The doubts raised during his first steps at PSG now seem like a distant bad memory. Bradley Barcola’s start to the 2024-2025 season has something to impress. After three league games, and before the reception of Brest this Saturday (9 p.m.), the Villeurbanne native has four goals. As many as at the end of the entire previous season. “He’s on a very good run at the start of the season. He’s confirming that he might be the new leader of Paris Saint-Germain,” confides Nicolas, a season ticket holder at the Parc des Princes for five years.
For fans of the Parisian club, the conclusion is clear: the striker has become an undisputed starter on the left wing of the attack, but there is no question of rushing things with him. “He is young. He still needs a bit of time, experience. Especially in the Champions League. I think this year is going to be very formative for him. I think he is going to develop quite a bit. With Luis Enrique it can only do good,” adds Thomas, a Parisian supporter.
Mbappé’s worthy successor?
Since Kylian Mbappé left this summer, he is now the one who has been in the spotlight. To the point of making us forget the man who spent seven long years at PSG with a total of 256 goals? Opinions still differ on this subject. “He is fast, efficient, and he is starting to score quite a few goals. He is almost making us forget Mbappé. And that’s not a bad thing,” adds Thomas, a die-hard fan of the Parisian club. “No, he can’t make me forget Mbappé for the moment. He was still the top scorer in Ligue 1, at the club… He was very good with us,” replies Charley, another PSG follower.
Today, Barcola and Mbappé play side by side in the national team and the fitness levels of the two men are different today. The progress of the new “darling” of the Parc des Princes does not surprise his former teammate either. “He has very, very great potential. He is in a big club, a club where he will be able to progress, evolve, play great matches. All I wish for him is to continue like this and do even better, because I think he is capable of it. But what he is already doing is great. I saw the matches, he has confidence in his football, and it is great news for him, for PSG, and of course for us, the French team”, said Mbappé during the last gathering of the Blues.
The last transfer window could have definitively confirmed this question, but the reality was quite different. After the departure of the captain of the French team, the Parisian leaders tried to find a new number 9. A “world star”, as some sources confided at the time of the separation with the Bondy player. Problem, no interesting profile caught the eye of Luis Campos (sports advisor) on the transfer market. The few players available were at too high amounts. Paris therefore had to resolve to bet on its youth and its men in form, starting with Barcola that Luis Enrique describes as the “detonator” of his team.
“But remember after Newcastle, the home game, people were saying that he was a player who didn’t have the level of the Champions League. But he is very well surrounded, and now he is the best player in the world! But no, it’s still Bradley Barcola. For him, like all players, there will be ups and downs in the season. The press always wants to see everything in black or white, but life is more of a shade of grey,” Luis Enrique stressed in a press conference.
“He’s supposed to get better”
Barcola’s meteoric rise is still experiencing troubled periods. Like the last Euro in Germany where he ultimately only played three matches with the French team. “Bradley was with us and showed some good things, his positioning is on the left and when he played at the Euro. He is a young player and he has levels to overcome. He is not unshakeable but is supposed to improve,” said coach Didier Deschamps last week at Clairefontaine.
But in which areas of the game does the Parisian striker still have to prove himself? His speed and his overflows continue to make Ligue 1 defenses dizzy. But Barcola is aware that this is not enough and always imposes a rigor that impresses. “I am not surprised. He is someone who is mentally strong and who is a hard worker. And as we can see in recent months, he has taken on an enormous dimension. He is decisive and I hope he will continue to have this success. And if he can also impose himself in the French team as he does at PSG, I would be happy for him,” commented Castello Lukeba, his former teammate at the Espoirs.
Zombies, Manga and Reviews
Targeted by critics in his youth and upon his arrival in the capital, Barcola has built himself a solid shell. If he had not been a footballer, the striker would have wanted to be a developer as his passion for computers and video games is overflowing. In private, the number 29, the one also worn by the character Alex Hunter in the FIFA video game that he enjoys, is also very joking. A real fan of zombie films, also manga. In everyday life, Barcola always stands out with his unique look and a distinguished hairstyle.
“Whether people tell me ‘you’re the strongest’ or ‘you’re the worst’, it doesn’t change anything honestly, I’m still working and I try to keep my head on my shoulders. It’s my personality, it’s true that I don’t necessarily talk, but I fight all the time,” the main person concerned slipped into the microphone of Téléfoot. Proof that the new nugget of PSG is determined to establish himself a little more as the leader of this group.
- RMC Sport
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