India, June 2 -- Nearly 70, the European club championship now known as the Champions League has seen only 24 winners. Paris St-Germain (PSG) broke into an elite club where there have been only three new entrants since 2011-12.

Breaking through is difficult in Europe's top five leagues as well. Only seven teams have won the Premier League, which at 33 is approaching middle-age. There have been no first-time winners since Leicester City in 2015-16. It's worse in La Liga which, four short of 100, has had only nine winners and no new champions since Deportivo la Coruna in 1999-2000. Also 96, 16 clubs have won Serie A. Napoli and Sampdoria winning it in successive seasons meant two new champions in 1989-90 and 1990-91, but Italy has seen no first-time winners since.

Aged 62, the Bundesliga has been shared by a mere 13 teams with Bayer Leverkusen's first title in 2023-24 also being the first since 2008-09 that Germany had new champions. Ligue 1 in France has seen 18 winners after it began in 1932-33 but no new champions since Montpellier in 2011-12. Taken over by Qatar Sports Investment in 2011, PSG have won every season bar three since.

But PSG's power of money did not work in Europe till now. PSG have spent €2.3 billion on player transfers since QSI took over, as per transfermarkt.com, but while it did lead to improvement - 12 successive knockout rounds before 24-25 - they could never make the final push.

There could be a number of reasons for this. PSG may have got their signings wrong. Some of the players also had long spells of injury. Neymar Jr was signed for €222 million in 2017 which made the Brazilian the world's most expensive player then. But in six seasons, he missed 138 matches for club and country due to injury, according to transfermarkt.com.

PSG also went after a clutch of big names such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva, Lionel Messi, Sergio Ramos, Edinson Cavani and Dani Alves. Which meant that for most of the time, coaches at PSG were managing a changing room full of stars. Thomas Tuchel had said his job at PSG was more "like a sports politician or a sports minister than a coach". Now England coach, Tuchel said the comment was a joke but the point about keeping Neymar Jr and Kylian Mbappe happy stayed.

The squad's lack of balance also showed in the PSG front three's reluctance to do defensive work. Mbappe, Messi and Neymar Jr often scored brilliant goals and the overall quality of the team was enough to sweep domestic competitions and even go deep in Europe but never enough to win it. A video on the internet where Luis Enrique is explaining to Mbappe why he needed to do more off the ball tells its own story.

Proof of the transformation lay in what Enrique said at the media day ahead of the Champions League final. "If you analyse our defensive improvements, it is the way our attackers defend," said the PSG manager. "You can see how many ball recoveries they have. This is one of the concepts which is hardest to instil because attackers have to change their mindset." Data from The Athletic shows that PSG have made five more tackles per game this term than the squad of 2022-23.

2-0 up and in control, Ousmane Dembele still tracked back to keep the ball in play on Saturday. At 4-0, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia raced back 60m to deny Denzel Dumfries.

Neymar Jr and Messi left in the summer of 2023 when Enrique joined. Mbappe's brilliance was still needed, he got 44 goals in all competitions in his last season at PSG, but club president Nasser al-Khelaifi spoke of "building a new identity, our own style and way of playing, and a new culture".

Doing that takes time so Enrique, in a departure from the past, was retained even after PSG lost to Borussia Dortmund in the semi-final last season. But proof of the new order came when Enrique benched Dembele against Arsenal because of disciplinary reasons. It signalled the end of star power and meant that now the team would be king. The power of the collective has shown in PSG's press, in how the players seamlessly shifted positions and how compact they have been defensively.

Al-Khelaifi's comment also gave football advisor Luis Campos the licence to recruit young. Among Campos's initial signings were Fabian Ruiz and Vitinha who have been instrumental in PSG's midfield. One year later, Dembele and Bradley Barcola joined. Joao Neves, Desire Doue and Willian Pacho came in 2024. With an average age of 24 years and three months, PSG are the youngest team to win the Champions League this century and the second youngest ever.

There have been a number of mis-steps on the way, but PSG look to have finally got it right. This season they won Ligue 1, Coupe de France, French Super Cup, Champions League and are now eyeing the Club World Cup. By the look of things, "Ici c'est Paris! (Paris is here)" is a chant that could be heard often now.

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