What is PSG’s campus project: Shifting the focus from publishing great talent to homegrown talent

When academy forward Senny Mayulu scored the final goal in Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League final victory over Inter Milan, it felt like more than just completing the Italian side’s rout.

For the French club it symbolized a strategic turn. After more than a decade of high-profile signings, PSG is banking on its new US$350 million ($403 million) training campus to build future squads largely from within.

The facility on the outskirts of Paris will bring together PSG’s men’s, women’s and youth teams under one structure, a move designed to reflect the club’s shift towards developing homegrown talent.

“There is only one flight of stairs to climb,” sports director Luis Campos told reporters. “In the long term it will be possible to build a squad without spending fortunes on the market and have a team with a French identity.”

That identity is already visible. This season, five youth players – Warren Zaire-Emery, Senny Mayulu, Noham Kamara, Ibrahim Mbaye and Quentin Ndjantou – have been integrated into the first team.

PSG also fielded the youngest starting eleven in its history against Montpellier in May, with an average age of 21 years and 251 days. Furthermore, the team that won the UEFA Champions League was the second-youngest team to win the competition, with an average age of 24 years and 110 days – just older than the 1994/95 Ajax Amsterdam team.

Two of the club’s top prospects have broken records: Zaire-Emery started a match at 16 years, four months and 29 days and Mbaye played just two months older.

The policy is a departure from the approach taken after Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) took over the club in 2011, when PSG became one of Europe’s biggest spenders.

The French champion signed world stars such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Neymar, Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi, but failed to win the European Cup with them for the first time.

THREE PILLARS OF THE PROJECT

The campus project, completed in January 2024, is built on three pillars: sporting development, education and personal growth, said academy director Yohan Cabaye.

Cabaye confirmed last week’s visit by the Inspection du Travail, a French government agency responsible for monitoring compliance with labor law and investigating alleged mismanagement at the academy.

“We have nothing to hide,” he said. «If you have ambition, you have to accept the demands that come with it. We have to keep moving forward and working. For me, the most important thing, and what everyone’s focus should remain on, is our core mission.»

The proximity of the academy players to the senior team is intended to ease transitions.

“We want our youth teams to understand the head coach’s principles of play,” Campos said. «When they come up, they should already know our pressing and ball possession game.»

To create space for them, PSG has deliberately reduced the size of the senior team.

“These are not gifts,” Campos added. “Our squad is built to have fourteen to fifteen versatile players and room for six or seven talents from the youth academy to earn their place.”

The shift comes as French football faces economic pressure due to a decline in domestic broadcast revenues. For PSG, developing players internally is becoming both a sporting and financial necessity.

“This is just the beginning,” Cabaye said. “We are celebrating 50 years, but this project is the start of something much bigger.”

Published on November 25, 2025