The City of Oil: The Parisian 2nd Renaissance

Zidane's 2 goals in the '98 final, I know it's the picture
of just one, but the 2nd one was exactly the same

Once the capital of the French Revolution and at the height of civilization, Paris is now experiencing a second Renaissance, a football Renaissance. Paris is still a beacon of western civilization, a true living representation of the birth of democracy, existentialism and the menáge a trois (Thank you Ricky Bobby). That was about 400 years ago. During the 1998 World Cup it saw one of the best performances by a single player in a World Cup final, when Zinedine Zidane scored his first and second ever goal in a World Cup, beating Brazil 3-0. That was 14 years ago.

one of the most overlooked landmarks of Paris,
the Parc des Princes

Now, Paris' main club, Paris Saint Germain, is looking at a 2nd revolution like many other clubs we have seen over the last couple of years. It's either Russian billionaires or, in PSG's case, a middle eastern conglomerate injecting a mouthwatering sum of money to buy the best players in the world. Qatar Investment Authority bought a majority stake in the club and are looking at investing about $122M in the transfer market over the next couple of years. They began last year with a club record purchase of Javier Pastore at $52M, and this year established another obscene $80M transfer for both Thiago Silva and Ibrahimovic from Milan. If history is any proof, this experiment will take a long time before they see results. After Chelsea's influx, it took them a couple of years to win the Premiership, and almost a decade to make a Champions League final apparence. It took Manchester City a couple of years to even reach the Champions League and win the Premiership. I'm sure it will take PSG a lot less to reach French supremacy, but probably a little longer to conquer Europe, if that's their goal.

Was your club once a great power in football and now being leap-frogged by these rich sponsors picking and choosing random clubs' new fate? It sucks for you, but imagine you're a Man City fan who never thought they would see their club reach the top in their lifetime. Imagine you're an American, you love the MLS, and are told to wait 100 years for your team to be competitive internationally or to even be relevant. Imagine you live in the most visited city in the world, with the greatest history any other city could offer, and your greatest source of football excitement it to wait for Le Classique twice a year.

A long time ago you had to go to the Bundesliga, Serie A, Premiership, Real Madrid or Barça to find a strong team. Teams with a 100-year tradition and a case full of trophies you can see the dust accumulating over the decades. But thank God for globalization and strong emerging economies that look at teams as great investment options and allow for the order to be upset. And good for Qatar wanting to get involved in world football. They won the World Cup bid for 2022, which looks very promising, tried to lure Pep Guardiola to be the new gaffer for the national team, and are now investing in teams like PSG. Qatar understands that the international language is not English, it's football. The question is, who should they pick next to upset the order? I personally believe that Eintrach Frankfurt is ripe for the picking, they're in a financial hub, they're in one of the strongest league financially, if not the strongest, and already have a recently renovated stadium, but that's just what I think, tell me your thoughts?