Mar 16

Mar 16 5 youth players PSG let go too early

5 young players that PSG let go, that they shouldn’t have

Paris Saint Germain aren’t very good at managing their young talent

Since Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) acquired PSG in 2011, the club has dominated French football, winning 7 league titles and 11 domestic cups over a 9-year period.

However, despite this unprecedented on-pitch success, there is one key promise the PSG project has failed to deliver on: promoting youth players from their academy to the first team.

Sollie Cook investigates the curious case of PSG and their eagerness to let young talent leave the club.

A blueprint to “find the next Messi”?

In an attempt to “find, develop and nurture the next Messi from within their own academy”, the club’s owners budget a healthy 10 million euros each year for the youth setup.

In addition to this investment, being the only top-flight club in the capital represents a huge advantage for PSG as it makes them the natural destination for the vast pool of young talent that exists in and around Paris.

On paper, this combination of unrivalled access to one of Europe’s premier talent pools and an award-winning academy setup is a recipe for success.

However, despite always having a wealth of exciting young starlets in their academy, the reality is that the Parisian giants are yet to even come close to finding and nurturing the “next Messi”.

To date, Presnel Kimpembe and Adrien Rabiot are the only academy graduates to have made the jump to first-team regulars under the Qatari ownership (with the latter departing on a free transfer to Juventus in 2019).

Why do so many young stars leave PSG?

The principal issue with the PSG blueprint is that promising academy players more often than not find their path to the first team blocked by expensive signings and more established names.

This can be attributed to the club’s thirst for immediate short-term success. Experienced players are preferred by owners and managers alike, guaranteeing title after title, whilst bedding in unproven youngsters represents a risk to the club’s domestic dominance.

This lack of a clear pathway to the first team often forces young stars to leave the club in search of first-team football elsewhere, with PSG often happy to sell youngsters on the cheap to balance their books and meet financial fair play requirements.

Since departing, a number of these players have gone on to establish themselves at top clubs across the continent, leaving PSG to wonder what might have been. Here are 5 academy graduates that PSG let go too early.

Kingsley Coman

In 2013, aged only 16 years 8 months and 4 days, Kingsley Coman became PSG’s youngest ever debutant, making a 16-minute cameo in his club’s Trophée des Champions victory.

However, despite early signs of promise, Coman then made just 2 further appearances that season before leaving on a free transfer to Juventus aged 18.

He has since gone on to enjoy an illustrious career, winning the Scudetto twice with Juventus, before adding 5 German league titles to his collection with Bayern Munich, who he joined in 2015.

Overall, the Parisian-born winger has an impressive 23 major honours to his name, including 8 consecutive league titles across his spells at these three juggernauts of European football.

If this success were not enough to make PSG regret letting Coman go, the Frenchman came back to haunt his former employers in the 2020/21 Champions League final, heading home the only goal of the game for Bayern Munich, prolonging PSG’s wait for a maiden triumph in the competition.

Although injuries have plagued Coman’s career, his impressive performances and healthy trophy haul since leaving the French capital indicate that PSG should perhaps have held on to their young winger a little longer.

Now entering what should theoretically be his prime years, he clearly still has a lot to give at the top level.

Moussa Dembélé

After impressing for PSG and France at youth level, a much-hyped 16-year-old Dembélé was poached by the Fulham academy for a paltry £324,000 in 2012.

3 years later, the young striker notched an impressive 22 goal contributions for The Cottagers during the 2015/16 Championship campaign.

This tally was enough to gain the attention of Scottish giants Celtic, who brought Dembélé to Celtic Park on a free transfer. This proved to be a masterstroke from The Bhoys, as Dembélé found the back of the net 51 times in all competitions over two seasons, firing the Glasgow club to the Champions League group stage and total domestic dominance.

A £20 million switch to Lyon in 2018 looked to be a natural career progression for the marksman as he bagged 31 league goals over two seasons. However, a poor 2020/21 campaign saw him loaned out to Atletico Madrid where the 24-year-old will hope to rediscover his finest form.

Despite this slight hiccup in his career, Dembélé’s prolific goalscoring record suggests that he could at the very least have been a valuable squad member at the Parc des Princes in recent years.

Moussa Diaby

A rare example of an academy graduate making the PSG first team, Moussa Diaby accumulated just over 1500 minutes of first-team football for the capital club during the 2018/19 season. In this limited game time, the versatile winger managed a respectable 4 goals and 7 assists.

These promising performances caught the eye of Bayer Leverkusen, who stumped up £13.5 million for the then 19-year-old.

Diaby made an immediate impact at the BayArena, producing 16 goal contributions in all competitions during his debut season.

He has since established himself as a top performer on either wing, lighting up the Europa League and the Bundesliga with his pace and trickery.

Now valued at more than double what Leverkusen paid for him, Diaby’s rapid development begs the question: why did PSG not give him more time to blossom at the Parc des Princes?

Christopher Nkunku

An 18-year-old Christopher Nkunku broke into the PSG first team during the 2015/16 season and went on to amass 78 appearances for Les Parisiens over 4 seasons with the club.

However, over half of these appearances came from the bench.

Finding his playing time limited, Nkunku followed Diaby in moving to the Bundesliga, signing for title-chasing RB Leipzig for £11.7 million.

The diminutive Frenchman hit the ground running in Germany, immediately becoming an integral part of manager Julian Nagelsmann’s exciting pressing system.

21 goal contributions from the Frenchman in his debut campaign helped propel Die Roten Bullen to a third-place league finish and their first ever Champions League semi-final appearance in 2019/20.

Aside from his obvious talent, Nkunku’s tactical versatility is what makes him such a key weapon in Nagelsmann’s armoury. Predominantly deployed in central or attacking midfield, he is also more than comfortable stationed on either flank or even as a second striker.

This versatility, combined with his impressive performances and tender age makes Nkunku’s £11.7 million move to Leipzig seem like a deal PSG may well already regret.

Tanguy Nianzou

Tanguy Nianzou broke onto the professional scene to much fanfare during the 2019/20 campaign, making 13 appearances for his boyhood club.

However, an impasse in contract negotiations saw the 18-year-old, valued at £10 million, leave on a free transfer in the summer of 2020, joining Bayern Munich (much to the annoyance of PSG sporting director Leonardo).

Since this move to the Bavarian giants, the young centre-half has struggled with injuries, limiting him to just one appearance.

Despite this faltering start to life at Bayern, at only 18 years of age, Nianzuo still has plenty of time to turn things around.

With David Alaba confirmed to be leaving the club at the end of the 2020/21 season, and Jerome Boateng not getting any younger at 32, there will surely be plenty of opportunities for the young star going forward.

Will Nianzou prove to be another one that PSG wish they had kept hold of?