Foreign owners, they split the opinion of football fans across Europe. Mainly because the spectrum of owners range from the fake Sheikh’s, that have led to the demise of clubs like Portsmouth, all the way across to billionaire sugar daddy’s who spend whatever is necessary to bring success to their club.
While the Qatar Investment Authority (PSG’s Owners) may appear to be the latter, don’t let their free spending deceive you, they have a clear goal as to what they are trying to achieve.
Their aim is simple; they want to make PSG a football powerhouse. Not only would this greatly benefit the club, but also the QIA, who will be able to use it to develop their brand further. Thus building on the success they have had as shirt sponsor for Barcelona.
Some PSG fans at this point may weep at the change of direction from what Kombouaré was building, but they should not fear the change that the QIA are putting in place. Having become the majority shareholder in 2011, QIA have simply looked to fast track PSG’s path to success.
Having said that, like many other billionaire owners, they began with a scattergun approach, signing a large number of domestic players (Menez, Arnaud, Douchez, Gameiro, Matuidi, N’Goyi) as well as a few decent overseas ones, such as Sissoko, Lugano and Sirigu.
However, they showed their first real statement of intent by signing the highly coveted Javier Pastore for €42 million in July 2011. Yet, as the season wore on they were not achieving the levels of domination they had anticipated. This wasn’t particularly surprising as overhauled squad’s generally take time to gel. But instead of being patient with Kombouaré, they replaced him with Carlo Ancelotti, who subsequently signed Thiago Motta, Alex and Maxwell. All of whom strengthened the squad, but were only able to help PSG finish 2nd, behind Montpellier.
The effect of this league finish was of seismic proportions on the transfer market. Instead of continuing with the wild approach, Ancelotti isolated a more select group of targets. The difference was that each of these players are top class and would not come cheap. So, to date they have signed Ezequiel Lavezzi (estimated to cost €30 million), Marco Verratti (€12 million) and Thiago Silva, who will shortly be joined by Ibrahimovic for a combined cost of roughly €62 million.
Now some might wonder why you would spend such a crazy amount on a 31 year old Zlatan Ibrahimovic when there are multiple strikers available at Mancehester City, as well as Robin van Persie, who could potentially be seeking a move away from Arsenal. The answer is simple, not only is Ibrahimovic a supremely talented footballer but he is more charismatic than the others (with the exception of Mario Balotelli of course). Hence, he is exactly the type of player that will bring more media exposure, which is exactly what the club and its owners would be looking for.
All things considered, these signings are a real indicator of PSG’s ambition, but even with these additions the owners have continued to strive to make PSG the most successful brand in the world of football today.
To their credit this led to them investing heavily in the Paris Saint Germain Ladies team. After finishing 4th last season, they have added Shirley Cruz Traña from treble winning Olympique Lyonnais, as well as US high school superstar Lindsey Horan, who finished top scorer at the 2010 U-17 World Cup. While surpassing Lyon will be a challenge the desire is certainly being demonstrated in order to push through this power shift.
Ultimately, all of the moves that the QIA have overseen are crucial building blocks in PSG’s emergence and while they remain favourites for the men’s Ligue 1 title, they are by no means near finished building either squad. One thing is for sure though; the era of PSG’s success is certainly on the horizon.
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