Granting Paris the luxury of a soccer rivalry
Europe's richest family is looking to dethrone PSG as the French capital's sole champion
Provocative positioning
While literally setting the club up in PSG's backyard might seem provocative, Antoine Arnault, 47, is typically smooth about the positioning.
"You will never hear me say anything negative about PSG," he said.
Instead, he said, they want to tap the Paris region's rich seam of young soccer talent.
"We want to build a team where we will have five, six, seven or even eight players who have come through the youth academy," said Antoine Arnault, whose brothers and elder sister, Delphine, are also involved.
France can currently field almost an entire team of Parisian players, including captain Mbappe and Premier League stars Ibrahima Konate — who was at Paris FC as a youth — and William Saliba.
Like Thierry Henry, Paul Pogba and others before them, they crafted their skills on the streets and pitches of the city and its grittier suburbs, called the "banlieues".
"The Paris region represents the perfect convergence between a real hothouse soccer environment and access to excellent facilities and coaching," said Tom Williams, author of Va-Va Voom: The Modern History of French Football.
