Paris Saint-Germain Youth Academy
The Paris Saint-Germain Youth Academy, commonly known as PSG Academy, is the youth system of both Paris Saint-Germain and Paris Saint-Germain Féminine. Established in 1970, the academy is managed by the Association Paris Saint-Germain. Its first youth training centre opened in 1975 at the Camp des Loges in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Paris Region. The academy now has centres in several countries around the world.
Since its inception, the academy has produced several renowned players such as Jean-Marc Pilorget, Luis Fernández, Nicolas Anelka, Mamadou Sakho, Kingsley Coman, Adrien Rabiot, Alphonse Areola, Presnel Kimpembe, Marie-Antoinette Katoto, Grace Geyoro, Perle Morroni and :fr:Sandy Baltimore|Sandy Baltimore. Many other graduates have also went on to sign professional contracts with PSG or other clubs.
Recognized as one of the best in the country, the PSG Academy has been named Best Youth Club by the French Football Federation on six occasions. Domestically, the Men's Under 19 team have won a record four :fr:Championnat de France de football U17/U19|Championnat National U19 titles, one Coupe Gambardella and one Tournoi Carisport; the Women's Under 19 side have won the :fr:Championnat de France féminin de football des moins de 19 ans|Challenge National Féminin U19 three times; and the Men's Under 17 outfit have won a record three :fr:Championnat de France de football U17/U19|Championnat National U17 titles and one Championnat National des Cadets.
In international club football, the Men's U19 side have won one :fr:Trophée des centres de formation|Tournoi Européen des Centres U21, while the Men's U17 squad have won a record three Al Kass International Cups and one Montaigu Tournament. Additionally, the now-defunct Men's Reserve team won three :fr:Ligue de Paris Île-de-France de football|Coupe de Paris and one :fr:Ligue de Paris Île-de-France de football|Division d'Honneur de Paris.
History
First titles
On June 17, 1970, Paris Football Club and :fr:Stade Saint-Germain|Stade Saint-Germain merged to form men's football team Paris Saint-Germain Football Club. It was made official on August 12, 1970, with the creation of the Association Paris Saint-Germain. This organization has managed the club's amateur section, including the academy, ever since then. It also ran the professional section until 1991. So, like the club itself, the Paris Saint-Germain Youth Academy was officially established on the same date.The first wave of graduates emerged in the 1972–73 season, the academy's largest class in its history. A total of ten players were promoted to the first team. Only the classes of 1975–76 and 1984–85 come close with nine and seven players, respectively. The 1972–73 class was made up of :fr:Éric Renaut|Éric Renaut, Patrice Zbinden, Claude Rivet, Patrice Turpin, Bernard Lambert, Michel Llodra, :fr:Thierry Coutard|Thierry Coutard, :fr:Robin Leclercq|Robin Leclerc, Richard Vanquelles and Kamel Ben Mustapha. These players were part of the club's Reserve side that won the :fr:Ligue de Paris Île-de-France de football|Coupe de Paris in 1971–72 and 1972–73. These were the academy's first titles ever. PSG won this cup again in 1979–80. They would all went on to play at least one game for the first team, but it was Renaut who really succeeded, amassing 290 appearances during his decade at the club.
On November, 4 1975, the club opened the academy's first centre, with Pierre Alonzo as its director. The maiden generation issued from this centre was led by François Brisson, Jean-Marc Pilorget, :fr:Lionel Justier|Lionel Justier and :fr:Thierry Morin |Thierry Morin. A few weeks after the inauguration, on December 21, 1975, PSG's so-called « four musketeers » made their professional debuts as starters against Stade de Reims in a match at Parc des Princes. Brisson won an Olympic gold medal with the France in 1984, while Justier became a fan favorite at PSG. For his part, Pilorget remains to this day PSG's all-time record appearance maker with 435 official matches. Finally, Morin played most of his career with PSG before being named director of the CFA Omnisports in 1994. Formed at the club's initiative, this organization is responsible for the education of the academy players. Morin presided it until 2018. He is now the general secretary of the Association PSG.
