Dans les mémoires - Épisode 1 - La Finale de la Coupe des Coupes 1996 🏆

0:01 PSG had a date with destiny.

0:03 It was a historic final for PSG and for French football.

0:06 It was brilliant.

0:06 We started something big.

0:19 On 8th May, PSG had a date with destiny.

0:23 A huge number of fans had travelled to be there.

0:28 We believed.

0:29 I can't quite remember which clubs we'd knocked out.

0:34 We had a chance.

0:35 We'd done the hard part,

0:37 knocking out La Coruña and Parma, who were pretty tough opponents.

0:41 La Coruña had Bebeto, Parma had Zola.

0:44 They were strong opponents.

0:46 I remember who we faced: Konsel in goal, and Trifon Ivanov,

0:50 the Bulgarian who'd hurt France a few years earlier.

0:54 Carsten Jancker, who went on to have an incredible career at Bayern,

0:57 was their centre-forward.

0:59 We were confident, but you're not just given a final.

1:02 You have to go out and win it.

1:03 And it was tough.

1:04 It was nerve-racking.

1:05 I remember the scoreline was close, but we dominated the game.

1:09 We just weren't clinical enough.

1:11 I also remember losing Raí just 10 minutes in, and that made a difference.

1:15 You're 1-0 up, you have chances, but you don't kill the game.

1:19 Then, late on, Rapid get a couple of chances and you start to worry.

1:22 I remember Raí's injury early in the match; he went off quite soon.

1:26 Dely Valdés came on for him.

1:28 Then we held on at the back.

1:30 I remember Bernard Lama, late on, flying everywhere, making magnificent saves.

1:34 We held on.

1:35 We should have won by more, we were a bit wasteful,

1:37 but in a final, all that matters is winning.

1:39 And we did.

1:46 I remember that match very clearly.

1:48 I was with my family,

1:50 and we were all cheering the club on to win its first European trophy.

1:57 The TV footage...

1:58 I think we all remember the images of the coach, Luis Fernandez.

2:03 He's on the touchline, and Luis, being Latin...

2:08 He had to be moving, he had to be active.

2:11 And when he shouts, "Go on, smash it!" and it flies in...

2:15 after that whole journey, it was PSG's first major trophy.

2:20 Incredible.

2:21 They're memories from watching on TV,

2:23 not from being at the stadium, but TV memories.

2:25 And of course, the memories of talking

2:27 about it with my mates for days afterwards.

2:29 And the memories you make and keep from it.

2:38 What I really remember is the end of the match and the trophy presentation.

2:43 The celebration afterwards was the reward for a whole generation of players:

2:48 Lama, Guérin, Fournier, Le Guen...

2:53 They'd spent years at Paris reaching European semi-finals,

2:55 and this was the first time we'd won.

2:58 It was the reward for a group that worked so hard to win.

3:05 I think we were pioneers, showing that a French club could win in Europe.

3:11 Three years after Marseille, they also brought a European title back to France.

3:17 We couldn't miss it for anything.

3:18 We started something big.

3:25 A great memory, because we brought home a first European title.

3:29 I was at home.

3:30 With my grandparents, I think.

3:31 My mum wasn't there, I was with my grandparents.

3:33 My grandad was a football fan, a sports fan,

3:36 but not particularly of PSG or any one team.

3:38 I seem to remember him getting out a bottle

3:39 of champagne at the end of the match.

3:41 It was a historic final for PSG, and for French football.

3:45 PSG's first European trophy.

3:47 Despite what the critics say about it being a minor cup, that wasn't true.

3:50 At the time, it was by no means a minor European trophy.

3:52 It was a real joy to see the capital's club win a European trophy too.

4:00 It was brilliant.

4:04 Back then, I'd started working with the club,

4:06 but I was first and foremost a fan.

4:08 I remember friends of mine who'd been fans

4:13 for a very long time, some since the 80s.

4:16 That day, I saw people I knew, proper tough fans, and I saw them cry.

4:23 I was with some mates at the final whistle,

4:27 because it wasn't over until the very end.

4:31 We just sat down, looked at each other, and cried.

4:34 I thought to myself, something has just happened here.

4:38 To think that the club had finally achieved something in Europe.

4:42 We know we've won plenty of trophies in France, in Ligue 1,

4:47 but this showed we'd reached another level all those years ago.

4:51 It's still a benchmark.

4:53 I often talk about it with others, older fans who remember it well.

4:57 When we do quizzes—an old man's game,

5:00 you know—about PSG history with the Toronto

5:03 fan club and my co-founders Charles and Victor,

5:07 that's the kind of question that always comes up.

5:09 Because I think it's one of those things you have to remember.

5:12 That incredible 1-0 goal.

5:15 N'Gotty's free-kick, with its incredible trajectory.

5:24 It was from so far out.

5:26 A free-kick like that, in a European final, from over 30 metres out...

5:30 you have to have the nerve to think, "Right, I'm having a go." You just thought,

5:34 "With Paris, this might just go in." Something special could happen.

5:37 In that moment, watching on TV,

5:39 I just thought: "He's going to shoot from distance...

5:41 this could go in." Because...

5:44 it's Paris.

5:46 I learned later that Artur Jorge used to drill them on set pieces.

5:51 It wasn't Artur Jorge at the time,

5:53 but it had become standard practice to work on set pieces relentlessly.

5:58 N'Gotty's free-kick, and what it represented, really stuck with me.

6:04 A magnificent goal, a blend of finesse and power.

6:07 There was much less football on back then than there is today.

6:10 So you just couldn't miss exceptional events like that.

6:15 Sometimes I had to sneak back to watch the end

6:17 of the match because I'd been told to go to bed.

6:20 But I did, I saw Bruno N'Gotty's free-kick and PSG's European victory.

6:27 That was 30 years ago, but my memories of it are as vivid

6:33 as our Champions League run last year, or any other year.

6:38 They're childhood memories, your first memories.

6:42 Those are the ones that stick with you for life.

6:43 It's a source of pride that the club won major trophies.

6:47 We've been a big club for many years.