Over the past decade, Paris Saint-Germain has raised its profile and is now well known by football fans around the world. But what about casual fans or newcomers to the sport?
The United States market is coveted by every major European club, but PSG faces an uphill battle that other teams don’t. All of PSG’s domestic matches are broadcasted on beIN Sports, a premium sports channel that isn’t widely available. So, while you can see PSG live scores online, watching live matches is much more difficult and costly.
Working in PSG’s favor is the fact that they have several global superstars that most people have heard of: Lionel Messi, Neymar Jr., and Kylian Mbappé. Those are names that most people have heard of, so even if they can’t watch them play against Nantes FC or AS Monaco, they can watch highlights or analyses from pundits on shows like ESPN FC.
This winter, those fans who may want to watch Messi, Neymar, and Mbappé will finally get the opportunity and those who are new to the sport will get an introduction to them via the FIFA World Cup.
Argentina (Messi), Brazil (Neymar), and France (Mbappé) are all favored to go far in the World Cup, and PSG players are expected to lead them to glory. However, those aren’t the only PSG players who will be representing their nation in Qatar. Achraf Hakimi will be suiting up for Morocco, Keylor Navas will be in goal for Costa Rica, Nuno Mendes and Danilo Pereira will feature for Portugal, Marquinhos will team with Neymar for Brazil, and Presnel Kimpembe will likely be on the France team with Mbappé.
So much talent for PSG at the World Cup means that PSG’s profile in a burgeoning football nation like the United States will only go up. Following the tournament, there will be thousands of new fans who watched Messi, Neymar, Mbappé, and PSG’s other players and then want to seek them out once the club season resumes.
Those fans will find PSG and hopefully, adopt the French giants as “their team.” We saw this effect when Messi signed for PSG. Millions of Messi fans claimed PSG as their own when the Argentina international joined from FC Barcelona.
Unfortunately, there’s nothing that can be done at the moment when it comes to putting PSG matches on a more widely-available streaming platform. But for those that do get beIN Sports, they’ll be able to watch the superstars from the World Cup light up France in Ligue 1.
With the new-found popularity, it’s certainly possible PSG returns to the United States for a summer tour or perhaps the Trophée des Champions.