Rise to the top
The late 1980s and early 1990s welcomed another bright generation of young players including Richard Dutruel, :fr:Jean-Claude Fernandes|Jean-Claude Fernandes, Thomas Kokkinis, Roméo Calenda, Francis Llacer, Pascal Nouma and Bernard Allou. Before playing for the first team, they were part of the Men's Under 19 and Reserve sides that claimed the Championnat National des Cadets title in 1987–88 as well as the Coupe Gambardella and the :fr:Ligue de Paris Île-de-France de football|Division d'Honneur de Paris in 1990–91. The Men's Under 17 then won the Montaigu Tournament in 1993. The PSG Academy had become one of France's best youth systems and were given the Best Youth Club award by the French Football Federation in 1988–89.Another great youth product was Luis Fernández. A big PSG fan, he made his debut in 1978, became team captain and led the club to its first major trophies in the 1980s. He then returned as coach during PSG's golden era in the 1990s, leading them to a cup double in 1995 and the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1996. Dutruel, Llacer, Nouma and Allou were all part of these victories. Jérôme Leroy, Pierre Ducrocq and Nicolas Anelka also made their first-team breakthroughs during that decade. Anelka, however, was the pioneer of promising PSG talents signing for other European clubs due to the lack of game time. He signed for Arsenal in 1997 at the age of 17 for a really small fee. This would become a regular trend in the 2010s.
The later half of the 1990s and the early 2000s were bittersweet; players kept reaching the first team, but only Sylvain Distin, Bartholomew Ogbeche and Lorik Cana cemented their place in it. Additionally, the youth sides didn't win any trophy. Fortunes changed in the late 2000s as the PSG Academy slowly began its rise to the top of French youth fooball. Clément Chantôme and Mamadou Sakho were the two most successful graduates during these years. They were part of the Men's Under 19 side that won the club's first :fr:Championnat de France de football U17/U19|Championnat National U19 in 2006, and then became regular starters for the first team, playing over 200 games and winning several trophies. Sakho was also PSG captain between 2011 and 2012. Albeit with different players, the U19 team also won the Tournoi Carisport in 2008, a trophy which heralded an era of unprecedented success for the PSG Academy.
National dominance
Since 2009–10, the youth academy teams have dominated the national scene. That season, the Men's Under 19 team won the :fr:Championnat de France de football U17/U19|Championnat National U19 final against Monaco, while the Men's Under 17 side lost to Sochaux on penalties. The 2010–11 season was even more prolific as PSG became the first club to be crowned French champions in both age categories. The U19 won their second title in a row against Grenoble, while the U17 defeated arch-rivals Olympique de Marseille in the final to clinch the club's first :fr:Championnat de France de football U17/U19|Championnat National U17 title. The U17 youngsters dedicated this trophy to departing coach Jean-Luc Vasseur, a former PSG player and academy graduate who managed the team for six years. Thanks to their U17/U19 double, PSG received the Best Youth Club award for the second time in their history. They won it again in 2012–13, 2013–14, 2018–19 and 2019–20.While the U19 participated in a new final in 2011–12, they would have to wait until 2015–16 and their victory over Olympique Lyonnais to be champions again. That same season, following two consecutive silver medals in 2013–14 and 2014–15, the U17 defeated Saint-Étienne and won the title as well, thus handing PSG their second double. They then beat Monaco in 2016–17 for their second championship in a row and third overall. In parallel, the Women's Under 19 have been doing just as well. They have reached the :fr:Championnat de France féminin de football des moins de 19 ans|Challenge National Féminin U19 final a record six times since 2013–14, winning three of them. The ladies defeated Lyon in 2015–16, 2016–17 and 2018–19 to clinch the trophy.
The academy has also shined at the European and international level. The U19 first reached the UEFA Youth League final in 2016, narrowly losing to Chelsea, and then downed Monaco to win the :fr:Trophée des centres de formation|Tournoi Européen des Centres U21 in 2018. Simultaneously, the U17 dominated the Al Kass International Cup, contested in Doha, Qatar by teams from around the world. They won the inaugural edition in 2012 and reached the final in 2013, before regaining the trophy in 2015 and 2018.
