PSG Fan Club New York take a special trip to Paris

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Paris Saint-Germain’s official New York fan club made the trip across the pond back home to Paris for a recent home game at the Parc, we joined them for the experience!

 

Underneath the Tribune Paris, a group of supporters draped in red and blue scarves and flags huddle together awaiting the green light to walk through the doors that adjoin the concourse under the stand to pitch-side. At that moment, Paris Saint-Germain’s players are mid-warm up before their last match of 2018 against Nantes. The anticipation is rising with the volume of the singing as PSG Fan Club New York prepare to walk out into the stadium for the first time in many years for some. Paris’ New York City contingent are here on a pilgrimage, the home fixture happily coincides with vacations home for Christmas, and for the group who passionately follow the Rouge et Bleu 3,600 miles away every week, it’s a special end to 2018, back where they belong, in le Tribune Auteuil.

Back in February 2006, a group of fans, some eleven blocks from the United Nations building on the east side of Manhattan, watched Paris Saint-Germain draw 2-2 with Saint-Etienne at a local bar. It was an embryonic moment that began the story of Paris SG’s first recognised supporters club in the United States. Since then, over 100 members have joined the club, following Paris SG games every week from their new home at ‘Legends’, a bar that sits within the tall shadow of the Empire State Building.

 

 

Fast forward nearly thirteen years, and Julian Stein, President and Founder of PSG Club New York City, is standing just feet away from the goal in which Gianluigi Buffon is finishing his final preparations. Speaking with PSG TV, Julian explained what it meant to be back at the Parc.

“We started in 2006, a lot of the guys that are here are guys that were here from the beginning. So for them to be here on the field together is a very emotional moment…we always talked about doing a big game together at the Parc de Princes and finally we made it happen.”

 

 

The passionate gatherings in the large basement bar in The Big Apple, impressively manage to compete with the fevered atmosphere in the Auteuil. Fans sing their hearts out, bang drums, wave scarves and flags and for an hour and a half each week, replicate the rituals many of them grew up with at the Parc des Princes. As Julian describes; “What we do is similar to what the Collectif does, we sing throughout the game for the full 90 minutes and we support the team. For us it's as if we're back in Paris together, that's all it is, it's bringing back all our memories from when we were kids and we all get together to live that moment together”.

After posing for photos and offering some examples of the passion they create in New York every week, the group made their way to the Tribune Auteuil to take their place among the Paris SG Ultras where they sang non-stop for their club’s 1-0 victory. It’s fitting that Paris Saint-Germain’s fans in ‘the city that never sleeps’ are also the fans that never stop singing!

For more information on PSG Fan Club New York, you can pay them a visit on their:

- Official website

- Facebook

- Twitter

- Instagram