The defeat on Saturday in the final of the French Cup against Paris FC (0-0, 5 tab at 4), precisely the opponent that PSG must find in the Parc des Princes on Sunday (5:00 p.m.), precipitated the fall of a technician who has experienced several conflicts with his group since his arrival in the capital in the summer of 2024.
He will be replaced interim by the Brazilian Paulo Cesar, former PSG player and so far in charge of the women’s U19s, according to a source close to the file.
No later than during the final of the French Cup, the Abriel team started with two of its executives on the bench, the tricolor internationals Sakina Karchaoui and Marie-Antoinette Katoto.
Karchaoui had been dismissed in previous matches. She paid an interview with the team where she had mentioned her technical affinity with her former coach in Paris Jocelyn Préacher.
“Jocelyn knew my qualities, he was a tactician, so we made a lot of individual videos to be able to progress. It was a little more complicated with Fabrice, ”she said to a sports daily.
With Abriel, “I did not have this affinity that I had with Jocelyn, in all honesty. So I work differently ”.
Seeing Katoto, team star, starting the final on the bench was a surprise, even if the fans of the French team formed at PSG is at the end of the contract and will probably not be preserved by the club.
Saturday during the cup final, the simultaneous entries of Karchaoui and Katototo at the time of play woke up the PSG hitherto sluggish. What to regret the initial tactical choices of Abriel.
The coach from Fleury, whom he had led to the final of the 2024 French Cup lost against … PSG (1-0), had already had earlier in the difficult relationship season with another patron of the group, Grace Geyoro, also released from the team a few games in November-December.
Tented relationships with management
Abriel had then assured that there was “no player dismissed”, calling on her troops to “accept criticism”.
Geyoro, “we need it to his best potential” but “there is a framework to respect for everyone,” he added.
From the start of the season, Abriel had wished to mark his territory by withdrawing during the pre-season internship at the defender her captain’s armband, passed to the arm of the Polish Paulina Dudek, a decision never well understood by Geyoro.
The technician also had tense relations with sports management, in disagreement with his game system.
“I know how I want to win matches. I have a very precise idea and all this belongs to me, ”said Abriel, straight in his crampons, before the final of the Coupe de France.
He also had to compose with a wide renewal of the workforce during the summer (departures from Baltimore, Jean-François, Picaud and Chawinga, arrivals from Earps, Mbock, Echegin, Leuchter, Dorsin).
The season had started badly for the former midfielder trained at PSG, his team having been dryly eliminated from the Champions League dams by Juventus Turin (3-1/2-1).
The rest was enamelled with tactical choice and often poorly understood management.
And as almost every season, PSG has not supported the comparison with its great rival, Olympique Lyonnais, which beat it twice in the first league and will finish first in the regular season far ahead.
