First Lee Kang-in. Then Kolo Muani and Gonçalo Ramos. Now all that remains is the white smoke before Bradley Barcola goes too: if three clues make a pattern, PSG, the club that has won everything and then won it all over again, are savouring the taste of the word sale — and the money that comes with it — like never before. All told, this summer’s window could bring the European champions almost €300 million, overwhelmingly through the sales of those four players: €155 million from the first three, €140 million from Barcola alone, including the fixed fee and contractual bonuses. The 23-year-old winger will not only become the most expensive player ever sold by PSG, surpassing the €90 million it took to send Neymar to Saudi Arabia in 2023, but will also set a new record for French football, nudging past the mark Ayyoub Bouaddi set only a few days ago with his move to Manchester City. A sign, then, that Ligue 1 is learning to capitalise on its best players, and to do it properly, starting with the club at the top that is pulling the whole movement along with it.
Make no mistake, PSG have not weakened in the meantime and remain a formidable side: this summer, Luis Enrique has added three important pieces in Ferran Torres, Mika Godts and Maghnes Akliouche, for almost €150 million between them. But the balance weighs decisively towards departures, and that is new — or rather, a new trend, also visible at City, in the Saudi Pro League and at a great many other Middle Eastern-owned clubs. The era of wild spending, more spectacular in the newspapers than effective on the pitch, is over, or at least it looks that way for now. In other words, Paris have already moved on to the second phase. Not simply putting their faith in young players and developing their own academy, following the examples of La Masia and De Toekomst, but selling when the time comes, once those players have taken flight for good.
Barcola is the clearest example. After two seasons of rapid progress, the France international would still have been central to PSG’s plans, with the club ready to offer him a substantial new contract. But the player’s hesitation made Luis Enrique dig in: everyone is important here, nobody is indispensable. Better, then, to part ways properly, at the right price. It is a substantial, decisive change in mentality, brought to the Parc des Princes by the Spanish coach, and perhaps the most telling one. Barcola did not come through the Paris academy, but it was in this shirt that he made the leap. In 2023, PSG bought him from Lyon for around €40 million: a fair price, a sensible price, now turned into a €100 million profit. Quite a different football era, even in Paris.