Since 2011, the year that marked the official transition of ownership to Qatar Sports Investments, the new owners believed that the shortest path to victory was to upend the market with their chequebook. The Emirate's investment fund has disbursed over 1.5 billion euros to attract major stars through an inexhaustible supply of funds.

The first major move occurred in 2012. A year after losing the Ligue 1 title to Montpellier, Leonardo decided to dismiss Kombouaré in order to hire Ancelotti. PSG then brought in Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Marco Verratti, and Thiago Silva - three footballers crucial to the growth of the Parisian team. And don't forget the first major signing: Javier Pastore, Qatar's first major expenditure, signed for 42 million from Palermo.

Qatar's Parisian project reached its peak in 2021 with the signing of Leo Messi.

Player presentations at the Eiffel Tower, press conferences in luxury hotels... pure business - PSG took Ligue 1 to another dimension. The French championship, weakened by the talent drain and its low competitive level, became the epicenter of Europe by bringing in a number of the world's best footballers. "Nobody knew about Ligue before my arrival," Ibrahimovic boasted after his grand presentation at Trocadero, with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

Later came Marquinhos, Thiago Motta, Cavani - the club's top scorer in history before the emergence of Mbappé - and David Beckham, signed as a marketing strategy in 2013 and whose retirement, fittingly, occurred at a full Parc des Princes at the end of the season. Qatar's cash based project reached its peak in 2021, with the signing of Leo Messi. Earlier, in 2017, the club shelled out over 300 million for Neymar and Mbappé. Stars, glamour, demonstrating to the world what one can do with money became Qatar's adopted slogan… Yet, it has all been insufficient to win the Champions League."

The geopolitical strength of Qatar, as it emerged as one of the major liquefied gas exporting countries on the plant, decided to use football as a tool to promote the country and avoid criticism of its dictatorship. This use of state power reached its zenith in Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) during the contract renewal of Kylian Mbappé - Al Khelaïfi went to extraordinary lengths in 2017 to persuade him that Paris was the best place for his future... and nowhere else.

In Kylian Mbappé's six years with PSG, the footballer has become the best French player, moving ahead of Cavani as the all-time top scorer, emerging as one of the club's top assistants, and helping the club apparently move closer to their first Champions League. In 2020, he reached the final of the top continental competition, but the sensation still remains bittersweet.

The pressure he was under saw him sign a new two year deal.

In 2022, after a torrid summer of 2021, when he clearly wanted to sign for Real Madrid, Qatar intervened in the negotiations over his renewal and implored Emmanuel Macron, the President of the French Republic, to get involved. Such was the pressure on the striker that he ended up signing a two-year contract renewal, which included a 150 million euro signing bonus, divided over two years, and a loyalty bonus that made him one of the highest paid players in football history.

PSG gave Mbappé incredible powers. They hired Luis Campos, a family friend, as the club's sports advisor, surrounded him with staff who were already close to him, but they failed on the pitch, crashing out against Bayern in the round of sixteen of the European Cup. The French international, after bestowing the club with its eleventh title, a record in France, faces a crucial summer where a similar situation to 2021 will likely reoccur, as his contract ends in 2024 and it is not guaranteed that he will activate the unilateral clause allowing him to remain linked to the French club until 2025.