In a Ligue 1 without Mbappé, Paris Saint-Germain still alone in the world ahead of Monaco, Marseille and Lyon ?

Qui pour contester l'hégémonie du PSG ? MAXPPP – MOHAMMED BADRA

Le PSG, champion en titre, est favori malgré le lourd héritage laissé par Mbappé, parti au Real Madrid.

The stars disappear one by one in the Parisian sky. Above the Tuileries Gardens and the Olympic cauldron, but also the Parc des Princes and Ligue 1. After Messi and Neymar, who left for twilight Eldorados last summer, Kylian Mbappé is also leaving the star-studded track of Paris SG.

The icon of French football is joining Real Madrid and leaving the French championship facing a double challenge: the emergence of new talent and maintaining its place among the top five European championships, which has been undermined by the TV rights crisis.

A discreet transfer window

A flagship product of Ligue 1, an acknowledged and undisputed star, captain of a French team in the midst of a renewal of its executives, he leaves the field open. To all possibilities ? To a revelation, to a revolution in the hierarchy at the top of a Ligue 1 frozen since 2011 by the budgetary gaps of Paris SG on a Qatari drip ?

Winner of ten titles in thirteen years and semi-finalist of the Champions League, PSG is above all. And awakens an eternal question: can a collective be stronger without its star, without its striker, without its scorer especially (27 goals last year) ? For the moment, PSG has not recruited a new striker, but a midfielder: Joao Neves, a defender: Willian Pacho and a goalkeeper Matvey Safonov.

A budget 12 times higher than that of the MHSC

PSG is changing. A change forced by the controversial departure of Mbappé, but easily accepted by its Spanish coach Luis Enrique. A change where power is transferred from the field to the bench.

More than ever, the former coach of Spain and Barça will be the pole of attraction, the strong man of PSG and therefore the first target in the event of failure.

With its budget twelve times greater than that of Montpellier, and at least double that of the other contenders, Paris is starting with a head start even without its TGV. And the same question has been asked since 2012: who will get the other places in the Champions League ?

Lille, Lens, Marseille, Nice as candidates ?

From the first thrills in the stands, we will forget the law of numbers, we will question the law of the strongest for the conquest of the title, we will elaborate on a possible surprise like Lens in 2023 or Brest in 2024.

The race for Europe promises to be more vital than ever with the drying up of domestic TV rights. It promises to widen the gap a little further between the haves and the rest, the many who are chasing their survival in the elite.

Behind PSG, there are more mysteries than certainties. With a capital letter: how will the new coaches adapt to their new bench, whether in Marseille (De Zerbi), Lille (Genesio), Lens (Still), Nice (Haise)…, candidates for Europe ? Can Lille resist a crash in the preliminary rounds of the Champions League, devastating last year for OM and so many other times for Monaco ?

Expected party spoilers ?

Is the handover a done deal in Lyon between Aulas and the Textor-Sage tandem or has it not weaned off all its chaos at the end of a mutation, symbolic of French football ?

Marseille (8th), in perpetual motion, and Rennes (10th), with proven stability, are starting a new cycle against a backdrop of revenge and a return to the European square. The one conquered by Brest with the strength of popular, festive and spectacular football that we hope to encounter in the four corners of Ligue 1.

There is one certainty: Paris remains Paris. And, one hope: that Brest, Lens, or another party pooper shakes everything up. And plunges us into a fleeting vertigo of innocence like Montpellier in 2012.

For its fiftieth anniversary, Laurent Nicollin's club does not dream of Europe in a Ligue 1, orphaned by Mbappé. Unless it wakes up in the light of its history.

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