When is PSG's next game? Pre-season fixtures & 2023/24 start dates
After a season that was desperately underwhelming despite technically being historic, Paris Saint-Germain face another summer of upheaval.
Christophe Galtier confirmed Lionel Messi's departure ahead of the final match of the season. The coach may have led PSG to a record-breaking 11th league title but could also be on his way out, following the outgoing centre-back Sergio Ramos as well as Messi. If the club's vocal ultras - and perhaps some individuals more closely associated with PSG - had their wish, Neymar would also be heading for the exit.
Unlike last summer, Kylian Mbappe is all but guaranteed to still be wearing blue and red when PSG line up for their next match. But when exactly will that be?
Pre-season plans
For the second year on the spin, PSG will conduct a pre-season tour of Japan. Last summer's preparation in Asia preceded an incredible 23-match unbeaten start to the season.
The perennial French champions will play three matches between 25 July and 1 August against opposition of dramatically varying quality.
The tour begins against Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr in Osaka. PSG played a Saudi All-Stars team captained by Ronaldo in January, winning 5-4 despite a brace from the Portuguese skipper. Three days later, J1 League side Cerezo Osaka host the French visitors.
PSG wrap up the mini-campaign against Champions League finalists Inter in Tokyo at the start of August.
Trophee des Champions
As Ligue 1 champions, PSG will be one half of the domestic curtain raiser against Coupe de France winners Toulouse on 5 August.
Toulouse hammered Nantes 5-1 at the Stade de France in April, winning the club's first-ever major piece of silverware while comfortably avoiding relegation after last summer's promotion.
Operating with a data-driven policy, Toulouse's yearly wage bill last season was roughly 45 times smaller than the combined salaries at PSG - although the confirmed departures of Messi and Ramos should shrink the chasm.
Ligue 1 start date
The 2023/24 Ligue 1 season will begin on the weekend of 12-13 August, running through to 18 May 2024. PSG's quest to defend their league crown has been made easier with only 17 other clubs vying for top spot.
Four clubs were relegated at the end of the 2022/23 campaign while only two won promotion from Ligue 2 as the division was restructured to 18 teams, aping the Bundesliga's model. This reshuffle ensures that the French top flight will be treated to a two-week winter break.
The Christmas hiatus begins on 21 December 2023 and stretches all the way to the weekend of 6-7 January 2024.
While PSG have been strongly in favour of the new format, the club enjoyed and endured dramatically contrasting fortunes on either side of the World Cup-enforced break during the 2022/23 season; before the global jamboree, Galtier's side dropped just four points. By March, PSG had lost four top-flight matches.
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Champions League start date
By now, the process of re-entry into the Champions League must verge towards sadism for PSG fans. A pair of limp defeats home and away to Bayern Munich in spring confirmed the club's latest European failure and was PSG's fifth round-of-16 exit in seven years.
Whoever is helming PSG after the summer will lead the club into its latest continental assault when the group stage begins on the midweek of 19-20 September.
While each campaign may have ultimately ended in defeat, PSG have not bowed out in the group stage of the competition since 2004.
Coupe de France start date
PSG have practically become numb to Champions League exits these days but the Coupe de France loss to fierce rivals Marseille in February will have stung. As captain Marquinhos revealed through gritted teeth: "It hurts."
The record 14-time winners of the competition begin the 2023/24 cup campaign on the first weekend after the winter break, between 6-7 January 2024.
The competition is open to every team, amateur and professional, from across the French footballing pyramid - which stretches out to the nation's overseas territories. PSG and the rest of Ligue 1 will enter the tournament in the round of 64.
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