Doué Double Leads PSG Thrashing of Inter Milan for First Champions League Trophy

 PSG's head coach Luis Enrique lifts the trophy after the Champions League final soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany, Saturday, May 31, 2025. (AP)
PSG's head coach Luis Enrique lifts the trophy after the Champions League final soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany, Saturday, May 31, 2025. (AP)
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Doué Double Leads PSG Thrashing of Inter Milan for First Champions League Trophy

 PSG's head coach Luis Enrique lifts the trophy after the Champions League final soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany, Saturday, May 31, 2025. (AP)
PSG's head coach Luis Enrique lifts the trophy after the Champions League final soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany, Saturday, May 31, 2025. (AP)

Paris Saint-Germain, Champions League winner.

At long last the club that was transformed by Qatari funds and bought and sold a succession of the world’s greatest players in an extravagant bid to get to the top has got its hands on the big one.

European club soccer’s grandest prize has a new home after PSG thrashed Inter Milan 5-0 in Saturday’s final in Munich.

“It’s in the bag, it’s coming home with us to Paris tomorrow,” coach Luis Enrique said. “My first day at the PSG campus I said the ultimate goal was to fill the trophy cabinet. The only trophy missing was the Champions League. Here we have ticked that box.”

It was the trophy that not even Lionel Messi, Neymar or Kylian Mbappe could deliver to the French club. Luis Enrique has achieved it after overseeing PSG’s shift from the era of galactico signings to one of genuine team-building.

Fitting then that Désiré Doué, the 19-year-old French forward, emblematic of the club’s new generation, was the chief inspiration and player of the match as PSG recorded the biggest win in a final in the competition’s 70-year history. In a scintillating performance, Doué scored two goals and set up another goal in little over an hour on the field before being substituted.

“It is wonderful, it is magical, we are rewriting the history of this club and French football,” he said.

Achraf Hakimi, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and substitute Senny Mayulu all scored around Doue’s double in a game in which PSG could have run out an even bigger winner.

“It's exceptional,” striker Ousmane Dembele said. “It's especially good since we did it in style."

Now PSG can truly sit alongside the royalty of European soccer. Not by virtue of turnover or merchandizing but on the merits of its achievements on the field. The Champions League is the ultimate barometer of the continent’s elite clubs and up until now PSG has been a flashy contender that always came up short.

That all changed at Allianz Arena, the home of Bayern Munich, one of the titans of Europe, and a fitting stage for PSG’s crowning moment. Not least because it was against Bayern that it lost its only other Champions League final in 2020, leaving Neymar in tears in an empty stadium in Lisbon where fans were locked out because of the pandemic.

On this occasion, thousands of PSG supporters were there to revel in the moment, waving flags, lighting flares and drowning out their rivals from Inter, many of whose supporters left the stadium long before the final whistle.

They’d been partying in the streets of Munich throughout the day, but that was nothing compared to the scenes of joy when captain Marquinhos held the trophy aloft with fireworks and golden confetti exploding behind him.

“I have nothing left, I have given everything,” Marquinhos told broadcaster Canal Plus. “The fans are proud of us. Make the most of it guys, I love you.”

After so many setbacks in this competition, PSG truly delivered on the night.

It took just 12 minutes for the French champion to go ahead with a move of speed and precision when Vitinha’s threaded pass into the box found the feet of Doué. The forward could have shot, but instead slid in Hakimi to tap into an open net.

Former Inter player Hakimi muted his celebrations, but the PSG fans went wild.

Eight minutes later and the lead was doubled when Doué’s shot from the right of the box deflected off Federico Dimarco and past Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer.

He got his second in the 63rd, sliding the ball into the bottom corner when through on goal.

Kvaratskhelia added the fourth 10 minutes later and Mayulu struck in the 86th, just two minutes after coming on.

Doué and Mayulu became the third and fourth teenagers to score in a Champions League final following Patrick Kluivert in 1995 and Carlos Alberto in 2004.

Luis Enrique doubles and trebles

Luis Enrique, who won the 2015 Champions League with Barcelona, became the seventh coach to win the trophy with two different teams, joining greats Carlo Ancelotti, Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho.

He also led PSG to a first treble of trophies — the Champions League added to Ligue 1 and the French Cup — matching his achievement with Barcelona 10 years ago.

His players threw him high in the air in celebration after the whistle.

“We are ambitious, we are going to continue to conquer the football world,” he said.

For PSG, this moment has been 14 years in the making since it was bought by Qatar Sports Investments in 2011 and, awash with newfound riches, targeted marquee signings to speed up its route to the top.

