Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe sent message by PSG chief Nasser Al-Khelaifi after Luis Enrique's side end club's long wait for first Champions League title

The Ligue 1 giants have regularly received criticism regarding their struggles in Europe, despite their mammoth spending since 2011, when Qatari businessman Al-Khelaifi took over the club. However, on Saturday evening in Munich, Paris Saint-Germain achieved the title that had long evaded their grasp, as Luis Enrique led his side to Les Parisiens' first-ever Champions League title with a 5-0 hammering of Inter in the final.

The Champions League glory came to Paris Saint-Germain's doorstep after the departures of megastars such as Messi, Neymar and Mbappe. Nonetheless, Al-Khelaifi has now thanked all the legendary players of the game to have previously played for Les Parisiens for playing their part in leading the club in the right direction.

Speaking to talkSPORT's Jim White, Al-Khelaifi was questioned whether this is the direction he wanted to lead PSG towards in terms of recruiting more youth instead of outright superstars. The Qatari businessman said: "Yes. Before I answer your question Jim, I think yes I told you this, and I'm so proud of our team. But also, I'd like to thank all the players honestly, the first players that we signed, Javier Pastore was in our project, our ex-captain Thiago Silva, Zlatan [Ibrahimovic], [Edinson] Cavani, Thiago Motta. All of them, honestly, [Angel] Di Maria, all those players... And, I will say something really important, even Neymar, Messi, Kylian, what they also did for the club, never going to forget. They were part of the success, because what's really important to pass on the stage and to have this history, and arriving today...

"Yes, we changed our strategy after all that we did, what we did wrong. I'm not sure that we did it all right but what I'm sure, it was really important for us to continue these stages. To come in this phase with young, talented players. Today, Jim, we have stars. You saw yesterday that the best player in the UEFA [Champions League] is [Ousmane] Dembele. The best young player in UEFA is Desire Doue. Seven of the starting XI in the [best Champions League] team [are], from Paris. What does that mean? It means we have fantastic star players. But the stars play for the team, and not the team playing for the stars, and this is the difference today.

"We have young, hungry players that want to die for the jersey, they want to kill themselves, they want to give everything for the club and for the team, and for the fans.2

There won't be a lot of rest for Luis Enrique and his players as Paris Saint-Germain are set to play in the Club World Cup later this month in the United States, and the European champions will go into the tournament as one of the outright favourites to win the competition.