Paris Saint Germain to sport new logo next season

French Ligue 1 club FC Paris Saint Germain will sport a new logo from the 2013/14 season ords as the club from Paris continues to strengthening its brand identity and further push to become a bigger player amongst Europe's football elite.

The club is a press release stated, "Paris Saint-Germain has chosen to capitalise on the strongest element of the brand, namely Paris itself.

The city of light, which is an undisputed icon throughout the world, represents unparalleled leverage to propel Paris Saint-Germain up among the greatest global sporting brands. The new logo thus has the name "Paris" clearly brought to the fore, with the Eiffel Tower at the heart of the logo. The base of the logo has the name "Saint Germain" which continues to be associated with the brand, along with the fleur de lys emblem.

The logo has a greater synthesis of ideas and a more immediate impact, and is now ideally placed to capture the imagination of football and sports fans around the world."

Here the old PSG logo

Following in the footsteps of international football's major clubs and under the impetus of its President Nasser Al-Khelaifi, Paris Saint-Germain has chosen to prioritise continuity for its new identity. The new concept brings the brand up to the level of the standards of excellence set by Paris itself, respecting its DNA and its history.

The font is inspired by Paris' major brands, the colors have been made more luminous and highlighted with a hint of gold, while the Eiffel Tower is the veritable heartbeat of the logo. The result is a timeless brand which is resolutely Parisian yet totally international.

"The evolution of the Paris Saint-Germain logo marks an important stage in the implementing of our ambition," said Nasser Al-Khelaifi, "namely making Paris Saint-Germain one of the world's greatest sporting brands."

FC Paris Saint-Germain sign striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Big spending French side FC Paris Saint-Germain have signed Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic from Italian giants AC Milan for a transfer fee of 20 Million Euros and unveiled him in Paris at a press conference today. Ibrahimovic is set to get 14 Million Euros as salary per season.

At the press conference at Parc des Princes Ibrahimovic said, "I want to thank Paris Saint-Germain and (sporting director) Leonardo for the great work they've done!"

"I think they've made something that looked impossible, possible. I'm very happy to be sitting here. After lots of talks, I'm finally a PSG player. It's a big step in my career, another dream come true. I think this is a very interesting project and I had no doubts. In my mind I was very clear, and I knew what I wanted.

"They're bringing together the very best. Who wouldn't want to be here?" Ibrahimovic added.

30 year old Zlatan Ibrahimovic is someone who has won league titles in three different countries having played for FF Malmö, Ajax Amsterdam, Juventus Torino, Inter Milan, FC Barcelona and AC Milan.

Ibrahimovic is the fourth signing by PSG from the Italian Serie A after Argentinian Ezequiel Lavezzi from SSC Napoli for 26 Million Euros, former AC Milan team mate Thiago Silva for 42 Million Euros and young Italian Marco Verratti for 12 Million Euros from AC Pescara.

In total these four signings have cost PSG already 100 Million Euros, but with the financial backing of their investors from Qatar Sports Investment more signings look possible as they will want to challenge the best and strongest clubs in Europe. After spending more then 100 Million Euros over the last season and now again the Qatari owners will want titles from coach Carlo Ancelotti and his team.

Ancelotti named new FC Paris Saint-Germain coach

As had been expected over the last few days Italian Carlo Ancelotti has been named as the new head coach of French Ligue 1 leaders FC Paris Saint-Germain following the sacking of Antoine Kombouare. The ambitious new owners of PSG - Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) did not think that Kombouare was the man to push their big European ambitions.

Ancelotti, who successfully has coached at AC Milan and FC Chelsea, comes to to the French capital knowing that here is a club which has aspirations as his two former clubs in Milan and Chelsea also have. While he won the UEFA Champions League twice at Milan, he somewhat failed in London though winning the league and cup double.

Though on top of the French Ligue 1 Kombouare's downfall has been the fact that PSG were eliminated from the group stage of this seasons UEFA Europa League with the Ligue 1 title not big enough for the ambitious Qataris though it would be only PSG's third national title, while Kombouare wasn't also a big enough name as a coach.

Ancelotti knows about the task on hand and said at the press conference, "We have huge ambitions, naturally we want to win the title, we want to play in the Champions League and do the best possible in that."

"The discussion is not: '1st is good, 2nd is not good', the project is bigger than that. The objective is to grow, that the club is both competitive in France and especially in Europe."

"I have a huge responsibility, because the team is first," Ancelotti added.

Former PSG captain Claude Makélélé has been appointed assistant coach with the club looking to bring in more talent over the winter transfer window. The name of Englishman David Beckham is making the rounds, but if he will sign at PSG will have to be seen. Likewise other names in Chelsea's Florent Malouda, Milan's Alexandre Pato or Real Madrid's ex-Milan out of favour playmaker Kaka are being linked to PSG.