On Wednesday, during the first day of the 2025 European Super Cup, Paris Saint-Germain will face Tottenham at the Bluenergy Stadium in Udine (kickoff at 9 p.m., CET). On the eve of this match, Parisian defender and captain Marquinhos (31) answered several questions at a press conference.
Marquinhos: “We have to work even harder”
You’re starting the season with a big target on your back. You’re a leader, so how are you going to fight and stay at the same level?
I think it’s really nice to start the season like this as the winner of the last Champions League. It’s the first game and it’s a final, a European Super Cup, which is really exciting.
It’s the first time I’ll experience this as a Paris Saint-Germain player, and I want to experience moments like this again in the coming seasons. I think we’re competitors and we don’t have an end goal in our careers. We always have to want to win, string together victories, and win even more. We have to work even harder, and that’s what we’re doing as a group, as a club.
There’s a lot to strive for. Winning once is great, but winning again must be magnificent. Very few teams have managed to do that, and that’s our goal this season. We want to keep PSG at the same level and continue to fight for trophies and the title.
Marquinhos: “It’s nice that people are talking about me, but the most important thing is the collective awards.”
How do you feel?
It’s nice. I’ve had some difficult seasons, and coming back after seasons like that, I can tell you it’s even harder. Coming back after winning and after a string of good games is good motivation for me as captain and player, and one of the most experienced in the dressing room.
I try to motivate myself as best I can until I win, and when I win, I want to strive for even more the next day. I want to leave my mark on the club’s history, and that’s what we’re going to try to do here tomorrow. We have an opportunity. I think last season we had some very good moments, but also some more difficult ones. We lost that final. We know both feelings, of winning and losing.
That feeling of having good moments after the game is the one we want to have. As for my not being nominated for the Ballon d’Or, the team is the most important thing. I’m reaching a certain age, I was already in my 30s when I hadn’t won the Champions League, and between winning the Champions League and being nominated for the Ballon d’Or, I choose the Champions League. It’s nice that people are talking about me, but the most important thing is the team awards.
Marquinhos: “The captain and the players around him, the most experienced ones, have this important role.”
How do you advise players like Lucas Chevalier? On his first steps over the last few days?
We know that the captain has an important role for the player who arrives. There have been captains who were very important to me when I arrived. I want to play a role and always go to the player to show him that he shouldn’t hesitate to ask and that we are there to help him.
We want to put him in the best possible situation and make him feel at home so that he can play his best football. We have a coach who is very demanding, and we know that it’s very difficult for a new player who arrives and sees all that.
He’s not used to it and it can be difficult. The captain and the most experienced players around him have an important role to play. We try to put them in the best possible frame of mind, talk to them, ask them if they need anything, explain a little about what the coach wants and what he doesn’t want.
We need to talk to them about PSG, the club, the team—that’s always the most important thing. That’s our focus, and that’s how we’ve won, and that’s how we’re going to continue. That way, they can immediately get into the philosophy and the group.
Marquinhos: “One day, I’ll leave too. I hope to leave under the best possible conditions.”
Are you affected by Donnarumma’s absence after the season you had together?
Yes, it’s always difficult, as I’ve said in other interviews I’ve done. I’ve seen players who have been through the same thing. But we’ve already seen players during the transfer window who have to choose, or leave. That’s life as a footballer.
As players, what we can do is give our all while we’re here, right up until the last minute. That’s what we have to do, and that’s what we ask of everyone who’s here every day. One day, I too will leave. I hope to leave under the best possible conditions, but players come and go and the club remains. History will remain engraved, both for Gigio and for others who have made their mark on the club’s history, and I am very proud of what they have achieved. We thank them from the bottom of our hearts. We don’t yet know if he will leave or stay.
If he stays, we will welcome him with open arms and treat him as well as we can. What he did last season was incredible. It’s thanks to him that we reached the final and won the title. We have to thank him for all the work he’s done. If he has to leave, we thank him from the bottom of our hearts. He’s a great friend, a great person, and someone very important in the locker room.
That’s football, that’s how it is, and there have been many other players who have left and that has hurt me. Players leave, days go by, that’s club life and that’s how it is, you have to give your all while you’re there.
Marquinhos: “He won’t let us fall into the winner’s trap.”
How do you feel at this point in your career?
I’m very proud and very happy to be here, to be experiencing this moment, and to have another opportunity to win a trophy. It’s going to be a very difficult trophy to win because we’re two teams going through very different moments. We’re coming back after just one week of training, even though we worked during the break. Tottenham are in better physical condition.
We haven’t lost everything. I saw it in training: the quality of the training, the passing, the combinations, the finishing. Even if we’re not at our physical best, there will be a very high-level team on the field tomorrow. We’re going to fight for this title and give it our all. If we can give 50, 60 minutes, we’ll see tomorrow. Those who come on will maintain the level and try to get the result.
After all these seasons at PSG, winning the Champions League makes me really happy, but I’m still hungry and I want to achieve more and help the new players who are coming in. Even those who won at a very young age, I still want to motivate them and help them move forward. We have a very demanding coach, he won’t let us fall into the winner’s trap. And he’ll motivate me again, he’ll push us, and that’s how we’ll get ourselves ready for tomorrow.
