory.

“Dream Bigger” states the giant slogan on the grandstand roof opposite where the players leave the changing rooms.

PSG are doing that, with some style and at great expense.

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