PSG routs Inter, Wins maiden CL

Paris Saint-Germain, Champions League winner. At long last the club that was transformed by Qatari billions 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.” @@@@