Homegrown players were a relatively rare sight on Paris St-Germain team sheets until a few years ago.
With the notable exceptions of Mamadou Sakho, Presnel Kimpembe and Adrien Rabiot, the early years of the club’s Qatari ownership were spearheaded by high-profile signings from elsewhere.
Some of PSG’s most notable academy products in that period, including Kingsley Coman and Mike Maignan, found themselves moving on before having time to make any kind of mark in the French capital.
The club’s turn towards French talent in recent seasons, and the end of the so-called “bling-bling” era, has already seen the likes of Ousmane Dembele and Desire Doue spearhead last year’s treble-winning campaign.
Now, PSG are looking to go one further and build around their own homegrown talent, a shift which has been precipitated by an early-season injury crisis.
With Dembele, Doue and Achraf Hakimi among the long-term absentees, there have been as many as five academy graduates – all from the Paris area – on the team sheet this season.
The club’s all-encompassing training and academy complex has been key to that strategy. Two years ago, PSG moved out of the Camp des Loges facilities in the western suburb Saint-Germain-en-Laye – which had been their base of operations since 1975 – to the nearby state-of-the-art PSG Campus.
The new facilities, which were officially inaugurated a year ago, host the men’s and women’s teams along with their respective youth sides over a 59 hectare area. These include 16 pitches, accommodation for 140 young players, educational facilities and even a vegetable garden
Speaking at an event this week to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the academy’s opening, sporting advisor Luis Campos explained that the club’s long-term plans were to involve “more and more players from the Paris area” in the first team.
“The idea is to have players in every age group who can climb the steps,” says Campos. In this case, this is the literal staircase of the PSG Campus, with the senior team training at the very top of the four-tier complex.
A clearer path from the academy to the first team can also relieve the club’s reliance on the transfer market, the Portuguese executive pointed out.
For Campos, “going to the supermarket often doesn’t make you a better cook”.
“What’s important is to be going in the right direction, not to stockpile players,” he adds.
The former Monaco director also recounted a meeting between Luis Enrique and the youth coaches, in which the Spaniard set out his “principles of play” rather than dictating specific exercises or formations to follow.
The Asturian’s arrival two seasons ago, Campos says, was notably favoured by “courage to play young talents as soon as they’re ready”.
