Has a French team ever won the UEFA Champions League?

PSG played their last Champions League final in 2025.

The Champions League 2024-25 final was nothing like what one expected, not even close. We were just a few hours away from seeing Inter Milan and Paris Saint-Germain slug it out at the revered Allianz Arena in Munich. On the one hand, we had Inter Milan, who last won the title nearly fifteen years back after defeating Bayern Munich (2-0) courtesy of a Diego Milito brace.

On the other hand, we had Paris Saint-Germain, who were yet to open their account in the Champions League trophy column.

Previously, the Parisian side came close in 2020, but a Kingsley Coman goal meant that they would have to end their fantastic run without the winner’s medal. So, if the “Les Parisiens” could lift the title this year, it would mean that it would end a nearly thirty-two-year-old drought of a French club winning the prestigious UEFA title.

The last one to do it were Marseille back in 1993. Did PSG end that drought? Keep reading.

Marseille’s UEFA Champions League victory

When it comes to the UEFA Champions League, the French clubs haven’t been that lucky. In nearly seventy years of its existence, they were the first and only club who have managed to get their hands on the coveted trophy. The team that did it was Raymond Goethals’ Marseille, who coincidentally got their victory over another Milan club (AC Milan) in that fated match.

Marseille had reached the final, not losing a single match in the group stage. Out of their six games, they won three and drew three, earning nine points. They had aced their group. Fabio Capello’s Milan, however, were ruthless. They won all their group matches and earned the maximum points on the board.

Marseille were undoubtedly the visible underdogs going in, but a 44th-minute header from Basile Boli changed the entire trajectory for French football. The defender jumped the highest to head the ball into the corner, leaving the Milan goalkeeper Sebastiano Rossi with absolutely no chance. With that impeccable header, a new chapter in French football’s legacy was written.

The sensational victory also meant that Raymond Goethals’ men had defeated Capello’s star-studded side consisting of the “who’s who” of football like Franck Rijkaard, Marco Van Baasten, Paolo Maldini and Franco Baresi.

The unfortunate thing is that this remarkable victory was shrouded by a match-fixing scandal that followed. An impropriety so grave that the Champions League winners got stripped of their Ligue 1 title the same year and were relegated from French football’s elite league. Despite all the subsequent drama, it still remains in the football archives as one of French football’s greatest moments

PSG make UCL history

Until the 2024-25 edition, only Marseille seemed to have done the deed. But a 5-0 win over Inter Milan changed much of the history of French football. Now they are the second team from France to lift a UCL trophy!

For more updates, follow Khel Now on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram; download the Khel Now Android App or IOS App and join our community on Telegram.