Esteemed ‘football expert’ Luis Campos joins PSG – but can he win them the Champions League?

Leonardo replaced in Paris 

Paris Saint-Germain certainly meant business when they signed Kylian Mbappe up to a new three-year deal with the club, while fighting off severe interest from Real Madrid in the process. And the French giants have continued that strong assault on the summer transfer window by appointing Luís Campos as the club’s new Football Advisor on Friday afternoon. 

Of course, these two pieces of business aren’t entirely unrelated. Following a disastrous few years with Leonardo pulling the strings at the club, Campos has now stepped into the role following reports in France that Mbappe demanded a shake up of the club’s hierarchy to help get PSG back in contention for Champions League titles. “I am delighted to be joining Paris Saint-Germain, which I consider is the most ambitious and exciting club in world football,” said Campos in a statement on the PSG website. “I believe strongly in and share the vision of the club and I cannot wait to get started to further unleash the great potential of this exceptional club.” So what does Campos bring to the table in Paris and will this usher in a new era of success for PSG in the Champions League? 

Scouting stars and building title-winning teams – Campos arrives with serious pedigree

Although Campos had a distinguished career as a manager in Portuguese football and then as a scout for Real Madrid, his greatest success has come as a sporting director in French football, where he has been a constant thorn in PSG’s side for most of the last 10 years at Monaco and then Lille. Indeed, it was at “the Monégasques” where Campos was able to truly flex his muscles as, what PSG referred to him this week, a “world-acclaimed football expert” by identifying the stars of tomorrow and pairing them up with ready-made senior pros that could win titles in the short term. And that’s exactly what Monaco did under his guidance. 

For example, in his first season at the club Monaco signed James Rodríguez, Radamel Falcao and Geoffrey Kondogbia as ready-made stars, but also snapped up a young Anthony Martial from Lyon’s B team for just €5m. In the next season, Campos oversaw the signing of a young Bernardo Silva from Porto as well as a 19-year-old Tiemoué Bakayoko from Stade Rennais. And if that wasn’t impressive enough, Monaco then snapped up Adama Traoré, Fabinho and Thomas Lemar in his final year at the club. To no great surprise, Monaco went from strength to strength thanks to the players Campos was able to identify and then bring into the squad. Following promotion back to Ligue 1 in 2013, Monaco then went on to finish runners up in 2013/14, before winning the league title in 2016/17, in no small part due to the players Campos had brought to the club. However, by that point the football expert had moved on to Lille, where he was able to perform an even more impressive miracle. 

Indeed, after joining Lille as their sporting director in 2017, Campos quickly got to work at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy by bringing in young talents such as Nicolas Pépé and Boubakary Soumaré, before snapping up Jonathan Ikoné and Rafael Leão in his second season at the club. Yet it was perhaps in his final season at the club that Campos was most crucial, when he oversaw the arrival of Victor Osimhen, Renato Sanches and Timothy Weah. And while Osimhen left before the title-winning campaign in 2020/21, it’s worth bearing in mind that all 11 of the club’s most used players in that title run were signed while Campos was in charge. 

As shown at Monaco and then Lille, Campos has a unique ability to build squads that not only possess a number of stars, but also have the capacity to win titles. And as PSG continue their search for a first Champions League title, they may finally have the sporting director in place to help them make the step up to the next level. 

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