Achraf Hakimi Embraces Luis Enrique's Revolution at PSG
Achraf Hakimi leans back, smiles, and doesn’t hesitate.
“Luis Enrique? He has changed everything at PSG.”
For once, it doesn’t sound like a throwaway line. It sounds like the spine of Paris Saint-Germain’s new era.
Enrique’s PSG, Hakimi’s rebirth
Under Enrique, PSG have ripped up their old script. Three consecutive Ligue 1 titles, the 2024-25 Champions League already in the trophy cabinet, and now another European final on the horizon against Arsenal. This is not the fragile, star-led PSG of old. Hakimi insists it’s something very different.
“Since he arrived, everyone has changed their mentality: now we are a team, we play for each other, we run for each other, we are a family,” he told Sky Sport. “Playing like this, everything becomes easier. I am lucky to be in this team, with these teammates, and this coach. He changed my mentality and my way of being on the pitch. He has made me better as a footballer and as a man.”
The right-back has become one of the clearest symbols of that shift. Once a marauding outlet, now a complete pillar in Enrique’s system, he has delivered three goals and nine assists in 31 appearances this season. Across his PSG career, the numbers are imposing: 28 goals and 44 assists in 206 matches. A full-back with winger output, but now wrapped in a collective ethic he clearly relishes.
Injury scare erased before Budapest
For a few days, PSG held their breath. Hakimi limped off against Bayern Munich, and the calendar was unforgiving: a Champions League final in Budapest against Arsenal, the chance of a second straight European crown, and one of Enrique’s key men in doubt.
The tension didn’t last.
“Everyone is ready,” Enrique said this week, cutting through the speculation. “Everyone arrives in a different way. But it will be a week with a lot of changes, rest days and a lot of training to prepare the small offensive and defensive details. The rest is the sun in Paris and Budapest.”
No drama, no mystery. Just a coach who knows exactly what he wants to fine-tune, and a squad that, physically at least, will be at his disposal.
For Hakimi, the stage is familiar now, but no less special.
“Being in the final again? I think it is a very beautiful achievement,” he said. “It was not an easy path and we are proud to have reached the end of the competition again. But now we must not lose focus because Arsenal are a truly strong opponent.”
There it is: satisfaction, quickly chased by steel. PSG have lived through too many European disappointments to treat a final as anything other than a 90-minute examination.
A Paris star with a Milan heartbeat
As Paris prepares for Budapest, Hakimi’s thoughts still occasionally drift back to Italy. His time at Inter was short but explosive: signed from Real Madrid in September 2020, gone to PSG by July 2021 for a reported €68 million, yet still emotionally anchored to the Nerazzurri.
“Yes, I am an Interista and I am very happy for the championship and the Coppa Italia,” he admitted, after Inter’s latest domestic successes. The bond with that dressing room remains alive. “If I have spoken to anyone? I wrote to Lautaro, I get along very well with him.”
It’s a reminder that careers move fast, but allegiances don’t always follow the transfer fees. Hakimi carries Inter in his heart, remembers Milan fondly, and still finds time to message Lautaro Martínez when trophies roll into San Siro.
But sentiment has its limits. Right now, there is only one obsession: Europe.
PSG stand on the brink of a second straight Champions League title, with Arsenal in their path and Hakimi fit, firing, and fully bought into Enrique’s revolution. The full-back who once lit up Serie A now has the chance to define an era in Paris.
The question is no longer whether PSG can finally behave like a team on the biggest stage. Hakimi’s answer to that is already written. The question now is how far this family he describes can push their dominance across the continent.
