The first millions of euros from the new owners of Paris FC will be spent on the training and training center. This is the absolute priority of Antoine Arnault, the representative of Agache, now the majority shareholder, who wants to “build the best training center in France”. Before thinking about recruiting players at a high price, the PFC intends to equip itself with the necessary infrastructure to attract the best young people from Ile-de-France. The club hopes to drastically expand its center by September 2025.
“The first thing to do in Paris is to get up to the level of the academies of Rennes, Monaco, Olympique Lyonnais… It’s very ambitious, it will take time,” confides Yannick Menu, the director of Paris FC training center, newly named last October. “We must create a sustainable PFC model that is capable of standing the test of time.”
Menu knows what he is talking about, since the Finistère managed the Rennes training center from 2000 to 2015, then that of Reims from 2019 to 2024, passing through Monaco in the meantime. “The Paris FC project is very attractive today. At my age and with my experience, I think it is the very right time for this kind of challenge.”
Yannick Menu, a reference in French training, was therefore chosen by the president of Paris FC, Pierre Ferracci, and the sports director, François Ferracci. “I knew the club was going to enter a new dimension without knowing all the ins and outs.” The Red Bull group then validated the profile of the Breton trainer.
Twice as many plots of land in September 2025
The priority will be to expand the Orly training center by doubling the number of pitches from next season. The director of the training center no longer wants to make concessions: “We have one and a half grass pitches and a synthetic one for training girls and boys. Among the men, we have 70 young people. We are cramped. We have to allowing our young people to train properly and the infrastructure cannot be a hindrance Today, we are getting there, but more or less the objective is to remove this plus or minus.
By September 2025, President Pierre Ferracci wants eight training grounds, including three or four for training. “There are no precise figures yet, and we have to resolve technical problems linked to the installation of new infrastructure, but discussions are progressing well.” The club, located on land belonging to the city of Paris, is eyeing plots of land with various owners: the Val-de-Marne departmental council, the city of Orly, Villeneuve-le-Roi and Choisy-le. -King.
Seven scouts across Ile-de-France to find nuggets
Brand new pitches and a living center for apprentice Parisian footballers, which must emerge in the medium term, are the condition for recruiting the best young people in Ile-de-France. The owner Antoine Arnault is absolutely determined: “I want us to do something with this famous first pool of talent in the world.”
For Pierre Ferracci, it will be the “economic and sporting engine” of the PFC. Yannick Menu will have to attract the finest gems in the region. “Recruitment is our foundation and we have to win this stage. We need players with high potential, because preparing a young person for Ligue 2 or Ligue 1 is not the same. We already have players of this type but we need to make the level more homogeneous.” To do this, as soon as he took office, Menu set up a reinforced recruitment unit, with seven scouts across Ile-de-France to scrutinize all tournaments from U12 onwards, with particular emphasis on the Seine- Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne.
Coach Stéphane Gilli “totally in the project”
Antoine Arnault dreams of a Paris FC whose backbone is made up of “Parisians, Ile-de-France residents and French people”. The billionaire imagines “five, six, seven or even eight players trained at the club in the team”. For Yannick Menu, “it's very ambitious but undoubtedly realistic. Because our territory is very prolific. As director of the training center, this suits me completely of course.” Despite everything, he warns that “the door to the pros must open for our young people”. But his working relationship with PFC coach Stéphane Gilli is “privileged” and both are “totally in the project”. With goalkeeper Obed Nkambadio and defender Aboubaka Soumahoro in the typical team, a young 16-year-old goalkeeper who has already made an appearance in the pro group in preseason, the coach shows that training is in the DNA of Paris FC.
At Paris FC rather than PSG, “the opportunity to reveal yourself”
Despite the arrival of a family whose fortune is estimated at more than 200 billion euros, the club from the south of Paris does not want to copy Paris Saint-Germain after the arrival of the Qataris in 2011. And counting use it to capture the best Ile-de-France footballers. “Our project is perhaps more popular and will resemble our Parisians more.” This is what Yannick Menu will explain to potential recruits from the center if they have the choice between the two clubs in the capital. “At home, they will have the opportunity to reveal themselves, and in Ligue 1, I hope so sooner rather than later. That’s the big difference.” Despite everything, Paris FC has made it known that it will refuse to raise the stakes on the youth market. “We will not spend €250,000 on a 14-year-old kid,” we are told internally. Finally, to capture the Ile-de-France potential, Paris FC wants above all to maintain all its youth teams. For the moment, the PFC ranks 6th in R1 for its reserve team, 11th in national U17s and 12th in national U19s.
