After the departures of Lionel Messi and Neymar in the summer of 2023, then that of Kylian Mbappé in the offseason, PSG was looking for new leaders. This season, attention has naturally focused on their attacking successors Ousmane Dembélé and Bradley Barcola. But chronic ineffectiveness in the Champions League have discredited the reliability of the two wingers. What if the team boss wasn't a striker after all?
During the victory of the capital club in Salzburg (3-0), Tuesday December 10, the moment chosen by the Parisians to get the machine back on track in a Champions League campaign that had been worrying until then, a player showed the way . And it was not the one that UEFA named man of the match (Barcola). Decisive passer on the first and last Parisian goals, Achraf Hakimi pulled the team to the top.
It was he who allowed Gonçalo Ramos to open the scoring and score the first goal of his season, with a header at the far post (30th). A move he had already managed five minutes earlier, but this time the Portuguese had missed the inevitable. Hakimi especially stood out by offering the 3-0 goal to a Désiré Doué in an armchair while he moved to the right side, offering a bright one-two to Kang-In Lee (85th).
“He is a very high level player. He is one of those young people who have experience. He is a reference for his teammates”praised Luis Enrique in October, who considers him the best right-back he has ever met. “I think he's better defensively, more focused and more efficient [que la saison passée]then added the Spanish coach, who entrusted him with the captain's armband against Le Havre then against Toulouse. He is more mature and he must continue to grow.”.
“The coach gives me confidence but he also helps me to see differently on the pitch. With him, I learn. My positioning changes a lot during matches and it's something I learned thanks to him. I I'm very happy with it and now I want to continue to give everything, all the time.”
Ashraf Hakimiin an interview with PSG.fr
If this PSG with a very young face has largely disappointed since the start of its European campaign, the Moroccan is one of the only players not to appear tender when adversity increases (he is also one of the only ones to have experienced the C1 with another club). We could even sometimes criticize him for doing a little too much. Against Atlético de Madrid, he no longer had any lucidity to serve Fabian Ruiz at the far post after a raid which turned out to be one of the club's most serious chances that evening.
If we add his goal against PSV Eindhoven to his two assists against Salzburg, Achraf Hakimi is quite simply the most decisive Parisian in this Champions League campaign. Among the players on the current PSG squad, he is the 3rd most experienced at the club with 138 matches (behind the untouchable Marquinhos, 460, and the titi Presnel Kimpembe, 236). It must be said that the one who arrived for the 2021-2022 season is one of the oldest on the team. At 26, he is already much more than an executive and PSG understands this, since his contract was recently renewed until 2029.
