Donnarumma – from Champions League hero to PSG exit in three months? Plus: EPL hope-o-meter

New York Times

18 hours ago

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Hello! In May, he won the Champions League. Now, he's an outcast. That escalated quickly.
On the way:
Yesterday's TAFC included a passing mention of Gianluigi Donnarumma and his waning Paris Saint-Germain contract, which expires next year. 'I wonder if he'll move on in the next few weeks,' I wrote. To which the answer now has to be 'Yes'.
No sooner had The Athletic reported that Donnarumma was set on leaving PSG — now, or at the end of his deal — than head coach Luis Enrique excluded the goalkeeper from tonight's UEFA Super Cup game against Tottenham Hotspur in Italy. It's a dramatic escalation and from here, there's almost certainly no way back.
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Football moves fast and nothing is forever, but still, the speed of Donnarumma's fall from grace at PSG is astonishing. We're talking about one of the world's top 'keepers (not infallible, but bloody good) who won the Champions League a mere two and a half months ago. As recently as July 13, he started against Chelsea in the Club World Cup final. He's 26, so in his prime, and it didn't feel like a position where Luis Enrique had problems.
But last week, PSG signed Lucas Chevalier, a 23-year-old Frenchman, from fellow Ligue 1 side Lille. The fee was reported to be around £35m ($47m). Combined with Donnarumma's contractual position, the lights are turning out on the Italian. PSG say they offered Donnarumma improved terms, which he rejected. Donnarumma's camp say the club moved the goalposts in contract negotiations. Unless we're missing something, the time for reconciliation is past.
At a press conference yesterday, Luis Enrique said: 'These are always difficult decisions to make. I can definitely talk about Gigio because he's one of the best players in his position, without a doubt. We're looking for a goalkeeping profile different from Donnarumma.'
But what does that mean, and are the current champions of France and Europe making a mistake?
Why could he leave?
The Athletic's goalkeeping expert, Matt Pyzdrowski, has made some sense of Luis Enrique's comments. He starts by pointing out Donnarumma's obvious strengths: exceptional shot-stopping (demonstrated endlessly in the Champions League knockout phase, with one phenomenal save against Arsenal shown above), a huge reach, and a gift for pre-empting penalties. When in form, he has clutch credentials.
But Matt has also noticed that with Donnarumma in goal, PSG are more inclined to go longer from deep than they would like. Donnarumma isn't a weak passer as such, but to Matt's trained eye, and those of others, there are players who cope better on the ball under pressure and, therefore, would suit Luis Enrique's possession-based style more. That's where Chevalier comes in.
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Matt describes Chevalier as 'a true 11th outfield player' and we might well get a look at his footwork in this evening's Super Cup match, the annual pre-season meeting between the winners of the UEFA Champions League and second-tier Europa League in the previous campaign. He ought to brace himself for intense scrutiny because he's filling big shoes… and an extraordinarily big wingspan.
Donnarumma said he was 'disappointed and disheartened' that 'someone has decided I can no longer be part of the group'. He'll have elite clubs all over him now, of course. What should be pointed out in the interests of balance is that last season, when PSG won a treble of trophies, Luis Enrique's judgement was vindicated ad infinitum. He's paid to make the big calls — and this goes down as his biggest yet.
Catch a match
(Selected games, times ET/UK)
UEFA Super Cup: Paris Saint-Germain vs Tottenham Hotspur, 3pm/8pm — CBS, Paramount+, Fubo, ViX/TNT Sports.
Carabao Cup round one: Birmingham City vs Sheffield United, 3pm/8pm — CBS, Paramount+, Amazon Prime/Sky Sports.
In the Netherlands yesterday, Ronnie Stam — a former Premier League defender who also won the Dutch title with FC Twente in 2010 — was sentenced to seven years in prison for international drug smuggling and money laundering offences. If you've been following TAFC, it might feel as if stories like this are on repeat.
A little over a year ago, Netherlands international Quincy Promes received a six-year jail term for his involvement in smuggling 1,350kg of cocaine into Europe. He's appealing his conviction. In June, ex-Arsenal forward Jay Emmanuel-Thomas went down for one year and seven months for cannabis importation to the UK. And only last month, we brought you an interview with Jamie Cassidy, the one-time Liverpool youth prospect who, to his cost, got heavily mixed up in the narcotics trade. Evidently, life in professional football is no barrier to criminality of this nature.
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The Athletic was in court for Stam's sentencing, though the 41-year-old was not: he refused to appear, having complained about the hour-long drive from his remand facility. Stam was cleared of two of the more serious charges against him and said he had been 'stupid', but you'll want to read about a man described by the prosecution as 'not only a big footballer, but a big player in the drugs world'.
Another yearly highlight at The Athletic: our Premier League hope-o-meter. It's a pre-season gauge of supporter optimism and pessimism levels. And often very funny.
For example, a woeful 19 per cent of Newcastle United fans polled are enthused about the year in front of them. Four-fifths of them think they are going backwards, which tallies with their shambles of a summer transfer window. Talk about bursting your own bubble.
Burnley's punters, on the other hand, are poking us in the eye. We're calling rock bottom for the promoted boys from Turf Moor this season. Some 64 per cent of the club's following think we're bang wrong. And it has to be said, we've been bang wrong before.
There's something similar in the water at Chelsea because, unlike 12 months ago, they think they're in business, big time. And Manchester United's transfer business — Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko — has 86 per cent of their audience purring before a ball has been kicked. You don't need me to tell you what it is that kills.
It's customary to roll your eyes when football clubs talk about green credentials because some of their initiatives look like lip service. But fair play to Udinese, the Italian hosts of tonight's Super Cup tie.
Their Bluenergy Stadium has been designed to tick some serious sustainability boxes and built with 2,409 solar panels. When fully plugged into the grid, it should make the place entirely self-sufficient in energy terms and plough electricity back into the local community. A possible blueprint for clubs elsewhere? You'd like to think so.
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