Warren Zaïre-Emery has made PSG’s dazzling midfield even better

When Warren Zaïre-Emery ran the show as a 17-year-old in a 3-0 win against Milan Thierry Henry said “the sky is the limit” for the midfielder. His stratospheric rise led him too close to the sun, though, and the crash back down to Earth was a rude one. But he has since dusted himself off.

Beeswax was Icarus’ undoing; a mild ankle sprain did it for Zaïre-Emery. Not quite the stuff of legend, but far from inconsequential. Having started six of PSG’s eight games in the league phase of the Champions League last season, he missed their playoff tie against Brest and would not start another game in the competition all season. Luis Enrique had found his formula and Zaïre-Emery was not part of it. Fabian Ruiz joined Vitinha and João Neves in the midfield and they started every knockout game as PSG won the competition for the first time. The PSG midfield was dazzling without Zaïre-Emery.

This wasn’t in the prophecy. “I have never seen a player that young being so mature,” said Henry in 2023. He coached Zaïre-Emery during his time as the France Under-21s manager, even making him captain when he was just 17 years old. Luis Enrique was already lobbying for a senior call-up at that point. “If I were Spain manager, I’d call Warren up. I am no longer a national team manager, but everyone can see what is happening to him,” said the PSG manager.

Didier Deschamps soon heeded that call and, in November 2023, made Zaïre-Emery the youngest player to pull on a France jersey in more than a century. He was just 17 years, eight months and 10 days old. Zaïre-Emery scored on his debut – a 14-0 demolition of Gibraltar – but sustained an ankle injury in the process.

It all came a little too soon for the Prince of the Parc. “He was bumped up a bit too quickly for my taste,” said Vincent Guérin, one of his former coaches at youth level. “The France national team, and being at the heart of the news very early, he struggled a bit in that environment, from the weight of expectations.”

Warren Zaïre-Emery was just 17 when he made his France debut in 2023. Photograph: Sébastien Nogier/EPA-EFE

Zaïre-Emery’s fall from prominence midway through last season set in motion a negative spiral. A bit-part player as PSG lifted the Champions League, he lost his place in the France squad earlier this season. When he returned to the Under-21s, he admitted he was “holding back” and needed to rediscover his old self. “Confidence is playing a big part,” he said. “It is up to me, in my mind, to free myself, to play how I know, to have that carelessness from when I was young. It will come back, naturally.”

“The objective isn’t to stay too long,” added Zaïre-Emery, whose demotion to the Under-21s set him on a path to not only reclaim his spot in the PSG midfield but also in the France squad. This season, no player has played more minutes for PSG than WZE. Against Liverpool, he started his 39th consecutive game in all competitions. His run in the team is partly due to the absences of others – Achraf Hakimi was injured and then at Afcon, while Fabián Ruiz has been out for nearly three months with a knee injury – but it is also because he chimes with Luis Enrique’s vision.

“My dream is to have 20 players who can play anywhere,” said the Spaniard earlier this month. In Zaïre-Emery, he already has one. The Frenchman has often filled in at right-back this season and, as he showed against Liverpool last week, he has the technique and intelligence to play across the pitch. In that win, the 20-year-old became the youngest player to reach 40 appearances in the Champions League, beating the previous record set by Jude Bellingham.

Praise isn’t always forthcoming from Luis Enrique. Asked whether he had been surprised by Zaïre-Emery’s level, he responded that he “couldn’t be” given that he “knows his players”. But he has also described the PSG academy product as “spectacular” and “exemplary”, adding: “I can only thank PSG for providing such players.”

For PSG, he is both the poster boy and the prototype. “Buying more at the supermarket doesn’t make you a better cook,” said the club’s sporting director, Luis Campos, earlier this season as he outlined plans to spend less and develop more, specifically more players like Zaïre-Emery: intelligent, versatile and technical.

He has the ability to run the show in midfield and, as his confidence grows, that is exactly what he is doing. He can sound timid when he speaks, and he often wears the wry smile of a cheeky child who is knowingly misbehaving, but he has not put a foot wrong this season. With every passing game, he more closely embodies Luis Enrique’s utopian vision of versatility and he moves closer to fulfilling the prophecy told by Henry. Zaïre-Emery had his wings clipped but is flying once more.

Talking points

Monaco’s seven-game winning run in Ligue 1 came to an abrupt end with a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Paris FC, who are unbeaten since the arrival of Antoine Kombouaré at the start of March. The big positive for Monaco was the return of Paul Pogba, who had only played half an hour of football for Monaco this season. The former Manchester United midfielder came on for the final 20 minutes against Paris FC with his side already 3-1 down. It is a timely appearance for Pogba, whose future at the club has been questioned. “From what I’ve heard, we’re together for the long run,” said Pogba after his return. He was applauded by all corners of the stadium when he came on for Monaco, who do not want to simply be a vessel for his victory lap. From a visibility and marketing perspective, Pogba’s arrival was a success the second he signed; the club now hope to benefit from his talent.

Lens had hoped to play PSG this weekend in a potentially decisive game in the Ligue 1 title race. Of course, that did not happen, with the LFP postponing the fixture to help PSG in Europe. Lens used their free weekend to support Christophe Gleizes, a French football journalist currently imprisoned in Algeria accused of supporting terrorism. Last June, the So Foot journalist – who specialises in African football for the Paris-based magazine – was handed a seven-year sentence after he contacted an opposition figure, who was historically involved with Algerian football club JSK. Lens played third-tier side Rouen in a friendly to raise visibility of his case and raise money for Reporters Without Borders. “A whole club is mobilised behind him,” said Lens director Benjamin Parrot on Saturday. Players wore “Free Gleizes” T-shirts as they warmed up in front of a full crowd at Stade Bollaert-Delelis for the friendly, which Lens won 2-1.

This is an article by Get French Football News