The last time Paris Saint-Germain won a European trophy, a long-haired Mauricio Pochettino swapped shirts with a long-haired Roberto Baggio. It was 24 years ago, but another figure looks instantly familiar in the footage. The first substitute PSG brought on that day in 2001 when they beat Baggio’s Brescia still has the same slender build, the same haircut. Now, if Mikel Arteta gets European silverware for the second time, he will have to overcome the club with which he won his first.
Almost a quarter of a century later, both Arteta and PSG are eyeing a greater prize than the Intertoto Cup. In an era when PSG are serial Ligue 1 winners and an ever-present force in the knockout stages of the Champions League, their days in the Intertoto Cup feel still more of a curiosity. They were not even its only winners in 2001 – Aston Villa and Troyes also won one of the competition’s three finals – but it provides a snapshot of a period in time, of the Paris Saint-Germain that was.
