PSG's preseason plans ahead of World Cup players' return in August

PSG’s players, many of whom participated in the 2026 World Cup up to its latter stages, are set to start returning to the club on Monday, July 27th, with those players who did not go to the World Cup, including stars such as Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Senny Mayulu and Lucas Beraldo, set to be among the first to return to Paris to commence training.

2026 Preseason: PSG's schedule and World Cup players' return

PSG currently have two scheduled games as friendlies before the start of the season, against Mallorca on the 5th of August and then against Manchester United on the 8th of that same month. Their official calendar gets underway with the UEFA Super Cup final against Aston Villa on the 12th, before another opportunity to win a trophy in the Trophée des Champions final four days later, against Lens, who won the Coupe de France last season and therefore face off against the Parisians, who of course triumphed in Ligue 1.

It is highly likely that a number of PSG’s stars will not be ready to play in either of these finals, especially those who reached the semi finals of the World Cup and beyond, including Warren Zaire-Emery, Ousmane Dembélé, Desiré Doué, Bradley Barcola and Fabian Ruiz, all of whose countries finished playing last weekend. These players have therefore only just commenced their holidays and probably can’t be expected back in training before the middle of August (based on previous summer World Cup calendars).

Players eliminated earlier in the competition, such as Willian Pacho, Ibrahim Mbaye, Marquinhos and the entirety of the Portuguese contingent (namely Nuno Mendes, Vitinha and Joao Neves) should however be back in training sooner, and therefore are likelier to feature in these two finals.

While PSG’s two friendlies are purely warm up games for fitness purposes (as well as potentially useful in case of tactical experimentation) and shouldn’t be taken too seriously, PSG are in a slightly delicate position vis-à-vis these two finals, which are valuable opportunities for the club to win more trophies. Aston Villa and Lens are not sides who will roll over easily, and will both provide stern tests for Luis Enrique’s men.

However, it’s also important to remember that Luis Enrique has always been very open to tactical and personal experimentation over the first parts of the season, and may be willing to spring a few surprises with his team selection in these games – Enrique’s management has been consistent over the course of his time in Paris: he tends to barely play all of PSG’s first team at any given time until the business end of the season, and even then almost exclusively in the Champions League.

It’s highly likely, therefore, that PSG will commence these finals, and even perhaps the league season, without a number of their highest profile stars, but we shouldn’t expect this to affect the European Champions too severely, as Enrique usually seems to manage to extract excellent performances from whatever lineup he pieces together in these scenarios.

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