Barcola opens up: Champions League, wastefulness, Dembélé and World Cup

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·7 juin 2026

Barcola opens up: Champions League, wastefulness, Dembélé and World Cup

Bradley Barcola, 23, Paris Saint-Germain winger, enjoyed Paris’s second European title in an interview with Téléfoot on TF1. Between celebrations, his bond with Ousmane Dembélé, 29, PSG forward, and his World Cup dream, the France international is showing undiminished ambition.

Barcola: “I even lost my cap”

“It was incredible. When we win, it feels incredible in our heads. You can see what it does to people around us. When we arrived in Paris, it was incredible — I even lost my cap.” “We knew we were going to be expected for this second Champions League. Not better than the first, but incredible.”

Barcola uses simple words to describe a scene that has become almost unreal for Paris Saint-Germain: winning again, then seeing the impact it has on the public around the club. His emotion is also a reminder that this second Champions League does not erase the first, but takes PSG into another dimension. The hardest part often begins after the first peak: backing it up. Paris did just that.

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Barcola: “It’s incredible to play with him”

Missed chance in the Champions League final and what it’s like playing with Dembélé “I could have done better on that move. Ousmane gives me advice about it. He tells me to try to go past him and, if he touches me, it’s a red card.” “He makes me laugh with his jokes, he does silly things, but he’s so serious on the pitch. When I saw him on the pitch, he’s crazy. It’s incredible to play with him.”

This passage says a lot about the PSG dressing room. Barcola owns up to the missed chance without hiding, but he also stresses Dembélé’s influence on his development. PSG need this kind of internal passing-on: senior players able to guide without suffocating, and young players clear-headed enough to improve quickly. In such a competitive attack, that understanding could carry real weight.

Barcola: “It’s a childhood dream”

“Going after the World Cup — I’m told it’s very complicated when I talk about it with the older players. It’s a childhood dream; being able to play in it would be incredible.”

After making history with PSG, Barcola is naturally looking toward the France team. His words remain enthusiastic, but not naïve: the older players remind him how difficult a World Cup is, and that is precisely what gives his ambition weight. For Paris, it is also a positive sign: its young leaders are growing with the highest-level goals.

Barcola is no longer just a promising talent. He speaks like a player already familiar with finals, expectations, the details that change a move, and dreams that go beyond the club. That is exactly the kind of maturity PSG want to see take hold for the long term.

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