Since 2014, despite its success, the academy has seen the departure of several promising talents to other European clubs for free. This has been the case of Kingsley Coman to Juventus in 2014, Dan-Axel Zagadou to Borussia Dortmund in 2017, Claudio Gomes to Manchester City in 2018 and, more recently, Tanguy Kouassi and Adil Aouchiche to Bayern Munich and Saint-Étienne, respectively, in 2020. As a result, PSG have tried, without much success, to offer more early professional contracts to their youngsters and give them more playing time with the first team. The club proposed as much as 22 deals in 2017–18 and then a record eleven academy players participated in at least one Ligue 1 match in 2018–19. There have been a few victories, though. Academy graduates Adrien Rabiot, Alphonse Areola, Presnel Kimpembe, Marie-Antoinette Katoto, Grace Geyoro, Perle Morroni and :fr:Sandy Baltimore|Sandy Baltimore have all played big roles in the men's and women's first teams.
The 2018–19 marked the end of the Men's Reserve team, which had last won a title in 1991. It was dissolved in May 2019 after the club decided to focus on the U19 squad from the 2019–20 season onwards. They competed in the Championnat National 2, the fourth tier of French football. Consequently, the U19 became the last step before breaking into the first team. Club officials considered that the environment of the reserves no longer offered the desirable conditions in preparing players for the step up to the professional squad. In fact, many of PSG's promising young players have skipped the reserve side and gone straight into the first team. Recent examples include defender Loïc Mbe Soh and midfielder Christopher Nkunku.
The Academy
Top teams
Players recruited by the club join the PSG Academy from a young age and work their way up to the academy's top teams before breaking into the men's and women's professional squads. These teams are the Men's Under 17, the Men's Under 19 and the Women's Under 19. The male U19 compete in four competitions – the :fr:Championnat de France de football U17/U19|Championnat National U19, the Coupe Gambardella, the UEFA Youth League and the Premier League International Cup; the female U19 take part in the :fr:Championnat de France féminin de football des moins de 19 ans|Challenge National Féminin U19; and the male U17 play in the :fr:Championnat de France de football U17/U19|Championnat National U17 and the Al Kass International Cup. Formerly, the academy also had a Men's Reserve side, which competed in the Championnat National 2. It was dissolved after the end of the 2018–19 season.Mission and vision
The objective of the Paris Saint-Germain Youth Academy is to produce elite football players while offering them an adapted and complete scholarly education. Thanks to a series of partnerships with clubs in the Île-de-France region, the academy regularly accepts promising new footballing talents on the advice of recruiters. The students' education is assured by the Centre de Formation d'Apprentis Omnisports Ile-de-France.Schools
The PSG Academy began expanding its network in 2005 as part of the club's international development strategy. Pauleta, emblematic PSG striker between 2003 and 2008, is the academy's official ambassador, accompanying its development in France and abroad. Open to boys and girls, the PSG Academy welcomes nearly 13,000 children in 75 year-round centers in 17 countries: France, Portugal, United Kingdom, United States, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, India, Indonesia, China, Turkey, Thailand, Russia and Germany.More than 5,500 children of all levels attend the year-round football schools and courses of the club's academy across France. They take place at several football centers called UrbanSoccer. During school holidays, the academy organizes courses that include two training sessions per day, matches and a visit to Parc des Princes. In Île-de-France, the academy is present in 10 UrbanSoccer centers. In the rest of France, 9 UrbanSoccer centers host the Paris Saint-Germain Youth Academy.
