Paris Saint-Germain begin their new campaign with the Uefa Super Cup against Aston Villa in Salzburg, but the French club's ambitions stretch far beyond a single piece of silverware. Having already rewritten the club's history books, Luis Enrique's side now have a genuine chance to make history for the wider game.
PSG lifted the Champions League for the first time in 2025, thrashing Inter Milan 5-0 in the Munich final, before retaining the trophy this year with a penalty shootout victory over Arsenal in Budapest. That achievement made them only the second club ever to win back-to-back European Cups, following Real Madrid's run of three straight titles between 2016 and 2018.
Should PSG win the Champions League again this season, they would match Real Madrid's feat of three consecutive continental crowns—a mark previously reached only by Real's original dominance from 1956 to 1960, Ajax and Bayern Munich in the 1970s, and, if the definition is loosened to three titles within five years, Liverpool's triumphs of 1977, 1978 and 1981.
The scale of PSG's ambition this season goes even further than the European Cup alone. The Parisians are competing in six different competitions—three of which are one-off finals: the Uefa Super Cup, the Trophee des Champions, the Champions League, Ligue 1, the Coupe de France, and the Fifa Intercontinental Cup. No club in football history has ever won all six trophies available to them in a single campaign. The closest any side has come domestically was Celtic's five trophies in the 1966-67 season, including the Glasgow Cup, while clubs such as Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Manchester United and Manchester City have all managed four in a season.
Last term, PSG won five trophies, missing out only on the Coupe de France after a shock defeat to city rivals Paris FC in January. The season before that yielded four trophies, showing a clear upward trajectory in their collection of honors.
However, the club may again face a sluggish start to the campaign. Sixteen PSG players featured at the recent World Cup, with six involved right up until the final weekend—five with France and Fabian Ruiz among the victorious Spain squad. Eight different PSG players found the net during the tournament, a record for a single club at a World Cup. With only 24 days separating the World Cup final and the Super Cup, fatigue could be a factor early on.
A similarly tight turnaround affected PSG last season, when they had just a month between losing the Club World Cup final to Chelsea and playing in the Super Cup, where they recovered from 2-0 down against Tottenham to win on penalties following a 2-2 draw. PSG have also tended to start slowly in the Champions League group phase in recent campaigns, needing knockout play-offs in both title-winning years before hitting their stride.
Despite the demanding schedule, PSG's core group remains largely intact. Remarkably, the same ten outfield players started both of the club's recent Champions League finals, with only the goalkeeper changing. That entire group remains at the club heading into the new season.
In terms of transfer activity, PSG have brought in Monaco midfielder Maghnes Akliouche, Aston Villa left-back Lucas Digne, and 18-year-old Milan goalkeeper Alessandro Longoni. Departures have so far been limited to Lee Kang-in, who joined Atletico Madrid, and Goncalo Ramos, who moved to AC Milan, while Bradley Barcola could follow with a potential £100m move to Liverpool. All three were used as substitutes in this year's Champions League final.
PSG had also pursued Leipzig and Ivory Coast forward Yan Diomande, but saw a £102.5m offer rejected before he opted for a move to Real Madrid worth up to £120m. Attention has since turned to Barcelona forward Ferran Torres, who scored the winning goal for Spain in the World Cup final.
Based on reporting from BBC Sport.