In came superstars Zlatan Ibrahimovic, David Beckham and Edinson Cavani. The ante was further upped with the arrivals of Neymar for a world record $262 million, Mbappe and finally Messi, allowing PSG to field possibly the richest array of forwards ever assembled, but still no Champions League trophy to show for it.

The departure of that last stellar trio over the past two years has been the turning point, with a greater focus on the team rather than a collection of stars.

Not that PSG’s transformation hasn’t come at a cost.

It may make for a nice narrative that it has eschewed the big spending approach of before to organically assemble a team to beat all-comers from across Europe. The opposite is true. While it is without the marquee players of the past, this is still one of the most expensive squads in world soccer.

Inter, meanwhile, was on track for a treble just over a month ago, but has finished the season empty-handed.

Having pushed Manchester City close in the final of 2023 in Istanbul, the Italian giant was totally outclassed by PSG. The sight of many empty seats on Inter's side of the stadium during the second half suggested fans had seen enough.

“We are extremely disappointed,” coach Simone Inzaghi said. “Defeats make you stronger. We've been through this before when we lost the final in Istanbul, but the following year we won the league title."



Liverpool and Portugal Players Join Family in Mourning Diogo Jota and His Brother at Funeral

 Mourners react as the coffins of Diogo Jota and his brother André Silva are carried outside the church during their funeral in Gondomar, near Porto, Portugal, on Saturday, July 5, 2025. (AP)
Mourners react as the coffins of Diogo Jota and his brother André Silva are carried outside the church during their funeral in Gondomar, near Porto, Portugal, on Saturday, July 5, 2025. (AP)
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Liverpool and Portugal Players Join Family in Mourning Diogo Jota and His Brother at Funeral

 Mourners react as the coffins of Diogo Jota and his brother André Silva are carried outside the church during their funeral in Gondomar, near Porto, Portugal, on Saturday, July 5, 2025. (AP)
Mourners react as the coffins of Diogo Jota and his brother André Silva are carried outside the church during their funeral in Gondomar, near Porto, Portugal, on Saturday, July 5, 2025. (AP)

Players from Liverpool and Portugal's national team joined family and friends for the funeral of their teammate Diogo Jota and his brother on Saturday, two days after the siblings died in a car crash in Spain.

Liverpool captain Virgil Van Dijk arrived carrying a red floral arrangement in the shape of a soccer shirt with Jota’s No. 20 in white. Liverpool teammate Andrew Robertson carried a similar arrangement with the No. 30, the number worn by Jota’s brother, André Silva, who played for Portuguese club Penafiel. Coach Arne Slot was part of the Liverpool contingent.

Portugal international Rúben Neves served as a pallbearer for Jota a day after playing for at the Club World Cup in the United States. He and Jota were teammates at Wolverhampton earlier in their careers.

Neves and João Cancelo attended the funeral after playing in Orlando on Friday, when their Al Hilal was eliminated by Fluminense. Both players had wept when a minute of silence was held before the quarterfinal match.

The service was held at Igreja Matriz church in the Portuguese town of Gondomar, where Jota had a home.

Church bells pealed at 10:00 a.m. local time as the funeral started. Pallbearers carried the caskets of both brothers from a chapel next door and into the church. Relatives and hundreds of friends and acquaintances, including players of the local Gondomar FC where Jota started playing at age 9, then followed.

Portugal's national team coach Roberto Martínez and several other top Portuguese players also attended, including Manchester City duo Bernardo Silva and Rúben Dias and Manchester United's Bruno Fernándes.

“These are really, really sad days, as you can imagine,” Martínez said. "But today we showed we are a large, close family. ... Their spirit will be with us forever.”

The bishop of Porto, Manuel Linda, led the funeral mass. The church was filled to capacity and a couple of dozen people followed the service via loudspeaker from outside. Afterwards, the coffins were carried to the cemetery next to the church.

Jota, 28, and the 25-year-old Silva were found dead near Zamora in northwestern Spain early Thursday after the Lamborghini they were driving crashed on an isolated stretch of highway just after midnight and burst into flames.

The brothers were reportedly heading to catch a boat from northern Spain to go to England where Jota was to rejoin with Liverpool after a summer break.

Spanish police are investigating the cause of the crash, which did not involve another vehicle, they said. They said they believe it could have been caused by a blown tire.

Their bodies were repatriated to Portugal after being identified by the family. A wake was held for them on Friday.

Jota’s death occurred two weeks after he married long-time partner Rute Cardoso while on vacation from a long season where he helped Liverpool win the Premier League. The couple had three children, the youngest born last year.

Their loss led to an outpouring of condolences from the soccer world and Portuguese officials.