“Without Kylian Mbappe, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) is just a mid-range team in Europe” – that opinion should probably change after PSG won 3-0 against AC Milan in the early morning of October 26 in the first leg. Match 3 of Group F Champions League.
When watching Zaïre-Emery play in the win over AC Milan, not many fans thought he was only 17 years old. Zaïre-Emery plays mentally and maturely as if he has been playing top football for a long time. It was Warren Zaïre-Emery who passed the ball to Mbappe to score the opening goal. And then, Warren Zaïre-Emery continued to assist Lee Kang-In to score a 3-0 victory for PSG.
With this impressive performance, Zaïre-Emery received a sofascore score of 7.8 points, the highest on PSG’s side. Even Zaïre-Emery’s score is higher than that of his senior Mbappe – who is PSG’s inspiration at the moment. Zaïre-Emery’s brilliance is the answer to countless questions about PSG’s transfer policy this summer. The French team let a series of midfield stars leave but didn’t bring back any truly significant stars?
But with what Zaïre-Emery has shown, PSG does not need to spend money on a star in the midfield. This season, Zaïre-Emery has appeared in 8/9 matches in the French Championship (Ligue 1). And he is one of six players who played all three matches in the Champions League. The important thing is that Zaïre-Emery continuously shows progress as his parameters improve with each match. If coach Luis Enrique continues to use him properly, Zaïre-Emery will soon become a new star in PSG’s midfield. Last month, Zaïre-Emery was called up to the French U21 team and was given the captaincy by coach Thierry Henry.
Giving the opportunity to Zaïre-Emery partly shows a change in PSG’s policy. The French capital team no longer builds a team by spending money to bring in superstars. Instead, PSG has begun to be interested in using young players who are “homegrown”. Zaïre-Emery is a product of the PSG youth training facility. Zaïre-Emery’s story will motivate PSG as well as many other teams to believe in young players coming from the club’s training facility.
PSG failed in its policy of buying “stars” to aim for immediate glory. And now is the time for them to seriously think about a new direction.