With Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League title, the Qatari club owner Nasser Al Khelaifi finally sees his dream come true, but it has cost him a lot of money. The PSG receipt for the ‘cup with the big ears’ shows several billions.
Al Khelaifi never made a secret of it, since he became the owner of Paris Saint-Germain in 2011 as the leader of the Qatari state fund Qatar Sports Investments (QSI). The club from Paris had to win the Champions League.
Fourteen years after the takeover, Al Khelaifi’s mission is finally completed, but it turns out he has splurged billions to achieve that. According to figures from Transfermarkt.nl, Paris Saint-Germain has spent 2.3 billion euros on new players since the arrival of the Qataris. That amounts to more than 160 million euros per season.
Only two clubs spent more on transfers in the same period: Chelsea (almost 3 billion euros) and Manchester City (more than 2.3 billion euros). After all those investments, the two Premier League clubs together won the Champions League three times.
Al Khelaifi initially thought he could realize his dream with superstars like Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé and Neymar, but in 2020 the Champions League final against Bayern Munich was lost and after that PSG did not come close to the ‘cup with the big ears’.
High salaries even without superstars
PSG enchanted the Champions League this season with a young and sparkling team without superstar players, which significantly polished the club’s flashy image. Yet PSG is still one of the most expensive teams ever.
The current selection cost PSG a total of 688 million euros in transfer fees. That amounts to 27 million euros per player. Last winter, the club paid 70 million euros to snatch attacker Khvicha Kvaratskhelia from Napoli.
But especially the salaries at PSG are striking. Remarkably enough, the salary expenses at the club have increased after the departure of Messi and Neymar, to 658 million euros in 2024. At that time, Mbappé was still playing in Paris.
But even without Mbappé, PSG would by far be the leader in the salary ranking, according to a study by UEFA. Number two Manchester City spent 204 million euros less on salaries that year. At PSG, no less than 81 euro cents of every earned euro goes to salaries, which is rare.
889 million loss in the last five years
It is therefore inevitable that PSG suffers sky-high losses. Over the past five years, the counter stands at a deficit of no less than 889 million euros, an amount that Al Khelaifi wiped away with a financial injection from Qatar.
No football club has made it as colorful as Paris Saint-Germain in recent history, although finalist Internazionale comes close with a deficit of 577 million euros in the past five years.
With the deep red figures, PSG violated UEFA’s financial rules. But so far, Al Khelaifi, who holds high positions at UEFA and the interest group for European top clubs (ECA), has only received a fine of 10 million euros from the European football association.
It is a pittance for PSG. Following Manchester City, the club from Paris proves that the Champions League title is for sale, although there must be several billions in the wallet.