The horror of football: PSG and Infantino's Club World Cup beckon the perfect punchline

For football traditionalists, Paris St. Germain is a major shock. The project is being pumped full of billions and is finally achieving its goal – with friendly protagonists. Qatar's cold calculation is paying off. And the prospects are golden.

Paris St. Germain just won the Champions League. Their eternal dream was finally fulfilled, following Qatari investments of around two billion euros. The curious thing is that PSG struck when the team was in transition, when they had parted ways with all the giants who had desperately tried to crown the Emirate's project: Neymar, Lionel Messi, and, until last season, Kylian Mbappé.

In this squad, stripped of their gigantic egos, the team developed a remarkable team spirit and grew from strength to strength, led by the lightning-matured enfant terrible Ousmane Dembélé. In the final against Inter Milan, the new PSG delivered a masterclass. The French thrashed the bewildered Italians 5-0, denying the indestructible Italians any chance of a place in the final. And in this form, the Parisians are now a hot candidate for the next major title: triumph at the Club World Cup.

"That's why this World Cup here is historic"

That would be a fitting punchline: Europe's most controversial construct, at least among football traditionalists, also snatches the golden Super Cup from Gianni Infantino, who is bursting with pride for his pet project. He wants to create a monument to world sport with the controversial mega-tournament in the USA, pimped up with billions of Saudi Arabian dollars for the TV broadcast, and immediately draws the biggest comparisons for his tournament: "It's a bit like 1930, when the first World Cup began," the FIFA boss told AFP. "Today, everyone is talking about the very first World Cup. That's why this World Cup here is also historic."

Infantino sees a "new era of football" on the horizon with the start of the tournament. His era. And it may well be shaped by PSG. This team has the potential for a golden future. Almost all of its key players are still young or very young. Even leader Dembélé, at 28, is still far from the final stages of his career. The squad is bursting with talent; 20-year-old Désiré Doué has shown Milan that he can challenge football world wonder Lamine Yamal. Add to that Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Vitinha, Joao Neves, Nuno Mendes, and Bradley Barcola, all between 20 and 25 years old.

Mega-transformation of Parisian football

And this team is gripped by a childlike joy. There were tears after the masterclass in Munich, the boys jumped around with such excitement as if Santa Claus had granted their every wish at once. It was beautiful to watch. Just as their football was beautiful to watch. PSG played with a refreshing lightness that in Europe only Hansi Flick's wild FC Barcelona displays. For Paris, it's no longer about egos, about their own value system of recognition. For Paris, it's about the team's success. Wonderfully celebrated goals like Achraf Hakimi's 1-0 or Doué's 2-0 would have been unthinkable last season. Now the team passed the ball around until they found the perfect recipient, not the one with the most self-confidence.

PSG had captivated the world. On the evening in Munich, and in the days that followed, when the team, flanked by over 100,000 fans, set off on a highly euphoric parade that, however, also ended in riots. PSG had a good, sympathetic story to tell. With its young protagonists and the charismatic coach Luis Enrique, whose dramatic past, with the death of his young daughter, had been magnified again around the final. By the media, by the PSG fans, who brought tears to his eyes with an emotional choreography. Those were great moments.

And indeed, the trophy is a gift the club has had to wait a long time for. It's the first time since the club was officially founded in 1970. PSG emerged from the suburban club Stade Saint-Germain. For many years, the club lacked its luster; other clubs were in vogue in France, despite the capital's appeal and stars like Ronaldinho, Nicolas Anelka, Youri Djorkaeff, and George Weah.

Dark shadow on the triumph

In the 1990s, they once came close to claiming the glory of Europe. In 1994/95, they were defeated in the semifinals by a great generation of AC Milan. A year later, the team finally triumphed in the European Cup Winners' Cup. A major title, without great significance. Paris, that sounds like the glittering world, like light, not shadow. But that was precisely what slowly descended upon the club in 2011, when the Qatari investor group Qatar Sports Investments bought the club and freed it from its debt burden. Qatar turned PSG into a "brute-force project," as the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" wrote. And they have now achieved their goal.

But these moments were not entirely untroubled. Club boss Nasser Al-Khelaifi, who is closely associated with head of state Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, also got involved in the celebrations. He even appointed him minister without portfolio in 2013. Al-Khelaifi wiped a few tears from his eyes and pushed his way through the awards ceremony. Just imagine if Uli Hoeneß did that to FC Bayern. Those were strange images that flew around the world. They revealed what the Emirate of Qatar is all about: exerting influence on world football, improving the country's image with successful sportswashing, and concealing serious human rights violations at home. In recent weeks, PSG has become the friendly face of the internationally controversial emirate. In happiness, one forgets quickly. The horror of football has come to an end. Qatar likes that.

This Sunday evening, Paris Saint-Germain will once again be chasing the title. Their first opponent at the Club World Cup is Atlético Madrid.