Christophe Galtier was to embody a return to reasonableness. By returning the reins of the team to a French coach and Ligue 1 specialist, Paris Saint-Germain had decided to stem the spiral of foreign coaches who have succeeded each other since 2016, from Unai Emery to Mauricio Pochettino, in passing through Thomas Tuchel. We are happy and proud that he is French, because we want to start a new project, insisted President Nasser Al-Khelaïfi during his enthronement last July.
The new project lasted only one season, which did not leave the expected taste. Despite the title of champion of France which he will have managed to keep, Christophe Galtier leaves behind him a wasteland PSG. The last image of him will remain this closed face and his salute with his hand when leaving the podium where his team lifted Hexagoal, Saturday July 3, in front of the public at the Parc des Princes. At the same time as his departure, the very short Lionel Messi era (2021-2023) comes to an end, but also Sergio Ramos’ passage in the capital. Above all, Galtier leaves the club after a gloomy end to the season, during which poor sporting performances and media storms mingled.
The wind quickly turned
Everything had started well: 21 goals and four wins in the first four games. A promising new tactical device, which finally seemed able to allow Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé to express themselves at the same time. A much warmer attitude to the media, after a year and a half of warm water tap under Mauricio Pochettino. Christophe Galtier has, for a time, brought a breath of fresh air, quickly coming to sweep away the disappointment of seeing the native of Marseille sit on a bench that many wanted to see be occupied by another Phocaean, but with a more prestigious name: Zinédine Zidane.
But the romance didn’t last long. As early as September, even before the first evening of the Champions League, the coach made people cringe after a bad joke about the movements of his team, following the trip to Nantes made by private jet. We’re trying to see if we can’t get around in a sand yacht, he had fun at a press conference, arousing the hilarity of Kylian Mbappé right next to him. Enough to be publicly snatched by the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra.
