Marquinhos (31), captain of Paris Saint-Germain, spoke to Le Parisien about his team’s Champions League final victory. The Brazilian defender revealed that he received calls from Neymar and Thiago Silva, two former PSG stalwarts, before the match, and that their words had a profound impact on him.
Marquinhos: “It was a special day for all the club’s fans”
“I will never forget it. Those were the two people who called me before the Champions League final: Neymar and Thiago Silva. Neymar was having dinner with his family and he told me: ‘Go for it, enjoy it, it’s your moment. I feel we’re going to win. You’re the captain, you’re going to lead your team.’ Thiago Silva told me the same thing. There was so much emotion. It was a special day for all the club’s fans. We talked a lot about it throughout the week.”
Marquinhos: “After the final whistle, I let myself go completely”
Strong emotions, how to move on to the next challenges and new objectives?
“At 4-0, when I heard the fans chanting ‘We are champions’, I lost my focus and started to cry. After the final whistle, I let myself go completely. As soon as training resumed, the coach conveyed this message: what we won is done, we enjoyed our moment of glory, but that’s history now. Now we have to think about the future, keep improving.”
For Marquinhos, this Champions League victory felt surreal. Having arrived in 2013, he has experienced a decade of joys and heartbreaking disappointments: memorable eliminations, improbable scenarios, and criticism—all of which only a player deeply rooted in Paris Saint-Germain could withstand. This long-awaited trophy came as a reward for years of hard work, struggle, and resilience—a moment of personal and collective triumph. But the captain knows better than anyone: savoring the moment isn’t enough. Football, especially in Paris, demands that you think about what comes next.
Luis Enrique quickly emphasized that this success should not become an end in itself. Other titles are within reach, other peaks to climb. For Marquinhos, the love affair with PSG continues, but with the unwavering ambition to achieve even greater heights. This is what will cement the club’s place in football history; they must demonstrate that this remarkable 2025 season was not just a one-off success. To achieve this, they must put everything in place to further elevate their ambitions.
