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Paris Saint-Germain is finding that star power is overrated.
The French soccer club is headed to the UEFA Champions League final against Inter Milan after defeating Arsenal 2–1 in the second leg of the semifinals. PSG won the first leg 1–0.
It marks the club’s second Champions League final, the first of which came in 2020. But it also comes a year after the club parted ways with one of the game’s bigger what-ifs in recent years after a failed superteam experiment with Neymar, Lionel Messi, and Kylian Mbappé.
In 2011, the club was bought by Qatar Sports Investments for $75 million, and the Gulf nation quickly poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the team.
The three generational talents made the club’s salary more than $824 million in contracts for the 2021–2022 season, but it served as a reminder that availability can be the best ability. The trio combined to play just 39 out of a possible 100 matches together. Together, they got PSG to the round of 16 but not to the championship game. All three exited the franchise over the past two years.
Messi went to Inter Miami of Major League Soccer in July 2023, Neymar left for Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia a month later, and Mbappé joined European power Real Madrid in 2024. In January 2025, Neymar returned to Santos in his home country of Brazil.
Here’s what it cost PSG to assemble its failed star trio:
- Mbappé: PSG paid $194 million to Monaco in 2017, with a mandatory purchase option. He earned $80 million over three years on his first contract with PSG. In 2022, Mbappé signed a three-year, $235 million extension with $65 million in bonuses. (He is currently in a legal battle with PSG over unpaid wages.)
- Messi: In 2021 he signed a two-year deal for $36 million a year, with the option for a third season at the same rate.
- Neymar: He transferred from Barcelona for a record $239 million in 2017. The Brazilian star earned $217 million over four years from his first PSG contract, plus $122 million more through two years on a five-year extension signed in 2021 worth more than $300 million total.
Mbappé and Neymar were part of PSG’s first Champions League final team, but the team has returned with a far cheaper and less famous roster. Losing all three stars has helped the team slowly reduce its wage bill and deficit. PSG’s current roster is constructed much differently than the superteam seasons. Ousmane Dembélé, the team’s star striker, is the highest-paid player on the roster, making roughly $22 million per year. That’s far less than the $80 million annually Mbappé made in his final seasons with the club.
The team’s payroll peaked at nearly $462 million during the 2021–2022, according to Capology, a website that tracks player compensation for soccer teams. PSG lost hundreds of millions of dollars annually in the superteam era, but it has reined in losses with the departures of its star strikers. The team is still operating at a loss, but it has reduced the deficit from $400 million to around $60 million before the 2023–2024 season.
PSG brought in $873 million in revenue in 2023–2024, which ranked third in the sport behind Real Madrid and Manchester City.
Final payrolls for 2024–2025 have not yet been reported, but Capology estimates PSG is spending $220 million on players this year—nearly $222 million off the peak of its superteam era.
The club now has another chance to shore up its books. The winner of the Champions League earns more than $150 million in prize money for claiming Europe’s top prize. PSG will also play in FIFA’s Club World Cup this summer, which will pay the winner $40 million.
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