The year is 2018 and after yet another disappointing season full of demoralizing losses, Royal Challengers Bengaluru were at rock bottom with only a couple of second-place finishes to their name. However, the brand had no shortage of superstars. Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, two of the biggest names in cricket, wore the badge and yet only one question remained: why can’t the team win the coveted IPL title?
7,830 kilometers away, in the city on the Seine, French club Paris Saint-Germain completed the signing of prodigy Kylian Mbappe for a whopping €180 million in his quest for European glory. It was seven years ago that the team became rich when ownership was transferred to Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), an investment fund led by Nasser Al-Khelaifi. Despite lavish spending on superstars such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Neymar and Mbappe, the French club still faltered on the European stage without a UEFA Champions League to its name. A similar question to RCB remained: why can’t PSG taste European glory?
Three years later, in 2021, both teams strengthened their arsenals in their quest for glory. PSG pulled off a massive coup by signing Lionel Messi and creating their own coup galacticos including Messi, Neymar, Mbappe, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Sergio Ramos and Marquinhos among other stars. At the same time, RCB acquired the services of Australian great Glenn Maxwell for a whopping 14.5 crores, forming a batting trinity of Kohli, de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell.
The season started with RCB topping the table and PSG advancing to the Champions League knockouts. However, neither team could reach the final of their respective competitions, with their season ending in defeat in the knockouts.
The next three years were not kind to either team, with heartbreaking wins in the knockout stages and superstar players failing to step up at crucial moments.
The paradigm shift started in the 2025 season. Luis Enrique at PSG managed to build a squad without big names after the departure of Mbappé. RCB took advantage of the mega auction, letting go of Maxwell and Cameron Green and buying experienced names like Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood and Krunal Pandya.
RCB started the 2025 season playing a brand of cricket that is usually out of proportion to the team’s legacy. Each player was given tremendous role clarity and was supported to get the job done. Phil Salt and Virat Kohli gave blazing starts, Devdutt Padikkal and Rajat Patidar upped the pace in the middle overs, Tim David, Jitesh Sharma and Romario Sheperd went all out in the slog overs and formed a destructive batting unit.
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The pace duo of Bhuvaneshwar and Hazlewood with supporting acts from Krunal and Suyash Sharma strengthened the bowling. Suddenly the team was no longer dependent on Kohli to score the runs. It functioned as a well-oiled unit with every player in the squad playing a particular role which they played to perfection, taking the team to the final.
PSG, under the tactical prowess of Luis Enrique and with a squad built around young players like Desire Doue and Vitinha with Ousmane Dembele as the central figure, attracted a lot of attention with fluid gameplay that led them to the 2024-2025 UCL final.
In the end, both sides finally had their long-awaited glory as RCB won the IPL and PSG won the UCL.
Fast forward to the present: the two teams have repeated their success. This string of successes achieved by RCB and PSG further marks the demise of the superstar culture, proving that tactical prowess and role clarity take precedence.
Published on June 1, 2026
