Is PSG at a crossroads?

Paris Saint-Germain's umpteenth European disappointment, this time at the hands of Real Madrid and Karim Benzema, has reopened the usual questions about the French team that arise with the arrival of direct Champion's League challenges. Despite continuous domestic domination, winning seven of the last nine leagues, the capital's team has yet to come close to the coveted European accolade and, after coming close two seasons ago, the second-half collapse in Madrid returns a team increasingly at the mercy of its own ghosts. The Parisian giant, now beyond the decade of Nasser Al-Khelaifi's presidency, has invested an unprecedented amount of money in the transfer market, more than a billion euros, trying to make Paris Saint-Germain a winning brand on the pitch as much as off it.

A few days before the European debacle, Paris had announced the opening of its store on 5th Avenue to further launch its brand in the States, yet another step in a positioning process that sees new collaborations and releases every month. From its contract with Dior to its sponsorship with Jordan, PSG has set a new standard for a football club in the third millennium, at least from a marketing point of view. On the sporting front, however, Paris has failed to achieve all the big goals it has set itself, never managing to turn its huge crop of stars into a winning, cohesive team capable of taking on the continent's top teams without reverence.

In fact, Paris' Champion's eliminations have never come in a trivial way, whether it was a 6-1 comeback by Barcelona at Camp Nou, or a defeat at Anfield by Liverpool and finally a collapse in the face of Blancos' royalty and the Benzema-Modric duo. And if so far all defeats have left open the hope that their time would soon come, this one against a disarming Real does not promise the same sensations. Indeed, as if to symbolise the fact that however much PSG have endeavoured to make themselves known to the European aristocracy, the Qatari-owned club continue to look like the rich man trying to sit at a table they do not belong at. A distance that seems unbridgeable, not least because of Al-Khelaifi's sea of liquidity, and which is at the same time distancing the ownership and its stars from their fans.

Last Sunday against Bordeaux, just days after the European disappointment, the crowd at the Parc des Princes booed the team despite a comfortable 3-0 win and a solid lead in Ligue 1. This was not an isolated incident, however. The relationship between the fans and the club has not always been the best, in spite of the deep restyling that has exponentially raised the team's potential. We know that the curves and the associations usually care more about the relationship between the team and the fans than the trophies raised, and the fashion change has not really convinced everyone. Already in the summer the jersey made in collaboration with Jordan had aroused the first discontent, since the traditional red vertical band called "Hechter shirt" in honour of the historic president of the Parisian club had disappeared, with consequent protest from the organised fans. Now the voices are being raised of those who consider many of the Paris players to be spoilt children who do not give everything on the pitch for the shirt but prefer to be seduced by the attractions off the pitch.

A tense climate that is certainly not helping to simplify one of the most critical moments of the Al-Khelaifi presidency, in front of which intricate crossroads are beginning to unfold. The first, of course, is the one that seems to be leading Mbappé to Real Madrid, at least if we listen to the tam tam of the Spanish newspapers, which has become more and more insistent in the last period. Losing one's best player and the one who was supposed to represent the future of the club for the next decade to a direct competitor would be a very serious setback, and would symbolise the downsizing of Paris Saint Germain after years of unexpected expansion. And the latest rumours coming out of France speak of a deeply unhappy Messi, who regretted his move to Paris and is now looking to return to Barcelona. In the same way, Neymar, who left Barcelona to start what seemed to be an influx of stars to the Parc des Princes, could soon be sitting at the door together with other players who are tired and disappointed with the Parisian club. A series of departures that could mean the end of Paris' dream, who will have to prove themselves capable of replacing any shortcomings with stars of the same celestial level. This is not an easy task, considering how the other great European teams, after a period of tarnishing, are returning to the rank they deserve by dint of results and market moves.

Nor did the Super League debacle, which revealed all the weaknesses of the competitors and at the same time launched Al-Khelaifi to the side of Ceferin and traditional football, serve to accredit themselves as a real superpower. And even the alleged scene of the Paris president together with Leonardo in the Santiago Bernabeu locker room against referees and assistants is here to consolidate the description of bad losers because they are always used to having won them all. Paris Saint Germain has changed the way in which a football club is now conceivable, increasingly hybridising the boundaries between fashion, sport and communication with a continuous series of projects, sponsorships, collaborations and partnerships with the most important brands and companies on the planet, with some of the world's best footballers as testimonials. But what if those bright, phenomenal talents, applauded in every stadium and followed by millions of fans on social media, were to decide that Paris was too small for them? Would Dior still make sense without Mbappé or Jordan without Neymar, and what consideration in the eyes of sponsors would a club that collapses disastrously at every key moment of the season enjoy? Of course Al-Khelaifi's money seems endless - it probably is - and his role alongside Ceferin makes him increasingly central to European football, but after ten years the Paris brand is beginning to show deep structural cracks. Because no matter how many initiatives and partnerships are signed and announced, in the end it is always the pitch that chooses the winners.