With Qatar, PSG's Golden Era Written Through Big Ears Trophy and Financial Records

The 2024-2025 Champions League title embodies the grand ambitions of Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) to establish Paris Saint-Germain as a new giant in European football. The journey to reach the pinnacle of this prestigious club competition has not been smooth. Major stars have been gathered by "Les Parisiens," but it is with a generation of young players that the trophy known as "The Big Ears" was brought to Paris for the first time.

QSI is an entity under the control of the Qatar Investment Authority (QTA), which is the state asset management body. QTA is similar to Danantara, which was recently established by President Prabowo Subianto.

Since 2011, QSI has held full control of PSG and rescued the club from the threat of bankruptcy due to the financial limitations of its previous owner, the American investment firm Colony Capital. QSI has transformed PSG into a team with unlimited funds. PSG made a significant impact on the world by assembling the best stars of the green field in the 2010s, such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, David Beckham, Gianluigi Buffon, Neymar Jr, Kylian Mbappe, Sergio Ramos, and Lionel Messi.

In total, QSI has spent approximately 2.3 billion euros or around IDR 42.5 trillion to acquire 91 players over a period of 14 seasons. This amount does not include other expenditures by QSI for player salaries and bonuses.

QTA has also allocated billions of euros to support PSG outside of QSI. QTA-owned enterprises, such as the Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA), Qatar National Bank (QNB), Ooredoo, Qatar Airways, Aspetar, and beIN Sports, provide direct support to Les Parisiens through sponsorship partnerships. The funding ranges from 10 million euros (approximately Rp 185 billion) to 70 million euros (approximately Rp 1.3 trillion) paid by each of these companies to PSG per season.

Thanks to the investment from QSI, PSG has swept all domestic trophies in France over six seasons. Two of those seasons were achieved under the management of Coach Luis Enrique in the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 seasons. In total, 36 domestic trophies have filled PSG's trophy gallery at the Parc des Princes Stadium.

Despite the unmatched dominance in France, PSG also touched the highest financial achievement in the club's history. According to Deloitte data through the "Money League 2025" report, PSG recorded an income of 806 million euros (Rp. 15 trillion) during 2024. PSG's income was only second to Real Madrid and Manchester City.

Meanwhile, Football Benchmark in its report “The European Elite 2025” stated that PSG’s enterprise value is ranked eighth in the world. PSG has a value of 3.76 billion (Rp 69.6 trillion).

PSG is only behind teams that already have a great tradition in European football, namely Real Madrid, City, Manchester United, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, and Arsenal.

The value of PSG is higher than the cumulative value of professional sports competitions worldwide, such as MLB (Major League Baseball) valued at 2.82 billion USD, Formula 1 (car racing) valued at 2.31 billion USD, NHL (National Hockey League) valued at 1.79 billion USD, and MLS (Major League Soccer) valued at 721 million USD.

The first Champions League title in the club's history will also increase the club's revenue for the economic year 2025. The prize for winning the Champions League is approximately 121.7 million euros (Rp 2.25 trillion) and will be included in PSG's financial report at the end of the year. This amount does not include bonuses from sponsors for achievements in Europe.

Les Parisiens also have the opportunity to increase their financial coffers if they can win the 2025 Club World Cup. As participants alone, PSG has already received a funding injection of 40 million US dollars (Rp 651.8 billion) from FIFA. There is also the possibility of additional prizes from the European Super Cup event in August.

With the substantial financial influx resulting from their achievements on the field, PSG has the opportunity to become the second team in the history of the Deloitte Money League to record over 1 billion euros in a single season. This record was previously set by Real Madrid in the 2025 Money League. The collection of the 2023-2024 Champions League trophy has been one of the revenue boosters for "Los Blancos" over the past year.

Luis Campos, the Technical Director of PSG and also the sports advisor of QSI, stated that the outstanding achievements this season are just the beginning for a new generation of the PSG squad, which is filled with many young stars. According to Campos, PSG's new approach to assembling the squad alongside Enrique has yielded results, as opposed to the past style of gathering high-paid star players.

"I truly believe that this year's achievements are just the beginning of greater success that we aim to achieve both on and off the field," Campos stated as reported by the QSI website.

As major European teams compete to spend lavishly on acquiring and offering high salaries to star players, PSG has chosen to move away from this approach. The decision by PSG President Nasser Al-Khelaifi and Campos to recruit Enrique is part of their efforts to regenerate the squad and change the style of squad formation.

PSG does not regret the departures of Neymar, Messi, and Mbappe in the last two seasons. They are not competing with other teams to bring in players labeled as megastars.

Enrique has instead brought in players under the age of 25 who are not yet well known to the public, such as Vitinha, Joao Neves, Desire Doue, Wilian Pacho, and Bradley Barcola.

Two transfers during Enrique's era that garnered significant attention were the acquisition of Ousmane Dembele from Barcelona at the beginning of the 2023-2024 season, and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who was purchased from Napoli during the winter transfer window of the 2024-2025 season.

The policy has drastically reduced PSG's salary expenditure. Based on Capology data, the accumulated annual salary of the PSG squad this season is around 196 million euros (Rp 3.63 trillion).

Thus, PSG achieved the trophy most desired by European clubs through significant salary reductions. In the 2022-2023 season, they spent a salary budget of 350 million euros (IDR 6.48 trillion). This amount decreased when Enrique arrived and after releasing Neymar and Messi during the 2023-2024 competition campaign, with a salary expenditure of 277 million euros (IDR 5.13 trillion).

As a result, PSG was able to win the championship thanks to the youngest squad in the Champions League final since the new millennium. Enrique fielded a team with an average age of 24.8 years. The age of the PSG squad appears to lag behind the experience of Inter's starting lineup, which has an average age of 30.3 years.

However, PSG proved that age is just a number. They appeared more mature and composed to become the second French team to lift the Champions League trophy in Munich. This record is reminiscent of their eternal rival, Marseille, in the 1992-1993 season.

"It's been a tough journey. We've been criticized a lot, even though we've tried to give something to French football. It's really painful, but we're focused on our goal. This is a title not just for Paris, it's also for France," Al-Khelaifi told CBS.

Al-Khelaifi, who is a close friend and trusted figure of the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, emphasized that the Champions League achievement proves that the development path of the PSG squad is on the right track. He stated that being European champions serves as motivation for his team to continue achieving the best results while also establishing dominance in the world of football.

"This year was not planned this way. We are grateful that this team has proven we have the best manager, coaching staff, and players in the world, as well as incredible supporters. We are building a team for the future. We must remain humble," said Al-Khelaifi.

PSG held a parade of treble winners of major competitions and one French Super Cup trophy centered on the most famous street in the French capital, Champs-Elysees, Sunday (1/6/2026) evening local time. The peak, a celebration party was held at the Parc des Princes, Sunday night.

The world is not only witnessing the celebration of the latest championship but also the new aura of dominance from Les Parisiens. Welcome to the era of dominance belonging to PSG in Europe, and indeed the world….