The 2025/26 Ligue 1 season gets underway on Friday night with last season's runners-up Marseille travelling to Rennes. But as the squads were going through their final paces for the kick-off at the Roazhon Park, defending champions Paris Saint-Germain were hogging the limelight.
On Wednesday night in the final of the European Super Cup – pitting Champions League winners PSG against Europa League champions Tottenham Hotspur – PSG scored twice in the last 10 minutes in Udine to draw 2-2 and force a penalty shoot-out.
All five PSG designated marksmen held their nerve in the searing heat of the north-eastern Italy city, turning around a 2-0 deficit to win 4-3. They became the first French side to lift the trophy in its 44-year history.
The victory came less than three months after PSG beat Inter Milan to win the Champions League for the first time. Before kick-off, coach Luis Enrique confirmed he had replaced his Italy international goalkeeper Gigio Donnarumma with Lucas Chevalier, a 23-year-old Frenchman without a medal to his name.
"I can only say good things about Gigio," said Enrique chivalrously as he espoused his new knight.
"Gigio is undoubtedly one of the best players in his position, and he is even better as a person, but we were looking for a different type of goalkeeper."
When Chevalier botched a routine save to gift Tottenham their second goal, the strategic reconfiguration appeared ripe for debate but Enrique tweaked his lavish resources.
He sent on €130m worth of talent in the shape of Spain international Fabian Ruiz, South Korea international Kang-in Lee and Portugal international Gonçalo Ramos.
Tottenham's late collapse
Tottenham Hotspur responded with relative journeymen Dominc Solanke and Archie Gray and went "Spursy" – an epithet coined in England for Tottenham's ability over the years to collapse on the verge of triumph.
Lee and Ramos scored to force penalties, and in the shoot-out Chevalier saved Tottenham’s third spot-kick. Minutes later, he had his first medal.
On Sunday night in Nantes, Chevalier will make his Ligue 1 debut for his new club against a team that only scraped out of the relegation dogfight on the last day of the season.
Nantes' bosses fired Antoine Kombouaré for dangling the club a tad too close to Ligue 2 oblivion and replaced him with Luis Castro, who steered second division Dunkerque to fourth in the table and the semi-finals of the Coupe de France.
The 45-year-old will start his tenure absent from the sidelines at the Stade de la Beaujoire as he serves a one-mach ban for picking up a third yellow card at the end of last season.
Enrique, though, will be on the touchline barking orders. And at the start of his third season in Ligue 1, few will dare question the 55-year-old Spaniard's inklings, convictions or tactics.
Drafted into PSG in July 2023, he raised eyebrows a few months later when he said the club should not be obsessed with winning the Champions League. By May 2024, he had steered them to a domestic treble of French Super Cup, Ligue 1 title and Coupe de France and a semi-final in the Champions League.
Enrique's list of successes
A second successive French Super Cup was acquired in January 2025. A week after securing a second consecutive Coupe de France trophy to go along with the 2025 Ligue 1 title, PSG dismantled Inter Milan at the Allianz Arena in Munich to claim the Champions League trophy for the first time.
"What we did last season was an achievement for everyone," said Enrique. "We want to continue making history, that's our goal."
Marseille finished the 2024/25 campaign in second place, 19 points behind the champions. Club president Pablo Longoria has sanctioned the arrival of nine players to bolster Roberto de Zerbi's squad, which failed to offer a sustained challenge to PSG.
In March 2024, Marseille went to the Parc des Princes 16 points adrift with nine games remaining. Victory would have perpetuated the semblance of intrigue in the title run-in but Marseille lost 3-1.
Abandoned, they were left to battle with Monaco, Nice and Lille for the remaining two automatic spots in the Champions League. Monaco claimed third place and Nice finished fourth to obtain a berth in the third round of qualifiers for a place in the Champions League group stages.
But they lost 2-0 in both of those games this month against Benfica and were demoted to the Europa League.
"There really can't be much disappointment," said Nice boss Franck Haise after Tuesday night's second leg defeat in Lisbon. "We knew before the first leg that this team was stronger than us.
Not enough firepower
"We don't have the weapons to compete in the Champions League," Haise added. "We're going to focus on Ligue 1 and the Europa League."
Lille, who finished just below Nice on goal difference, have drafted 38-year-old Olivier Giroud. France’s all-time top scorer will add experience to a young squad also in the Europa League.
"I am very happy and excited to be returning to France, to my home," said Giroud, who has played in England, Italy and the United States since winning the Ligue 1 title with Montpellier in 2012.
"Lille had a great season last year and it’s a young and talented group that needs experienced players like me. So I’ll also be there in that role."
Paris FC were promoted from Ligue 2 alongside Lorient, giving the capital its first Ligue 1 derby since 1989/90.
Stéphane Giulli’s side open away to Angers on Sunday, then play Marseille on 23 August before hosting Metz on 31 August at the Stade Jean Bouin, near PSG’s Parc des Princes, on the outskirts of Paris.
Ligue 1 derby in Paris
Bought by the billionaire Arnault family last October, Paris FC were using the Stade Charléty in southern Paris during their campaigns in Ligue 2.
"Once we're up, we're going to try to stay up," said Paris FC supremo Antoine Arnault. "And then we're going to try to become a solid Ligue 1 outfit. And then we will try to get into the places leading to the European competitions.
"It's going to take time but it's like that in the world of business and the same in many other fields. We're going to take out time to build something."
To achieve the plan, the Arnaults, who are behind the LVMH luxury goods company, are expected to invest between €100m and €200m – a drop in the ocean compared with the billion or so spent over the 14 years since the Qatar Sports Investment group acquired its majority stake in PSG.
Wednesday night's European Super Cup took PSG's trophy haul under QSI up to 38.
"Last year, I don't think anyone thought we were capable of winning the Champions League, but we did it," said Enrique.
"And for the future, we have even more dreams."
