Can Major Ligue 1 Teams Ever Dethrone PSG?

Paris Saint-Germain have been the dominant force in French domestic football over the last ten years. While there has been the occasional blip, the team has been virtually impossible to overthrow at the top of the Ligue 1 table.

There have been French Cup successes too and, while that elusive first Champions League title has yet to land, PSG fans are happy with that near-monopoly in the country’s top flight division. Standard and live betting odds always have the team as favorites in their respective league.

Will the club receive a genuine, sustained challenge in the future or is that dominance set to continue?

PSG in Numbers

Since winning the Ligue 1 title at the end of the 2012/13 season, Paris Saint-Germain have claimed no fewer than eight league trophies. That’s eight top flight domestic titles in ten years and the team are well on their way to making it nine in 11.

As clubs around Europe returned to action following the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, PSG enjoyed a significant lead at the top of the table. After 24 games of the 2022/23 season, that lead had been cut to five points by second place Marseille, but the Paris club remain heavy favourites to claim the trophy once again.

While there have been challenges to their supremacy in the last ten years, PSG’s run of trophies shows that the league needs to be far more competitive. In countries such as England and Italy, the title is less predictable, and the trophies are shared around. That’s also the case in Spain where the La Liga betting odds show no clear favourite between Barcelona and Real Madrid at the beginning of the season.

Ligue 1 simply needs to be more competitive in order to maintain interest, but is that likely to happen in the near future?

Spending Power

Significant outside investment makes Paris Saint-Germain one of the richest clubs in world football. That leads to enhanced buying power that attracts some of the biggest players in the game.

In 2017, PSG shattered the world transfer record when they brought Neymar to the club. Later, when it became apparent that Lionel Messi would have to leave Barcelona, the Paris team were one of just a handful of clubs that could match his salary.

PSG have built a solid squad around those players and they’ve also been guided by some of the best coaches. It’s a system that’s been almost impossible to emulate, but who are the teams most likely to make a challenge?

Champions Dethroned

The most recent team to have interrupted PSG’s great run of success was Lille. At the end of the 2020/21 season, the club won their fourth Ligue 1 trophy, edging out their Paris rivals by just one point.

However, just one year later, after some high–profile departures, Lille finished down in tenth place. There has been something of a response in the current campaign, but Lille enter the run-in in sixth place and look unlikely to add their fifth Ligue 1 crown in the near future.

Sustained Challenge

Outside of France, Marseille have a number of admirers among foreign supporters. Many remember the great sides of the early 1990s that included the likes of Jean-Pierre Papin, Alen Boksic, Eric Cantona and Chris Waddle.

Marseille won the league title for four consecutive years from 1988 to 1992 and they are currently in second place, hot on the heels of PSG. While the team has endured a difficult few seasons, they currently have a strong squad who can now sustain a genuine challenge to PSG’s dominance.

A Feeder Club

Fans of AS Monaco will have mixed feelings about Kylian Mbappe’s progression at domestic and international level. The prolific striker began his career with the Principality club as a 16-year-old and his goals helped take the team to their most recent title in 2016/17.

Mbappe subsequently left Monaco and signed for great rivals PSG in 2017 and he’s driven his new side to more success. It’s been a bitter blow, and the Red and Whites have taken time to recover.

Monaco currently sit in third place in Ligue 1 and they also look in good shape moving forward. The experienced Wissam Ben Yeder is the club’s most prolific scorer and the man who needs to replicate Mbappe’s scoring feats if the team are to progress.

Best of the Rest

There is some depth in French domestic football. Lille, Lens, Rennes and Nice are among those sides who have fared well in European competition, without really making an impact in their own division.

The need to keep attracting the best players is obvious. PSG continue to receive substantial financial backing and are linked with moves for some top global talent when the transfer window opens again at the end of the season.

It’s a tough task for the chasing pack, but there needs to be greater competition if Ligue 1 is to remain relevant in future years.