Yohan Cabaye, former player and now director of the Paris Saint-Germain training and pre-training center, spoke to RMC Sport about the club’s new policy. He spoke of the new focus on youth, training and the need for a coherent PSG structure from the bottom of the club right up to the professional team. A clear change of direction.
Cabaye “ One word stands out: demanding”.
“There’s a whole broad, global vision of life at the center. As director (of PSG’s training and pre-training center), my responsibilities are a little broader than before. One word stands out: demanding. That’s what enables us to keep moving forward and progress. Our aim is to train players for our first team and for international soccer in general.
Cabaye “ There’s a real closeness between the first team and the training center”.
The aim is to train players. To make the first-team coach’s job easier, the idea is to train players like him so that he can integrate them into his game plan. There’s a real closeness between the first team and the training center.“
PSG has been undergoing a real transformation for some time now. The club has gone from a squad of stars to a team of young talents who need to grow together. However, this is only the result of repeated defeats in the Champions League.
Those who see a lack of ambition perhaps forget that, with a host of great players, the club has always failed to become the elite of European soccer. We can therefore be delighted to see a global project, which takes into account the training center, the coherence of a club and a medium/long-term vision.
Cabaye “ The Paris region is brimming with talent”.
Copying Barça?
I hear the comparison, but we’re talking about a club that’s over 100 years old… The idea of starting to have an alignment in work is very much present.
Competition from Paris FC?
It helps us to keep moving forward, to not fall asleep, and to always be looking to innovate. The Paris region is bursting with talent. We have the challenge of recruiting youngsters early on. We must continue to remain humble.“
Why do you always want to compare clubs and projects? There are inevitably similarities, but once again, PSG is a fairly young club that’s been building up for a long time. Short-term ambitions may be lower, but the need to give time to build something bigger and more coherent seems to be the right one.
That’s not to say that PSG won’t achieve anything in the next few months, but sometimes it takes time to raise a team to the highest level. The idea of looking at what’s being done around Paris is also a good one, as the future is also being built with young people who want to break everything for PSG because they love the club so much. This is something that some players have lacked in recent years.
