Achraf Hakimi on PSG's Cultural Shift Under Luis Enrique

Achraf Hakimi leans back, smiles, and sums it up in a sentence that feels like a verdict on an era.

“Luis Enrique? He has changed everything at PSG.”

This is not empty praise. It comes from a defender who has lived three very different footballing cultures before his 26th birthday: Real Madrid’s academy machine, Antonio Conte’s relentless Inter, and now a Paris Saint-Germain side reshaped into something far more collective than the star-studded billboards that used to define it.

A New PSG, Built in the Dressing Room

Under Enrique, PSG have become serial winners with a different edge. Three consecutive Ligue 1 titles. The 2024-25 Champions League already in the bag. And now, another European crown within reach, with Arsenal waiting in Budapest.

Inside that run, Hakimi sees a cultural reset rather than just a winning streak.

“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 words match what happens on the pitch. PSG no longer look like a collection of soloists. They look drilled, aggressive, and united, with Hakimi often the symbol of that shift: sprinting 70 yards to overlap, then racing back to cover the space he has just vacated.

From Injury Scare to Final Green Light

A few weeks ago, there was a genuine fear he might not even make it to the biggest night of PSG’s season. An injury picked up against Bayern Munich raised doubts over his fitness for the Champions League final.

Those concerns have now been swept aside.

“Everyone is ready. Everyone arrives in a different way,” Enrique said in his press conference, brushing away the anxiety with the calm of a coach who has seen it all. “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.”

For PSG, “everyone” very much includes Hakimi. And that matters.

This season, the full-back has been one of their most consistent weapons. Three goals and nine assists in 31 appearances only hint at his influence. Since arriving in Paris, he has amassed 28 goals and 44 assists in 206 matches – staggering output for a defender whose heat map looks more like a winger’s.

The numbers tell one story. His presence in a final tells another. When PSG break, he is often the outlet. When they are pinned back, he is often the escape route.

“A Beautiful Achievement” – But No Time to Drift

Hakimi knows what it means to reach this stage again. He also knows how quickly it can all disappear if focus slips.

“Being in the final again? I think it is a very beautiful achievement. It was not an easy path and we are proud to have reached the end of the competition again,” he said. “But now we must not lose focus because Arsenal are a truly strong opponent.”

There is no hint of complacency in that line. Arsenal have grown into a formidable European side, and PSG, for all their dominance in France and recent success in Europe, carry the scars of past collapses. Hakimi has lived enough high-pressure nights to understand that finals are decided on details, not reputations.

So Enrique talks about “small offensive and defensive details”. Hakimi talks about mentality. Together, they point to a PSG that has learned to win not just with talent, but with structure and steel.

Paris in His Present, Milan in His Heart

Even as he prepares for another Champions League final, Hakimi’s thoughts stretch beyond the French capital. Back to Italy. Back to Inter.

The Moroccan international joined Inter from Real Madrid in September 2020 and left an indelible mark in a short spell, before PSG paid a reported €68 million to bring him to Paris in July 2021.

Those bonds have not faded.

“Yes, I am an Interista and I am very happy for the championship and the Coppa Italia,” he admitted, reacting to Inter’s recent domestic triumphs. The connection runs through the dressing room, too. “If I have spoken to anyone? I wrote to Lautaro, I get along very well with him.”

It is a reminder that footballers rarely live in a single present. Hakimi’s heart holds a slice of Milan, a slice of Madrid, and now a huge portion of Paris. Inter gave him a platform. PSG have given him a stage.

The loyalties can overlap. The priorities cannot. Right now, his world narrows to 90 minutes – or more – in Budapest, to Arsenal, to the chance of a second Champions League title under a coach he openly credits with reshaping his career.

He calls it a family. Enrique calls it a squad ready for the details. The trophies suggest they are both right.

Now comes the real test: can this new, hardened PSG turn a cultural shift into a lasting European dynasty?