PSG look to add fifth trophy against Tottenham

One month after the end of the best season in their history, Paris St-Germain kick off the new one with the chance to win yet another trophy.

The French club won the Treble last season, including their first Champions League trophy, but lost 3-0 to Chelsea in the Club World Cup final in New Jersey last month.

Now the European champions face another London club, as they meet Europa League winners Tottenham in Udine, Italy in the Uefa Super Cup.

Playing fantastic football with a young, hungry squad, PSG blew nearly everyone away in the latter stages of last season with devastating pace, passing and pressing - and look like a team who could dominate for some time to come.

They will hope that Chelsea defeat was just a blip - it came six weeks after they demolished Inter Milan 5-0 in the most one-sided Champions League final ever.

In the US they also won 4-0 against both Madrid sides, Atletico and Real - and saw off Bayern Munich despite ending with nine men.

PSG have the chance to win a joint-record six trophies in a calendar year. Losing to Chelsea ended the opportunity for a historic seven.

Beat Spurs and it would be PSG's sixth trophy of 2025, including the Trophee des Champions - France's version of the Community Shield - in which PSG beat Monaco 1-0 in Doha in January.

The Ligue 1 title was clinched on 5 April, with six games to go, and the club still unbeaten. They lost two of their final four games in the league, but the trophy was already in the bag.

PSG beat Reims 3-0 in the French Cup final to complete a domestic Double - and then beat Inter 5-0 in the Champions League final in Munich to secure the Treble.

If they beat Spurs, they then have the chance for that joint-record sixth piece of silverware when they play one of the other continental champions (who have to fight their way through qualifying rounds) in the Fifa Intercontinental Cup final in December.

Barcelona - in 2009 - and Bayern Munich - in 2020 - are the only two teams to have won six trophies in a calendar year.

That was the maximum either side could win at the time, with the Fifa Club World Cup in its previous form - when it was the continental champions who took part - being considered the forerunner of the Intercontinental Cup.

The new Club World Cup, featuring 32 teams from around the world, is considered to be a new competition - and the seventh piece of silverware now up for grabs each season.

The worrying thing for PSG's rivals is the youth of their team.

They named the youngest starting XI in a Champions League final in the 21st century - 25 years and 96 days - and beat Inter Milan by the biggest margin of victory in a European Cup final ever.

Most of their players are just approaching their peak years, while forward Desire Doue - who scored twice against Inter - and midfielder Joao Neves are just 20.

Their oldest regular player is captain and centre-back Marquinhos, who turned 31 in May.

However, Chelsea had an even younger team when they beat PSG at the MetLife Stadium in July.

There is no position on the pitch that PSG look weak in.

Their rapid front three of Dembele, Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia cause problems for any opponent.

The passing and running of midfield trio Fabian Ruiz and Portugal duo Neves and Vitinha is hard to play against.

On either side of their back four are arguably the two best full-backs in the world - Nuno Mendes and Achraf Hakimi - who both play almost as wingers at times.

And in the centre, Marquinhos is one of the world's best defenders - and plays alongside 23-year-old Ecuadoarian Willian Pacho (who was suspended for the Chelsea defeat).

In goal is Gianluigi Donnarumma, who is also one of the best on the globe in his position - and still only aged 26.

One major plot in the story of PSG's upturn has been the binning of the egos.

At one time the Parisians had three of the world's best players up front - Neymar, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe.

All wanted to be centre stage. None helped the club win the Champions League.

And Messi, with Inter Miami, and Mbappe, with Real Madrid, both got a close look at what PSG have become without them - with the French side beating both of their new teams 4-0 in the knockout stages of the Club World Cup.

PSG are still shelling out the money on transfers, but instead of going for star names they have recruited talented youngsters.

Last summer, Portugal midfielder Neves cost £50m from Benfica, Doue was a £42m recruit from Rennes and Pacho cost roughly £42m from Eintracht Frankfurt.

All highly talented youngsters, but none would have been household names before PSG came knocking.

But things really picked up when their one big January signing, Napoli winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, came in for £59m.

One of Luis Enrique's biggest achievements has been turning Dembele into a player who is now considered the leading candidate to win the Ballon d'Or.

His previous club, Barcelona, shelled out £96.8m for him but never saw the best of the 28-year-old - his highest number of goals in a season for them was 14.

It appeared his career was never going to live up to the early hype.

In England, he was perhaps best known for missing a huge chance to put Barca 4-0 up against Liverpool in the 2019 Champions League semi-finals. The Reds went on to win 4-3 on aggregate.

But now his name has become synonymous with being one of the most exciting and devastating players in the world - thanks to one tactical switch.

In mid-December Enrique played Dembele as a number nine instead of on the right wing in a league game against Lyon.

He had scored five goals in 2024-25 before that date - and then went on a run of 18 goals in 10 matches.

"It was genius because everyone saw him as a winger," said L'Equipe journalist Pierre-Etienne Minonzio.

"He imagined for him a new role like a false nine with a lot of press. He's very demanding with what he asks of him and Dembele managed to do it perfectly well.

"It's very hardy to find a number nine who can do what Luis Enrique asks."

Dembele ended the season, including the Club World Cup, on 35 goals and 16 assists in 53 games.

He was the Champions League's player of the season and Ligue 1's Golden Boot winner - in addition to all those trophies.

Bar perhaps Marquinhos, who is 31, Ruiz, 29, and Dembele, 28, there is nothing to stop PSG keeping this team together for the next six years.

Do that - and add some more players in the coming years - and they could take some stopping.

They are not planning any big signings this summer, despite earning prize money of about £78m in the Club World Cup alone, having learned lessons from the past.

"What we know is they won't want to make a huge transfer with all the money they have earned from the Club World Cup," said journalist Minonzio.

"It's not the idea to do what they did in the past and buy someone like Neymar, the huge names."

This PSG team are sensational to watch when they get going - and will take some stopping.

Unless other teams can learn from what Chelsea did in the final and repeat the trick.

"The idea was go man-to-man because if you leave spaces to PSG they will kill you, so we tried to be very aggressive and suffocate them early on and that intensity was crucial in the first 10 minutes," Blues boss Enzo Maresca said.

"We had a lot of success exploring the left side of their defence. Things worked perfectly for us due to the effort the players put in."

As a benchmark, only four clubs have ever managed to win three European Cups in a five-year spell - Real Madrid, Ajax (1971-1973), Bayern Munich (1974-1976) and Liverpool (1977, 1978, 1981).

Real have done it three times - including winning the first five (1956-1960), and four out of five between 2014 and 2018.

And AC Milan and Barcelona both managed three in the space of six years.

PSG could themselves be about to embark on a run of dominance, but equally fatigue could be an issue in 2025-26.

They played 65 games in all competitions last season - and there is only one month between the Club World Cup final and Uefa Super Cup.