Le roi est mort, vive le roi! It is perhaps fitting that these words were first spoken in 1422 when Charles VII succeeded his father to the throne of France.  Paris St Germain, one of the richest global clubs, were supposed to rule European (and, therefore, world) football only to miss out to traditional sporting aristocracy, Bayern Munich.

The Champions League title was secured by a man the players refer to on the training ground as “the King”!

It was a match billed as new money competing with old. This was Bayern’s 11th European final and in claiming their 6th victory join Liverpool as the third most successful club in the history of the competition.

For Paris St Germain it was their first final becoming the 41st club to reach this stage. Recent omens did not look good with the last team to claim victory at the first time of asking being Borussia Dortmund in 1997 with the French side becoming the seventh side in succession to fail to lift the trophy.

It was not meant to be this way. In November it will be a decade since French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, facilitated a meeting at the Elysee Palace that ultimately resulted in Qatar purchasing 70% of the French giants and the national league being propped up by a television deal emanating from the same country.

Iconic – and expensive – transfers have followed resulting in the acquisition of the most expensive forward line in history. The record spends on the attacking duo of Neymar and Mbappe have warped the transfer market to a point where the acquisition of star assets for astronomical sums has been normalised.

It’s not that Bayern are paupers by any stretch of the imagination. For years they have cherry-picked the elite from poorer teams in the Bundesliga. They have retained a dominance in Germany similar to that of PSG in France. In the history of this competition there has never been two more dominant domestic sides meet; both arriving with a clean-sweep of honours at home.  And yet the winning goal was scored for the Germans by a Frenchman, Kingsley Coman boasting a PSG past, notching Bayern’s 500th in Europe’s elite competition.

The mastermind behind this victory though is the coach, Hans Flick. He arrived in Bayern as assistant coach in July 2019 but assumed control after the departure of Niko Kovac four months later with his team in the doldrums after a 5-1 defeat at Frankfurt.

The turnaround has been remarkable. An initial decision was to return to Thomas Muller who has been largely invisible under his predecessor. He also eschewed a management style that dispenses with stereotypical clichés that prohibits leaders from befriending employees. 

Flick subsequently saw his side cruise to the Bundesliga title with a 13-point cushion and domestic dominance.

The German march to the final also saw them crush Barcelona 8-2 with a performance that no-one that saw it will forget and a 3-0 victory over another side from France, Lyon.

His big call was selecting Coman for the final who had been out injured for recent matches. The surprise move caught out PSG as they struggled to adapt to his pace and direct running.

The fact that it was a headed goal owed to the quality of the cross from Joshua Kimmich who is as adaptable as a Swiss army knife.

While Bayern retained five players from the side that last lifted the Champions League trophy in 2013, Flick will now be given funds to transform a side that will already welcome Leroy Sane from Manchester City.

It is symptomatic of the “new normal” that this match represents the last pre-season game for PSG before the start of the La Liga – it will be interesting to see how much they spend although the transfer window does not close until October.

Overall, the match failed to live up to the hype with both sides understandably nervous and tense. Within the bio-secure bubble it is difficult to believe that even the presence of a crowd would have lifted the game to the standards of the first in Lisbon when Celtic were crowned champions in 1967.

However, there is a possibility that UEFA, who effectively stumbled onto this format as a result of the Covid-19 crisis, may consider retaining elements of it.  The neutral venues for this and the Europa League have proved successful while the knock-out matches have encouraged sides to be more attacking, according to UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin. Bayern’s 43 goals in 11 matches make them the highest scoring side (on a per match basis) of teams to win the competition.

In a bizarre twist of fate PSG get another change to taste European glory.  Tonight (Wed 26th Aug) their women’s side take on existing champions, Lyon, in the semi-final.  While the latter have won four successive crowns PSG can take heart from holding them in the French Cup final two weeks ago, only losing on penalties.

Victory in that may demonstrate that money does not buy success as it is Lyon that are the traditional big spenders in women’s football.