Kylian Mbappe has revealed it is “dream” to win the Champions League with Paris Saint-Germain before he leaves the club at the end of the season.
Mbappe’s summer destination is not confirmed but it would shock the entire footballing world if it is anywhere but Real Madrid, having idolised Los Blancos growing up and seemingly the only side that could get him to willingly walk away from PSG – his hometown team.
On Tuesday night, European glory got one step closer for PSG as they thrashed Barcelona 4-1, overturning an aggregate deficit in the process, to reach the semi-finals.
“I have the dream of winning the Champions League for Paris,” Mbappe told reporters afterwards.
“I’m proud to be at PSG since the first day. It’s not because there are good times and bad times that my pride takes a hit. The pride of playing for this club, of representing the club of the capital of my country, it’s something special for me who grew up there.
“To experience an evening like this one as a Parisian, it’s great. We have one more step to go before we reach the final in Wembley, so we need to stay calm.”
For all the spending since the Qatari takeover in 2011 and the superstars who have passed through in the decade-plus since, the Champions League trophy has always eluded PSG.
From 2012 to 2019, four successive quarter-final exits were followed by three successive last 16 exits. A stripped back one-legged knockout version of the Champions League in 2020, the result of the Covid-19 pandemic, handed PSG their first chance to reach the final, but a single Alphonso Davies goal in Lisbon saw the trophy head to Germany with Bayern Munich instead.
Knocked out in the last 16 twice more in 2021/22 and 2022/23, this season marks PSG’s first semi-final appearance in three years and only their fourth ever.
Olympique Marseille remain the sole French club in the history of the European Cup and Champions League to win the competition, although their 1993 triumph remains shrouded in controversy due to a match-fixing scandal back home that saw opposing Ligue 1 players offered bribes and the club stripped of their domestic title, as well as barred from defending their European crown in 1993/94.
Stade de Reims were beaten by Real Madrid in two of the first four European Cup finals back in the late 1950s, while Saint-Etienne lost in 1976 as Bayern Munich completed a European Cup three-peat. Marseille lost on penalties against Red Star Belgrade in 1991 after a goal-less stalemate that is still considered one of the all-time most boring finals in the competition’s long history, while Monaco were comprehensively beaten by Jose Mourinho’s Porto in 2004.
To return to the final in 2024, PSG will have to beat Borussia Dortmund over two legs in the semi-finals. In a 2020 last 16 tie billed as Mbappe vs Erling Haaland, PSG prevailed last time they met.
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