Paris Saint-Germain are targeting history at the Allianz Arena on Saturday: the chance to win their first-ever Champions League title, a desire that has become an obsession for Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) over the years, and the opportunity to claim their first treble. If the club from the capital can achieve the perfect season, it is down to their collective culture rather than focusing on individuals.
Ligue 1, Coupe de France and Trophee des Champions: a domestic treble that has been standard for Paris Saint-Germain across several seasons now. When they don't win all three trophies, that's when the criticism of the management starts.
However, the 2024/25 season has been a special one. PSG have qualified for their second Champions League final in the space of five years, and could be set to win the first 'real' treble in their history.
PSG's success is down to two men in particular: Luis Enrique, the coach who has fashioned a team of champions, and Luis Campos, the QSI group's new sporting adviser.
Campos' influence behind the scenes
Sporting adviser Campos, the architect of PSG's new-look approach, had his deal extended on Thursday until 2030. The signing confirms the club's fresh focus on team spirit rather than superstars, as it prepares for another Champions League final against Inter.
A five-year extension for a sporting director or adviser is unusual for clubs, who usually prefer something a bit more short-term. But this extension is a way of rewarding the change of policy decided on in 2023 with the arrival of coach Enrique: an end to the 'stars, glitter and glamour' policy in favour of team culture and togetherness.
Campos had a huge influence on the overhaul of the squad, which had become necessary after repeated failures in the Champions League. When he arrived in 2022, the Portuguese adviser first had to deal with the end of the Messi-Neymar-Mbappe era. At the same time, he launched a new dynamic: adding a host of promising youngsters to a handful of experienced players.
The idea for PSG was to "create their own stars", in the words of coach Enrique. Campos, for his part, wanted players to come to the club for PSG and not for Paris. It is with this in mind that players like Joao Neves arrived through the doors.
The relationship of trust between Campos and Enrique has been one of the pillars of PSG's revival. In his various press conferences, the Spaniard has insisted that he wants to continue the journey alongside Campos.
But how does Campos view his work on a day-to-day basis? Explaining to students at the Sorbonne University in November 2023, he said: "I'm nearly 60, I've been in professional football for 18 years, and it's an idea I fight for every day: a team is a jigsaw puzzle with 22 or 24 pieces.
"The idea is simple: there is a backbone of at least one player in each position, plus young players with the potential to progress. Finally, one quality is essential for every player: intelligence."
Enrique's coaching philosophy
For many years, PSG have been criticised for the way their team has behaved - with some justification. And, more generally, the club owned by QSI has had a bad reputation. Overly individualistic, stingy in their efforts, poorly behaved on and off the pitch, the Parisians have never had the strongest team culture.
And yet, from Carlo Ancelotti to Christophe Galtier, PSG's coaches have tried to implement systems that favour the collective over the individual. However, this has only worked intermittently. We are thinking in particular of Laurent Blanc's team in the 2015/16 season, Unai Emery's in 2016/17, Thomas Tuchel's between 2018 and 2020 and Mauricio Pochettino's in 2021/22.
Each time, certain personalities took over. However, the reality was more complex than that, and the Parisian dressing room never gave the impression of playing as one. After multiple failures in the Champions League, the management began a new cycle with the departures of Lionel Messi and Neymar in the summer of 2023.
It coincided with the arrival of Enrique - reputed to be a technically and humanly demanding coach - who was brought in to try a more radical approach than his predecessors. No more concessions, the Parisian squad had to follow the instructions of a technician who had come to instill a very specific playing philosophy: positional play. Since then, PSG have never looked so coherent or successful.
Dembele chasing Ballon d'Or
The results so far: two consecutive domestic trebles for PSG, with a run to the semi-finals and then the final in Europe. This season, they have dominated Ligue 1, falling to their first defeat of the campaign before the Arsenal semi-final against Nice.
The club from the capital was aiming to do what no other European side had managed to do in the five major leagues: finish the season unbeaten. Unfortunately, it won't happen this time, but perhaps the end result will be worth it if they lift their maiden Champions League trophy.
If there's one area where PSG have turned a corner this year, it's the mental side of things. Before their decisive match against Manchester City in January, which could have eliminated them if they had lost, the Parisians had lost to Arsenal, Bayern and Atletico Madrid in the competition's league phase.
PSG were playing good football, with a clear identity, but the ball wasn't going in the net. However, Enrique and his players refused to give up, and waited for that famous click that would allow them to find their groove at Anfield, Villa Park and the Emirates.
One of the players who best typifies this revival is none other than Ousmane Dembele. After being left out of the squad for the match against the Gunners in October, the Frenchman rediscovered his spark and confidence a few months later, becoming the talisman PSG so desperately needed.
Back-to-back hat-tricks against Stuttgart and Brest got the ball rolling, and he has never looked back since, registering 33 goals and 13 assists in all competitions before Saturday's meeting with Inter.
Dembele is the symbol of an exceptional, coherent team, and as a result, is among the favourites to win the prestigious Ballon d'Or award.