Christophe Galtier's tenure on the PSG bench will come to an end on Saturday evening as the team hosts Clermont at the Parc des Princes for the final match of the Ligue 1 season. No matter what happens today, and with the league title already secured, PSG are expected to fire Galtier by the end of the day.
While Galtier's departure had been expected for some time, the presence of Sheikh Tamim ben Hamad al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar and owner of the club, in Paris during Galtier's last days confirmed the decision to part ways with the former Lille and Nice coach, according to L'Equipe and RMC.
Despite having a second year remaining on his contract he'd like to see through, Galtier will not stay at the helm of PSG past this week. The search for his successor, who will be the eighth coach of the QSI era, is expected to gain momentum in the coming days as we approach the summer transfer window and the start of the pre-season.
Galtier arrived in the capital last summer to replace Mauricio Pochettino, and the Frenchman will leave PSG with a historic 11th French championship title conquered and added to the shelves of Paris Saint-Germain (an absolute record in the history of France's top-flight division). It is Galtier's second Ligue 1 title after winning it two seasons ago.
However, Galtier wasn't hired to win just another league. He was hired to lift PSG past their European counterparts in the Champions League.
He failed at that miserably and in a very sound way crashing out of the competition in the Round of 16 when he lost twice to Bayern Munich. Galtier also missed on winning the French Cup, falling to Olympique Marseille early in the knockout stages.
50e et dernier match pour Christophe #Galtier sur le banc du #PSG samedi avec la réception de Clermont, confirmation de l'info de mes confrères de @lequipe et @RMCsport. Un secret de polichinelle, mais décision réfléchie depuis plusieurs semaines. pic.twitter.com/4qfUuzswFg
— Julien Froment (@JulienFroment) June 2, 2023
During a press conference on Thursday, when asked about his worst memory in Paris, Galtier didn't hesitate to point out the double confrontation against Bayern. "That's for sure," he replied. "There were matches where we performed very, very well, but I don't have a standout match. The best thing is to be the champions of France leading from the first day to the last. However, this was not enough in the eyes of the PSG leadership."
PSG will ramp up their efforts to find the successor of Galtier on the touchline of the Parc des Princes with less than two weeks for the summer transfer window to get rolling and barely a month before the first training sessions of the pre-season get going.