PSG Valued at More Than $1 Billion; 10-Year Growth Percentage Tops Manchester City

Business publication Forbes recently published its list of the fastest-growing team values of the decade and Paris Saint-Germain featured prominently.

After the Golden State Warriors, who appeared in five NBA Finals and won three last decade, PSG comes in second with a value of $1.09 billion, which equates to a 10-year growth of 992 percent.

That astronomical growth is tops amongst all other football clubs. Only Manchester City made Forbes‘ top 10 list and while their value is higher at $2.69 billion, their percentage of increase was less than PSG at 767 percent.

You don’t have to hold a degree in finance to understand what’s going on here. Qatar Sports Investments took over PSG in 2011 and pumped enough money into the sleeping giant until it was able to compete with the best clubs in Europe.

The meteoric rise of a club that went from experiencing brief spells of success throughout its young history to a global brand that can afford players like Kylian Mbappé and Neymar Jr. is told in the 992 percent increase in value. We’ve never experienced anything like what PSG has done over the past decade.

In an interview with Le Parisien, Christophe Lepetit, head of economic studies at the Center for Law and Economics of Sport in Limoges, discussed the financial news in detail.

How do you explain such an increase in valuation?

“The 990 percent increase is explained by the fact that the club started from very low. We went from a club that was no longer worth much, with problems of supporters and a few players in the portfolio, to an international sports brand, valued at more than a billion dollars. However, starting from a billion, it will be difficult to maintain such growth scores. However, a billion dollars is significant. Even if North American franchises, NFL and NBA, are much more valued, as are, to a lesser extent, clubs like Real Madrid or Barcelona.”

How did PSG achieve such results?

“In the seven years since QSI’s arrival, the strategy has first been to grow the club sportily. By endowing them with very good players, buy making them win titles. We have increased the “players” asset. Then, gradually, it was passed from a good national club to one of the main clubs in Europe and in the world. Through world tours and various partnerships, we have increased the value of the brand, its intangible assets.”

You can read the entire interview here but there’s one more nugget from Lepetit about how the club needs to evolve in the coming years that I wanted to share. “Today, we realize that very gradually but very soon, PSG will no longer be dependent on its Qatari sponsors.”

That line is exactly why regardless of Neymar’s injuries and inability to deliver a UEFA Champions League title so far, he has been a huge boost to the financial stability of the club and is far from being the worst transfer of the decade.

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Tags Kylian Mbappé Manchester City Neymar
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