From Roissy to the Parc, the PSG players crowned European champions for the second time in a row were welcomed as heroes on their return to Paris on Sunday, during celebrations under close surveillance after a night of jubilation punctuated by incidents and mourned by the death of a young man.
Contrasting with the excesses observed the day before, it was in a festive – and very structured – atmosphere that Luis Enrique’s men, victorious over Arsenal in Budapest, reconnected with their public, during a day which concluded with a presentation of the players at the Parc des Princes, in front of more than 40,000 spectators.
One year to the day after their first Champions League title against Inter Milan in Munich, Luis Enrique’s men were once again able to parade to music in the middle of their stadium, before appearing on a podium representing the club logo where they took part in joyful dances on several occasions.
In their stadium, the scene of their exploits, the players began to parade around 9:40 p.m., after the American rapper and DJ Big Ali, the Congolese star artist Fally Ipupa and the French rapper SDM, as well as former players, had cheerfully “heated up” the crowd.
“Thank you all for your support,” Ballon d’Or Ousmane Dembélé told them earlier in the day, on a stage set up on the Champ-de-Mars, with the Eiffel Tower as a fabulous backdrop. “Once is good but twice is better… We will come back next year for the 3rd,” he added.
“Back2back” was the slogan displayed everywhere to celebrate a second coronation in a row in C1, gleaned at the end of the suspense against Arsenal (1-1, 4-3 tab) the day before and which allowed the capital club to enter a little further into the history of French football. “We brought back this magnificent cup for you. Last year we won the Champions League, and this year, we went “back to back”! We have built something very special with this team,” declared President Nasser Al-Khelaïfi.
“Something very special”
Arriving in Roissy in the afternoon more than an hour late, the European champions – some of whom were hiding the scars of a short night of partying behind dark glasses – quickly rushed into two buses in the club’s colors.
Escorted by the police, they headed towards Paris via the A1 motorway and the ring road, where traffic had been cut off, followed by an impressive procession of nearly a thousand motorcycles, to the cheers of supporters massed on all the bridges or at the windows of buildings.
And it was while leaving through the main gate of the Military School that the PSG players made their triumphant appearance. The players also took their time to cross the crowd and present the Cup to the big ears. On the applause meter, Marquinhos, Dembélé and Pacho were among the most warmly received. They were again later in their lair at the Parc des Princes. “Champions my brother”, shouted into the microphone, on the stage, the captain of PSG.
The celebration was held in a very good-natured atmosphere. The day before, the post-match gave rise to numerous excesses, in Paris and elsewhere in France with hundreds of arrests and dozens of injured civilians and police forces.
“Hold the Party”
PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi wanted to send a message after Saturday evening’s incidents: “Please celebrate today calmly. We must protect our city,” urged the Qatari leader.
After this carefully choreographed sequence, players and staff were received by Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée. Before expressing “the immense pride of the entire country”, the President of the Republic deemed the scenes of violence in the capital “unspeakable” and “unacceptable”. “That’s not football, that’s not sport, that’s not what we like. We will be uncompromising with those who have been caught. We don’t want to see that anymore, it’s over. We are fed up,” declared the head of state.
Because PSG’s historic victory was tarnished on Saturday evening by scenes of chaos and violence all over France, with 219 people injured, including eight seriously, and 780 people arrested, including 457 in police custody, an increase of 32% compared to last year, according to the latest figures given by Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez. A young man in his twenties died in the night after hitting concrete blocks installed on an exit ramp from the ring road with his cross bike.
Incidents occurred in many other cities. There were, for example, 18 arrests in Toulouse where trash cans and scooters were burned, according to police sources.
The violence quickly provoked a reaction from the political class, with the security system and the Minister of the Interior focusing criticism from the oppositions. The National Rally condemned these excesses on Saturday evening, its leader, Marine Le Pen, regretting on X that there is “only in France where the victory of a football club provokes riots”.
“From the moment there are these excesses, we cannot be satisfied with the management of yesterday evening as it was organized by the government,” declared LFI spokesperson Manuel Bompard on France 3.
“It’s been around for centuries,” put into perspective the PS mayor of Paris Emmanuel Grégoire, present at the Champ-de-Mars alongside the Parisian delegation. “Yes, there are problems, we were on the bridge all night with the police, the firefighters, with civil protection, with the maintenance services,” he said. “But I want to remember that, the party, and then we take care of the rest. »
