Paris’ obsession with Champions League: Racing Club already preyed on success for PSG

This article was last updated on October 22, 2024

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Paris’ obsession with Champions League: Racing Club already preyed on success for PSG

Enzo Francescoli, David Ginola and Pierre Littbarski. They were the Neymar, Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi of the 1980s. They were the stars of Matra Racing Club de Paris, an ambitious club that wanted to bring the European Cup I to Paris.

That European success did not materialize and so Paris is still waiting for the first win of the most important tournament in club football. Because Paris Saint-Germain, PSV’s opponent in the Champions League tonight, has also never won a European top prize since its founding in 1970.

And Racing Club? This is now a modest club at the fourth French level.

Paris is struggling with an obsession with the Champions League

“It was a beautiful club with beautiful names and many ambitions. But it was not able to realize it,” says Sonny Silooy, who played there for two seasons in the late 1980s. He did not win the European Cup, but fought against relegation in his second year. He then quickly returned to Ajax.

The new Berlusconi

The fact that he left was also because the wealthy owner withdrew his hands from the club again. Matra was the toy of the French businessman Jean-Luc Lagardère, the director of the company of the same name that produced magazines, cars, weapons and airplanes. Lagardère sold the club again and accepted the approximately 100 million euros in losses.

The dream he had fell apart. Silooy still remembers the prospect that brought him in: “They wanted to do it like AC Milan and Olympique Marseille: with rich owners like Belursconi and Tapi,” says the former full-back. “We also had a man like that. But after those two years he had seen enough.”

Three times the charm?

Once again there are plans to help Paris achieve European football success. French billionaire Bernard Arnault and Red Bull are jointly planning the French football club Paris FC to take over. Their goal is to provide the city of Paris with a second top club, in addition to Paris Saint-German, that can compete at the highest European level.

Silooy thinks that with a little more patience the project could have been a success. But that was quickly over. “Patience does not exist in Paris,” then coach Alain de Martigny later said in The New York Times. “We are much more in the spotlight than clubs from other places in France. It has always been that way. A team in Paris cannot be average.”

Racing did reach the cup final in the year after Lagardère left, but the downward spiral started soon after. The Parc des Princes, the stadium where both Racing Club and PSG initially played, was said goodbye. Because the large stadium was rarely full.

Children in green

David Ginola described it aptly in The New York Times. “I remember a home match in the Parc des Princes. To fill the stadium, children were allowed in for free.”

But even with the children the desired effect was not achieved. “We played against Saint-Étienne. When I went outside for the warm-up, I looked around and saw children everywhere in green (the color of Saint-Étienne, ed.). It looked like an away game.”