Lahm Tags PSG "Luxury Department Store" Not A Football Team

Former Germany captain Philipp Lahm criticizes PSG as a "luxury department store" in his latest column for Die Zeit. 

The chief organizer of Euro 2024 and a treble winner with Bayern Munich stated that although PSG has world-class individual players such as Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi, and Neymar, they have failed to perform as a team. 

He added that PSG in its current form resembles a "luxury department store" that only works economically, guaranteeing high attention and spectacle but not quality. 

Lahm suggested that PSG's investment may have paid off politically, but football is something else, and great teams can only succeed with cooperation, solidarity, and community. 

“This exorbitantly expensive team resembles a luxury department store that displays its most valuable exhibits, which are marvelled at by everyone but which no one can afford,” Lahm asserted.

“It guarantees high attention and spectacle, but only works economically. When so much money is spent but the opposite of quality is achieved, it is not good.

“Politically, the PSG investment may have paid off. Football’s popularity makes it a suitable instrument for other purposes. That is the way of the world.

“Football, however, is something else. Great teams, with which people identify, develop in a process.

“This can only succeed with cooperation, solidarity and community. These are the values of Europe, but not those of PSG,“ he claimed.

“They are all among the most famous footballers on the planet and have fans and followers all over the globe.

“But nothing remotely supernatural emerged in the two duels with Bayern Munich. Nothing that arouses enthusiasm, nothing that you want to be a part of.

“You must feel sorry for the many PSG fans who travelled to Munich,” Lahm said.

He also criticized PSG's uninspired football and piecemeal performance on the pitch, saying that nothing remotely supernatural emerged in their two duels with Bayern Munich.