PSG close in on Ligue 1 title with inexhaustible Achraf Hakimi leading the charge

The National

04-04-2025

On his 50th match of the season so far, Achraf Hakimi experienced something that, in the course of the previous 49, he had known only once. But, this time, being 2-0 down with half time imminent was a mighty shock bearing heavy consequences – unless it could be redeemed in the next 45 minutes. Paris Saint-Germain, the dominant sporting force in France, were trailing by that scoreline to a second-division opponent, Dunkerque, in Tuesday's French Cup semi-final. The last time they had trailed like that had been at Arsenal in an autumn Uefa Champions League game where the damage of a loss could be made up in later fixtures. And some context here: Dunkerque have spent eight of the past 12 seasons in the third tier of French football; in the same period, PSG have won Ligue 1 nine times. On Saturday, barring a freakish course of events at the Parc des Princes against Angers, PSG will add to that dominant run by lifting their 11th league title of the past 13. The glitch against the upstarts would be resolved by Hakimi, to whom the French champions increasingly look for leadership. He made a clever run from outside right behind the Dunkerque back line, volleyed a measured pass to Ousmane Dembele and the French forward's finish signalled that the comeback was on. Three second-half goals later, PSG had booked their place, 4-2 winners, in the French Cup final. Hakimi and Dembele is the axis on which much of PSG's best work turns, the latter the leading goalscorer in Ligue 1, the former the galvaniser, with his adventurous, tireless interpretation of his full-back position, of the PSG right flank and its adjacent midfield areas. But Hakimi's influence extends beyond the pitch. The Morocco captain, as his PSG coach Luis Enrique put it, 'carries responsibility in the dressing-room – it's always a plus point when important players are positive leaders'. Luis Enrique, now in his second season in Paris, recognised how vital Hakimi is to the club as a footballer when he first arrived as manager. 'I've never come across a better player in his position,' said the Spaniard, quite the tribute when you remember this coach had a long playing career with Real Madrid and Barcelona and has also managed Spain and a European Cup-winning Barca. He has since also come to appreciate how much of an ally Hakimi is in the leadership structure in Paris. 'He's finding out more about himself as a player and as a person,' said Luis Enrique, 'and acting as a reference point on and off the pitch. You show that with your deeds and your words. I think he's really grown in the last year.' It has been a seismic 12 months for the club. Kylian Mbappe departed in the summer to join Real Madrid, with his seven seasons in Paris having coincided, for various lengths of time with Neymar and Lionel Messi's time there. Before them, there was Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Since PSG began benefiting from the transformational wealth of their Qatari backers 11 years ago, they have been rather defined by their individual attacking superstars. Hakimi, who in his five years in Paris developed a close friendship with Mbappe, represents a new, distinct era. He is a stellar footballer, certainly, and an international icon for his achievements with Morocco – notably in the run to the semi-final of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar – but he wears his stardom more discreetly, perhaps, than some of PSG's famous names of the past. He is certainly not short of medals. A prodigious early start to his senior career – promoted to the first-team at Real Madrid while still a teenager – and no shortage of major clubs wanting his unique skills means he had won major prizes with Madrid, with Italy's Inter Milan and with Germany's Borussia Dortmund by the age of 22. 'He had so much experience in spite of the fact he's still young,' said Luis Enrique of the 26-year-old, who was made vice-captain of PSG last summer, chief lieutenant to Marquinhos, 30, who had already been wearing the skipper's armband for the best part of five years. 'It can be hard,' points out the PSG coach, 'to keep progressing when you've achieved so much so young.' But keep progressing he does. The medal haul grows and grows. When PSG complete the formality of the Ligue 1 title against Angers this weekend – they need a single point to guarantee it, and a surreal set of mathematical improbabilities even if they lose, holding their 21-point lead over second-placed Monaco with seven games remaining – he will have his fourth French championship gold in as many years. But it can also be challenging to keep dynamically covering the right flank when you barely have a day off. PSG have a squad whose depth is the envy of most, but nowhere do they seem more dependent on one man than a right-back. Hakimi has played more club minutes than all but one teammate – central defender Willian Pacho – this season, and that's on top of playing six matches last summer at the Paris Olympics, when Morocco won a bronze medal, and on top of his senior international qualifying games in Africa. Hence the fact that, on the first day of April 2025, he was clocking up – and rescuing – his 50th game, all told, of the season. 'The coaching staff try to make sure that the playing time for each player is right,' said his coach. 'That's also about the physical profile of each player, what workload they can carry. Hakimi is top in that respect, with world-class quality. We try to compensate but it's not simple because the fixture list is what it is.' And that fixture list tells Hakimi there are seven Ligue 1 matches for PSG still to target in their race to become the first team unbeaten for a full season since the mid-1990s. There's now a domestic cup final, against Stade de Reims, to look forward to. There's next week's first leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Aston Villa, and, PSG hope, several more European Cup games after that. There's the Fifa Club World Cup starting in June. And within the next 15 months, an Africa Cup of Nations, in which Hakimi will likely be captaining the host nation and a World Cup. While he'd like the distinction of being a historic PSG 'Invincible', and finishing the league campaign with no defeats in the 34 fixtures, he's already well established as Achraf the Inexhaustible.