Paris’s tower block football factory

The densely populated Ile-De-France region of the French capital has produced more top-class talent in recent years than any other city, and the production line of these working class suburban areas is becoming more and more prolific. 

It took France until 1998 to finally lift the FIFA World Cup, with banlieues boys like Thierry Henry and Lilian Thuram playing a large role in their success. The influence was greater for their second win in Russia 2018, with eight key members of Didier Deschamps’ squad having emerged from the region. Budding superstar Kylian Mbappé, who joined Pele as the only teenagers to score in a World Cup final, was among them.

At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, no less than 30 players at the tournament began their journey in the shadows of the capital’s habitation à loyer modéré, or HLMs – the apartment blocks constructed in the 1970s. To put that into perspective, the enormous Brazilian city of Sao Paolo, long considered the global footballer talent factory, produced just 12 players at the same finals. 

And it wasn’t just Les Bleus who were blessed by this rich stream of talent. Eleven of them represented France, while Cameroon, Tunisia, Portugal, Germany, Morocco, Ghana, Senegal and even host nation Qatar all had at least one player from the area in their squads. 

But what is it about this relatively small region of just over 12,000 square kilometres that has led it to produce such a startling array of talent? I asked Ieuan Beynon, who has written extensively about the football scene in Paris over the last four years on his blog The Boys From The Banlieues, what he felt the secret was.

“Firstly, the inhabitants of the banlieues are mostly first and second-generation immigrants from across former French colonies in Africa and the Caribbean. These families come across to France, and Paris in particular, with a want and desire to make a better life for their families and this is instilled into their children from a young age too.”

While players from the Paris suburbs have graced World Cups and the top European leagues, Paris Saint Germain feels curiously under-represented by locally produced talent. 

Since it was fully taken over by Qatar Sports Investments in 2012, PSG has undertaken an almost Quixotic pursuit of Champions League glory. In doing so, it has imported some of the world’s best and most expensive footballers, spending eye-watering amounts on Thiago Silva, Edinson Cavani, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Neymar (for a world record €222m), as well as the free capture of Lionel Messi. Beaumont-sur-Oise-born defender Presnel Kimpembe has felt like an exception to the ‘buy big’ rule. 

I asked Alex Barker, who writes about French football for The Athletic, why PSG had seemingly favoured these superstar names, with locally produced players often leaving in search of first team football.

“The short answer is that Ligue 1 wasn’t a particularly high-quality league when the Qataris took over PSG. It likely made sense for them to splash out on superstars, and to build a brand. It’s hard to argue it hasn’t worked either. PSG are now one of the most recognisable clubs in the world. 

“Even without Mbappé or Messi or Neymar, they’ll be able to bring in revenue that at least competes with the superclubs, due to the footprint across the globe they’ve managed to cultivate.”

Ironically, in PSG’s only Champions League final to date, one of the players who have left the club in search of regular first team football, Bayern Munich winger Kingsley Coman, scored the winning goal against his former club. 

In the age of players micro-coached to fit rigid systems, the apparent death of the ‘street footballer’; players in the mould of Rooney and Totti whose skills are honed playing on the concrete of their streets and football cages, has often been lamented. Beynon believes that, not only is the phenomenon alive and well in Paris, but that it is a significant reason for this increased rate of success.

“Kids going out and playing on small concrete pitches and in small neighbourhood cages attached to the areas in which they live. The fast pace and technical aspect of playing football in these environments definitely speeds up a player’s development.”  

One club with a particularly potent track record is As Bondy. Based in the Seine-Saint-Denis arrondissement, often known as the 93, the area has long been associated, by outsiders at least, with poverty and high unemployment, often recording the country’s highest crime rate.

In 2005 Bondy witnessed violent riots sparked by police harassment of residents. But while the area is often portrayed in an often unfairly negative light, its football club has a sterling reputation.

One resident of the 93, just six years old at the time of 2005’s unrest, was Mbappé, the most famous of the banlieues’ footballing exports. The path which has now led him to his long-professed dream destination of Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu began in the famous green shirt of As Bondy.

He was following in the footsteps not only of a host of professional players, but his own father Wilfried, who occupied various roles, from player to coach and technical director, across a 25-year association with the club. 

The prolific nature of the club’s youth system is all the more impressive given that the club’s senior team only plays in the tenth tier of French football, in the regional Ligue De Paris Ile-De-France. “Ah Bondy!” Benyon says when I ask him about the club’s prestigious record. “Mbappé and (Arsenal defender) William Saliba ensure that Bondy is well and truly on the map when it comes to player production. French international Jonathan Ikone also started his journey with the club.

“It has access to constant talent. Bondy is sometimes shone in a bad light, but is a region that is full of unbelievably gifted footballers waiting for their chance. The success of Mbappe and his link with the club will undoubtedly attract talents from across the 93 as they look to be recognised by scouts. The structure and the effort that is put in by youth teams and coaches in Paris is almost unparalleled.”

If proof were needed of the level of quality they can produce, As Bondy’s most famous alumni Mbappé and Saliba have both been shortlisted for the 2024 Ballon d’Or. 

Despite Mbappé’s incredible success and wealth, he has managed to maintain a ‘one of us’ status among Bondy’s residents, thanks in no small part to his natural humility as well as his local philanthropy. Not only does his success feel like theirs, but continues to inspire the next generation.

“He’s a hero, not just in Bondy but across the whole country,” Beynon continues. “He’s the face of this generation in France, he’s won a World Cup, league titles and became PSG’s all-time top scorer. For many in the banlieues he’s proof that you can be from these areas and make it as one of the very best.”

Belatedly, PSG seem to have woken up to the wealth of talent practically on their doorstep and shifted their focus away from expensive buys. This was first signalled late in 2022 when club president Nasser Al-Khelaifi told Le Parisien newspaper “…today we must be realistic, we don’t want flashy, bling-bling anymore, it’s the end of the glitter.”

Since then, the likes of Kolo Muani and Warren Zaire-Emery have established themselves as prominent members of the first team squad.

While Muani is another who, like Mbappé, took a circuitous route into the PSG squad, in his case via Eintracht Frankfurt and Nantes, Zaire-Emery’s emergence feels far more organic, and all the more exciting for it. 

Having been part of PSG’s academy since he was eight, at the age of 16 he became the club’s youngest ever goalscorer, as well as the youngest player to start a Champions League knockout round game. Two years on, he has cemented his place as a regular starter for the club, and a firm fan favourite. 

“While I do think there is a smarter footballing strategy in place at the club now, I think the strategic change has also come from fan pressure,” Barker says when I ask if PSG’s fans had longed for a more local feel to the club. “PSG fans were growing toxic towards the end of the 2021-22 season, as well as the 2022-23 season, the final one with Messi and Neymar. I think the club has been pressured to move away from superstar signings.” 

If Zaire-Emery’s emergence is indeed indicative of a new policy for PSG to look local, they couldn’t be better placed. Maybe one day their all-consuming desire to win the Champions League will be satisfied not by the oil riches of Qatar, but by the footballing riches on offer in the most impoverished areas of their own city.