Stade Reims are tackling their fifth consecutive season in the top flight. It remains to be seen whether it will be possible to play a role in the front area like in 2018/19 (8th) and 2019/20 (5th). Last season it was twelfth place, before that it was 14th. The club is coached by Oscar Garcia, who worked for Austria’s series champion Salzburg from 2016 to 2017. Of course, there were also duels with Austria during this time, but Pentz was mostly only in the reserve role at the time. Now the two are pulling together.
Marseille has a new coach in the form of Croatian Igor Tudor, whose compatriot and defender Duje Caleta-Car once played in Salzburg. Olympique with the now 35-year-old Dimitri Payet is fighting for a place in the Champions League again this season. In the previous season they made it to the semi-finals of the Conference League, but failed there at Feyenoord Rotterdam.
Monaco, champions of 2017, are hoping that ex-Salzburger Takumi Minamino and Breel Embolo will fit in well up front. The gap to be closed after the departure of midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni for 80 million euros to Real Madrid. Olympique Lyon are also starting the season with high expectations and want to forget eighth place in 2021/22. In addition, Stade Rennes also wants to play an important role up front again.
Five legionnaires at work in Ligue 1
Of the five ÖFB legionnaires, Flavius Daniliuc should have the best chance of a top placement with the pre-season fifth OGC Nice, where Lucien Favre is a trainer. The 21-year-old ÖFB-U21 team defender made 24 appearances in the French upper house in 2021/22. Kevin Danso (33 games/28 full distance) played an even bigger role at RC Lens, and his standing as the undisputed regular player shouldn’t have changed. Lens was seventh and wants to fight for the European Cup ranks again.
For Clermont-Foot returnee Muhammed-Cham Saracevic, who can look back on a very successful season at Austria Lustenau and made his Ligue 1 debut on Saturday in the 5-0 loss to Paris Saint-Germain, as well as from the loan game at Vitesse Arnheim Lorient-returned striker Adrian Grbic will remain a dream. Relegation is a priority for these clubs.
PSG the hunted again
As has almost always been the case recently, the big hunted is Paris St. Germain. The star club, now coached by Christophe Galtier, not only wants to win the eleventh championship title in the first season after Mauricio Pochettino’s tenure, the ninth in the last eleven years, but also finally the Champions League title. The offensive dream trio of Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and Lionel Messi could be held. “When you’re at PSG, you have a duty to get results,” Galtier said. “I came here to win everything.”
Galtier was the last coach to thwart PSG after surprisingly leading Lille to the league title in 2021. In 2022, there were a reassuring 15 points between champions PSG and pursuers Marseille. Paris got off to a good start with a 5-0 win at Clermont Foot on Saturday.
