History of Paris Saint-Germain F.C.
History of Paris Saint-Germain Football Club / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Paris Saint-Germain Football Club was founded in August 1970 after the merger of Paris Football Club and Stade Saint-Germain. PSG made an immediate impact, winning promotion to Division 1 and claiming the Division 2 title in their first season. Their momentum was soon checked, however, and the club split in 1972. Paris FC remained in the top flight, while PSG were administratively relegated to Division 3. Following back-to-back promotions, PSG quickly returned to the premier division in 1974 and moved into the Parc des Princes.
The club's first trophies arrived in the 1980s. Steered by players such as Safet Sušić, Luis Fernandez and Dominique Rocheteau, the Parisians claimed two consecutive French Cup titles in 1982 and 1983 followed by their maiden league championship in 1986, after which they went into decline. But a takeover by television giants Canal+ in 1991 revitalised PSG. Led by David Ginola, George Weah and Raí, the club won nine trophies and reached five consecutive European semi-finals during the 1990s. Most notably, Paris claimed a second league title in 1994 and its crowning glory, the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1996 with legend Luis Fernandez now as coach.
At the start of the 21st century, the Red and Blues struggled to rescale the heights despite the magic of Ronaldinho and the goals of Pauleta. Five more trophies arrived in the form of three French Cups, one French League Cup and one UEFA Intertoto Cup, but the capital side became better known for lurching from one high-profile crisis to another. As a result, Canal+ sold the club to Colony Capital in 2006. The situation, however, only got worse and PSG spent the 2006–07 and 2007–08 campaigns staving off relegations.
The fortunes of Paris Saint-Germain changed dramatically when Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) purchased the club in 2011. Since then, Paris have spent heavily on the signings of world-class players such as Zlatan Ibrahimović, Thiago Silva, Edinson Cavani, Ángel Di María and, most notably, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé, the world's two most expensive transfers in football history. As a result, PSG have dominated French football, winning 27 trophies: seven league titles, six French Cups, six French League Cups and eight French Super Cups. They have also become a regular in the knockout stages of the Champions League, reaching the final for the first time ever in 2020.