“My dad created the Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) training center in 1975, and when I was 3 or 4 years old, I was the club’s mascot, before matches at the Parc des Princes, I tumbled in front of the players with the match ball, explains Jérôme Alonzo, a former Parisian goalkeeper. You could say that the Parc des Princes changed my life. I built my story more around the Park than PSG, I have a really special connection with this stadium that no past or present player of the club can have. My transfer from Saint-Etienne to PSG in 2001 was an opportunity to pick up the thread of my story [il a gardé les buts du club parisien jusqu’en 2008].
When I come to Paris for my job [il est notamment consultant pour la chaîne L’Equipe], my hotel room in Boulogne-Billancourt overlooks the Park. It has not changed at all, apart from the appearance of a few offices on the front side. It has been modernized inside, there are sublime boxes, it’s like a five-star hotel, with a concierge. My good old Parc des Princes has remained the same. While in Saint-Etienne, the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium has changed, in Marseille, the Vélodrome has changed, in Lyon and Bordeaux, the clubs have moved.
Le Parc is a fantastic heritage, although I am aware of the fact that it has an obsolete side compared to the competitors of PSG. He needs to improve, but don’t make us believe that we have to go to the Stade de France to get better! The Stade de France, there is not a stadium in Europe with such a contradictory design for a resident club. There is nothing going. It is impersonal, cold, soulless. It’s complicated to get there and to come back. And there is an athletics track…
“Like a love story”
I played there about twenty times and it is the stadium of all my misfortunes: I broke my leg during a Red Star-Saint-Etienne and I lost two Coupe de France finals there. . So I’m not at all attached to this stage, despite Zizou, despite Johnny’s concerts. And when we see the fiasco of the last Champions League final, we wonder what could happen to the first clasico (PSG-Marseille) or the first PSG-Lyon organized there.
With the Paris City Hall, it’s Feydeau, vaudeville. There are doors slamming, but no debate. No one discusses calmly, we only witness two forms of expression, anger or silence. I don’t feel any empathy, any love in this story, between the Town Hall and the club, it’s always tense. While it’s simple, PSG is the Park, let’s start from this base! But Qataris cannot make an offer at the price of a villa, and the Town Hall cannot claim a sale price equivalent to half the city! And if the Qatari owners have to count their money, they should rather stop buying rotten players at 50 million euros…
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