Paris Saint-Germain announced their big capture of the winter transfer window late on Monday. It is a major coup.
Dro Fernandez, 18, had choices about where to commit the next four, formative years of his career, not least of them to stay at Barcelona, where he has enjoyed a stellar rise through the youth ranks and where he debuted for the first-team earlier this season.
To report that Barca are miffed at the midfielder’s departure would be to put it mildly. “An unpleasant scenario,” said Joan Laporta, president of the selling club, who will receive around €8 million for the player but feel betrayed. “We had a [verbal] agreement he would extend his contract here,” added Laporta.
There’s a spiky history here, given PSG’s habit of prising away footballers valued by Barca, from the world-record €222m the French club paid to trigger that transfer of Neymar in 2017, to PSG's swoop for Ousmane Dembele, the current holder of the Ballon D’Or, in 2023.
Losing a new graduate of La Masia, Barca’s celebrated academy, signals something else: that PSG are a compelling magnet for aspiring teenagers.
Any club would be when they can win the Uefa Champions League with Desire Doue - 19 when he scored two goals in the final against Inter Milan last May - and Senny Mayulu, also 19 and scorer of the fifth in the 5-0 mauling, on the pitch.
PSG win Champions League - in pictures
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Paris Saint-Germain captain Marquinhos lifts the trophy after their 5-0 Uefa Champions League final win over Inter Milan at the Allianz Arena in Munich on May 31, 2025. EPA -
PSG manager Luis Enrique celebrates with the trophy after their stunning win over Inter Milan. AP -
PSG goalscorers Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Achraf Hakimi with the trophy. PA -
PSG celebrate after the French club became European champions for the first time in their history. EPA -
Desire Doue scores Paris Saint-Germain's third goal. Getty Images -
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia celebrates after scoring PSG's fourth goal in Munich. AP -
Substitute Senny Mayulu scores PSG's fifth goal in the 86th minute. Getty Images -
Desire Doue celebrates scoring his second and PSG's third goal against Inter Milan in Munich. Getty Images -
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia slots home PSG's fourth goal in the 73rd minute. Reuters -
PSG's Desire Doue after scoring his team's second goal in Munich. EPA -
Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer is wrong-footed by Desire Doue's deflected shot that put PSG two up in Munich. Reuters -
PSG manager Luis Enrique, left, celebrates after Desire Doue put his team 2-0 ahead. Getty Images -
Desire Doue celebrates after scoring his PSG's second goal at the Allianz Arena. AP -
PSG fans set off flares in the stands during the Champions League final. PA -
Desire Doue scores PSG's second goal - via a deflection off Federico Dimarco (not in picture) - in the 20th minute. AP -
Inter manager Simone Inzaghi during the final. EPA -
Achraf Hakimi scores finishes past Inter Milan keeper Yann Sommer. Reuters -
Achraf Hakimi celebrates with teammate Ousmane Dembele after putting PSG 1-0 up in the 12th minute. Getty Images -
Achraf Hakimi side foots past Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer to put PSG into an early lead. Getty Images -
PSG full-back Achraf Hakimi refuses to celebrate in front of the fans of his former club Inter. Getty Images
“There is no better place to progress than here,” said Dro, on signing a contract that binds him to Paris until 2030. “The project for young players is unbelievable."
On Wednesday evening Dro, as he is usually known, has a chance to see, up close from the grandstands of the Parc des Princes, how he might fit into a PSG building towards long-term dominance through their hiring strategy.
The visitors on the last matchday of the Champions League’s opening league phase are Newcastle United and the stakes are significant, the contestants locked together in the table, sixth and seventh.
With a knot of six more clubs on the same 13 points, dropped points risks either team falling out the top eight; finishing ninth or below means facing a two-legged play-off next month in order to make the last 16.
The jeopardy may not be as intense as when Newcastle last came to Paris, two seasons ago, when a disputed, stoppage-time PSG penalty meant the Premier League side missed out on a crucial three points in the old-format group stage. But there will be suspense.
And there’s a very modern rivalry at play: A superclub who have soared in the 15 years since their takeover by Qatar Sports Investments versus a would-be superclub who have started to make their muscular presence felt in Europe’s most prestigious competitions since, in late 2021, Newcastle came under new, Saudi Arabia-led ownership.
A 4-1 victory over PSG on Newcastle’s first Champions League night at St James' Park in more than 20 years remains a highlight of that period. In the reverse fixture of 2023-24, hopes of making the knockout stage took a blow when Kylian Mbappe converted a late penalty, awarded for a handball, in the French capital.
The memory of that night is vivid for Newcastle fans and staff, though key personnel from both clubs have moved on. Both Mbappe and Alexander Isak, Newcastle’s scorer in the 1-1 draw, were later lured elsewhere to advance their careers and the PSG strategy has been increasingly to lean towards youth.
If Doue, signed from Rennes, has been the figurehead for that, the likes of Bradley Barcola, the 23-year-old winger signed from Lyon in the same summer Lionel Messi left PSG, and Lucas Chevalier, 23 and bought from Lille to replace Gianluigi Donnarumma as number one goalkeeper, also represent a turning of a page.
Yet this season Doue has been troubled by injury, Barcola by scrutiny of his finishing, and Chevalier under the spotlight for some high-profile errors, notably in the 2-1 defeat in Lisbon to Sporting two weeks ago. Criticism of his errors, the goalkeeper acknowledged earlier this month, “had been destabilising.”
In the context of a new year in which PSG have been knocked out of the French Cup by neighbours Paris FC, were taken to a penalty shoot-out in the final of the Champions Trophy - the domestic Super Cup - by Olympique Marseille, lost to Sporting and only regained the leadership of Ligue 1 at the weekend because Lens lost to Marseille, those individual shortcomings are emphasised.
Luis Enrique spoke, after the weekend’s narrow win at Auxerre of diminished confidence, but insisted “the Champions League is the best medicine.”
PSG will be boosted by the return at right-back of Achraf Hakimi for his first club match since November, when he was injured in a home defeat to Bayern Munich, his recuperation only completed once he was at the Africa Cup of Nations with Morocco.
The importance of Hakimi, defensively and creatively, and in terms of leadership, can scarcely be exaggerated. With Hakimi in the side for a full 90 minutes, PSG’s defence of their European Cup reads: Played three, Won three Goals For: 13, Goals Against: three. The subsequent games against Bayern, Tottenham Hotspur, Athletic Club and Sporting have yielded just one win and two defeats.
Luis Enrique stressed he wanted PSG to “take control and play the sort of game we want to play, especially in the last part. I don’t want a crazy end to the match.” A scenario where either side could plunge several places in the table on a single goal might, he implied, prey on the nerves.
That was the case in Paris in late 2023, when Mbappe’s penalty kept PSG in the Champions League mix and would ultimately result in Newcastle's exit after the Magpies lost their final group game against AC Milan.
Of that, and the heavy loss at St James' Park, The PSG coach said: “I remember nothing except the result. It was two-and-half-years ago, and negative results are important because you analyse the errors. No team wins all the time and it’s all part of the pathway.”