Annual events
The academy also hosts the Paris Saint-Germain Academy Cup and the Paris Saint-Germain Academy Selection, two major annual events organized in Paris that bring together young players from all the club's academies around the world. The Academy Cup lines up teams from each academy during four days in a sporting experience that includes the tournament, visits to Paris and the opportunity to watch a Ligue 1 match at Parc des Princes. Meanwhile, the Academy Selection is a week-long intensive course for the two best players from each academy, with the aim of supporting them in their development, and raising their awareness of the demands of high level football.Grounds
The men's youth teams train at the Camp des Loges in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, while the women's Under 19 players do so at the Centre Sports et Loisirs de la Banque de France de Bougival in Bougival. The Camp des Loges has been the men's training facility since the first centre of the PSG Academy opened there in 1975. All three sides play their home matches at the Stade Municipal Georges Lefèvre, a sports complex located just across the street from the Camp des Loges. Its main stadium has a seating capacity of 2,164 spectators. This arena — as well as the other artificial turf and grass football pitches of the complex — host home matches for the club's male and female youth academy sides.The Paris Saint-Germain Training Center, sometimes referred to as Campus PSG, located in Poissy, Paris Region, will be the new training ground and sports complex of PSG. Owned and financed by the club, the venue will bring together PSG's male football, handball and judo teams, as well as the football and handball youth academies. The Camp des Loges will in turn become the training ground of the female football team and academy. The Campus PSG will have its own stadium. With a total capacity of 5,000, the arena will host UEFA Youth League, Division 1 Féminine and UEFA Women's Champions League matches. French youth league matches will continue to be played at the Stade Georges Lefèvre.
Honours
| Type | Team | Competition | Titles | Seasons |
| Domestic | - | - | - | - |
| Domestic | PSG Academy | - | - | - |
| Domestic | PSG Academy | Best Youth Club | 6 | 1988–89, 2010–11, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2018–19, 2019–20 |
| Domestic | Men's U19 | - | - | - |
| Domestic | Men's U19 | :fr:Championnat de France de football U17/U19|Championnat National U19 | 4 | 2005–06, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2015–16 |
| Domestic | Men's U19 | Coupe Gambardella | 1 | 1990–91 |
| Domestic | Men's U19 | Tournoi Carisport | 1 | 2008 |
| Domestic | Women's U19 | - | - | - |
| Domestic | Women's U19 | :fr:Championnat de France féminin de football des moins de 19 ans|Challenge National Féminin U19 | 3 | 2015–16, 2016–17, 2018–19 |
| Domestic | Men's U17 | - | - | - |
| Domestic | Men's U17 | :fr:Championnat de France de football U17/U19|Championnat National U17 | 3 | 2010–11, 2015–16, 2016–17 |
| Domestic | Men's U17 | Championnat National des Cadets | 1 | 1987–88 |
| Domestic | Men's Reserves | - | - | - |
| Domestic | Men's Reserves | :fr:Ligue de Paris Île-de-France de football|Division d'Honneur de Paris | 1 | 1990–91 |
| Domestic | Men's Reserves | :fr:Ligue de Paris Île-de-France de football|Coupe de Paris | 3 | 1971–72, 1972–73, 1979–80 |
| European | - | - | - | - |
| European | Men's U19 | :fr:Trophée des centres de formation|Tournoi Européen des Centres U21 | 1 | 2018 |
| European | Men's U17 | Montaigu Tournament | 1 | 1993 |
| Worldwide | - | - | - | - |
| Worldwide | Men's U17 | Al Kass International Cup | 3 | 2012, 2015, 2018 |
| Worldwide | - | - | - | - |
Players
Under 19 Men
Under 19 Women
Under 17 Men
Staff and management
| Academy director |  Jean-François Pien |
| Under 19 Men coach | :fr:Stéphane Roche|Stéphane Roche |
| Under 19 Men assistant coaches | :fr:Régis Beunardeau|Régis Beunardeau Vincent Guérin |
| Under 19 Men goalkeeper coach | Benjamin Leborgne |
| Under 19 Women coach | Grégory Bénarib |
| Under 17 Men coach | :fr:Stéphane Moreau |Stéphane Moreau |
| Under 17 Men assistant coach | Nicolas Damont |
| Under 17 Men goalkeeper coaches | Nicolas Cousin Guillaume Lemire |
Titi d'Or
The Titi d'Or is an annual award presented by Les Titis du PSG to the most promising talent at the Paris Saint-Germain Youth Academy. It has been awarded since 2007. Les Titis du PSG is a PSG-affiliated association which covers the news of the club's academy. Elected by the public until 2011, the Titi d’Or has been designated by academy teammates since 2016. Only U17 and U19 players who have not played more than five matches with PSG's first team are eligible.Notable graduates
Men
Since the academy's inception, 131 graduates have played for the men's first team.
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