Gianluigi Donnarumma, Sergio Ramos, PSG
Focus

Donnarumma, Ramos and PSG's summer arrivals

Donnarumma, Ramos and PSG's summer arrivals

Focus
Publish on 08/04 at 10:33

Share

In signing Gianluigi Donnarumma, Sergio Ramos, Achraf Hakimi and Georginio Wijnaldum, Paris Saint-Germain look well-equipped as they seek to regain their Ligue 1 Uber Eats title.

Ligue1.com looks at the superstar quartet and what they will bring to the team this season…

 

Gianluigi Donnarumma

Age: 22

Position: Goalkeeper

Country: Italy (33 caps)

Previous club: AC Milan

 

PSG already have Keylor Navas - a three-time UEFA Champions League-winning goalkeeper - on their books, but when the chance arose to sign Gianluigi Donnarumma after his contract had expired with Italian giants AC Milan, Paris grabbed it with both hands.

 

That is something Donnarumma has been doing with a football for quite some time now. Despite still being eligible for under-21 football last season, the Neapolitan native concluded his Milan career with 251 appearances, 88 of them clean sheets, and he backstopped Italy's triumphant UEFA Euro 2021 campaign this summer for good measure.


"I'm delighted to be part of this huge club," he said on arrival. "I feel ready to take on this new challenge and continue to grow here. With Paris, I want to win as much as possible and to bring joy to the supporters."

 

With his mantlepiece already cluttered with trophies and with his best years still ahead of him, the Parc des Princes faithful are unlikely to be disappointed.

 

Sergio Ramos

Age: 35

Position: Centre-back

Country: Spain (180 caps/23 goals)

Previous club: Real Madrid

 

Navas may have won three Champions Leagues with Real Madrid, but in front of him for every one of those was his captain Sergio Ramos, who also lifted the trophy in 2014 before the three-peat between 2016 and 2018 which the Costa Rican was a part of.

 

Like Donnarumma out of contract this summer, but unlike the big Italian in the autumn of his career, Ramos boasts 670 appearances with Real, 101 goals, 22 major honours, while his 180 international appearances make him his country's most capped player with 13 more than Iker Casillas. Not that he is finished yet.


"Ramos is like a bull," was the conclusion PSG doctors were reported to have come to following a five-hour medical at the Ooredoo Training Centre. "The final verdict is that he's like a 25-year-old."

 

Ramos, 10 years older than that at 35, will face competition from Marquinhos and Presnel Kimpembe for a place at the heart of PSG's defence, but having been handed his favoured No.4 shirt, fans can be optimistic of seeing him rack up the minutes.

 

Achraf Hakimi

Age: 22

Position: Right-back

Country: Morocco (36 caps/7 goals)/Spain

Previous club: Inter Milan

 

Another who has Real Madrid on his playing CV, Achraf Hakimi was still a young pup at the Bernabeu when the thoroughbred Ramos was conquering world football, and he has done his best work since leaving the Spanish capital in 2018, initially on loan.

 

The Madrid-born Morocco international has since turned out for Borussia Dortmund and Inter Milan, where his 47 goal involvements in 118 games over the last three seasons make a mockery of the idea that a full-back's primary motivation should be to defend.


Hakimi perhaps has less competition than the aforementioned for a place in Paris's starting XI - whether on the right of a back four or as a wing-back in a 3-5-2 - with Donnarumma's Italy teammate Alessandro Florenzi returning to Roma after his successful loan spell last term, and his numbers to date suggest he'll be worth it.

 

"After Spain, Germany and Italy, Paris Saint-Germain offers me the chance to discover a new championship with one of the most prestigious clubs in the world," Hakimi said. "I can't wait to meet my new teammates, the fans and experience the incredible colour and passion inside the Parc des Princes." Neither can we, Achraf.

 

Georginio Wijnaldum

Age: 30

Position: Midfielder

Country: Netherlands (79 caps/25 goals)

Previous club: Liverpool

 

Completing perhaps the most impressive influx of talent at any one club in world football this summer is Georginio Wijnaldum, who has swapped Liverpool for Paris after six years in the English Premier League.

 

Whilst Wijnaldum has a flair for the big occasion - the Dutchman scored twice as Liverpool beat Barcelona 4-0 on the way to lifting the Champions League in 2019 - he remains a humble character who is happy to occupy whichever midfield spot is asked of him by the coach.


A shuttling midfield runner in a three for Liverpool, Wijnaldum operates as a modern-day No.10 for the Netherlands, for whom he has scored 25 goals and laid on eight more in his 79 caps to date. Whether part of a double pivot alongside Marco Verratti or joining Neymar Jr., Kylian Mbappé and Co. in the final third, Wijnaldum gives coach Mauricio Pochettino options.

 

 

A possible PSG: Donnarumma; Hakimi, Marquinhos, Ramos, Kurzawa - Paredes, Verratti - Di Maria, Wijnaldum, Neymar - Mbappé

Top videos