With such a rich squad, Mauricio Pochettino had to make radical choices to compose the list of 25 players registered to participate in the group stage of the Champions League where Paris will face Bruges, Leipzig and Manchester City.
This Friday, UEFA formalized the names of the players registered by PSG and those of Juan Bernat, Sergio Rico and Rafinha do not appear.
The blow is necessarily hard for Juan Bernat, but logical with two first games on September 15 and 28. The Spanish left side suffered a serious right knee injury on September 16, 2020 against Metz. Victim of a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament of the right knee, he has still not made his return to competition. In addition, PSG has just recruited in the last hours of the transfer window the young and promising Portuguese international left-back from Sporting, Nuno Mendes, 19 years old. He will therefore find himself in competition with Abdou Diallo and Layvin Kurzawa,
As for the goalkeepers, Sergio Rico, the friend of Keylor Navas, is a victim of the criteria for the composition of the list of 25 which require a minimum of four players trained at the club and four in the country.
Alongside Navas and Donnarumma, of which we do not yet know which one will keep the Parisian goal, it is therefore Alexandre Letellier who has been chosen.
Finally, in the midfield, Rafinha who never entered into the plans of Pochettino, was not retained.
PSG preferred Eric Junior Ebimbe, 20, and started in particular against Strasbourg (4-2) in mid-August.
All the other star rookies including Messi and Ramos naturally appear in list A while young Titis find themselves in list B where one of them can be called up for each match.
A new list may be proposed before the round of 16.
The 25 players registered by PSG:
Navas, Donnarumma, Letellier - Marquinhos, Kimpembe, Ramos, Diallo, Hakimi, Kehrer, Dagba, Mendes, Kurzawa - Verratti, Paredes, Gueye, Herrera, Draxler, Danilo, Wijnaldum, Dina Ebimbe - Mbappé , Messi, Neymar, Di Maria, Icardi.