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·22 September 2026

PSG – Lugano lifts the lid on the start of the QSI era

Former Paris Saint-Germain centre-back Diego Lugano, 45, looks back in an interview with Flashscore on his arrival in Paris in 2011. The Uruguayan recounts the first months of the QSI era, marked by huge ambition, still rudimentary structures, and his role as a bridge in a dressing room undergoing major change.

Lugano: “I still had the desire to make history”

In 2011, Valencia and Juventus were interested in signing you, but you ultimately chose PSG, right at the start of the QSI era. What was the main reason behind that decision? “I’ve always believed that when you become too comfortable somewhere, you need to change, take on a new challenge, and start again from scratch. At São Paulo, I was an idol, I had won everything, and at the peak of my career, I decided to leave for Turkey. No one in Brazil understood, but I wanted to start over from zero. In Turkey, with Fenerbahçe, I also became a leading figure, and once again, at the best moment, I chose to leave. The PSG project was only just beginning in 2011, and I was actually the first foreign player to arrive under QSI and Leonardo. That’s what motivated me: the experience, starting over, taking on a new challenge. I was almost 32, but I still had the desire to make history.”

Lugano’s spell at PSG would remain relatively short, but his arrival belongs to a unique period in the club’s recent history. In the summer of 2011, Paris was changing dimension without yet having completely changed its face. The financial resources were already considerable, but the sporting project, the dressing room, and above all the club’s environment were still under construction. Lugano thus arrived at a PSG caught halfway between two eras, before the spectacular acceleration of recruitment in the following transfer windows.

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Lugano: “The club simply wasn’t ready”

You left a year and a half later. Do you have any regrets? What was the atmosphere like inside the club at the start of this new era? “It’s a very long and very rich story. When I arrived, PSG was practically a neighborhood club. Its infrastructure and ambition were infinitely below those of Fenerbahçe or São Paulo, even though the QSI project was gigantic. Leonardo brought me in to use my experience to manage the transition between the old Paris dressing room and the new ‘Galáctico’ dressing room that was coming. It was an enriching but difficult experience, because the club simply wasn’t ready. My first big argument with Leonardo was about the fact that PSG could not have such a basic, amateur dressing room and gym if it wanted to bring in top-level players. There wasn’t even anyone in charge of helping a player find a house or a school for his children, I had to do everything myself. When Maxwell, Lavezzi, and Thiago Silva arrived, it was the Uruguayan showing them which schools or neighborhoods to choose. Aside from the huge salary, PSG did not offer the minimum structure a professional player needs. I have no regrets. If you ask the people in charge of the project today, they still thank me for my leadership during that crucial transition.”

It is above all this part of the testimony that shows how far PSG has come. Lugano describes a project whose financial power had suddenly outgrown the existing structures. QSI wanted to immediately attract players used to the standards of Europe’s biggest clubs, while Paris still had to build the entire environment capable of welcoming them. The contrast also helps explain why the first years were not simply about piling up signings: the club had to simultaneously transform its squad, its methods, and its day-to-day functioning.

Lugano’s account thus offers an interesting snapshot of PSG in 2011. Before the stars, the titles, and the constant pursuit of the Champions League, there was this transitional period when ambitions had already moved to another scale, but almost everything around them still remained to be built.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇫🇷 here.