PSG youngster breaking Paris mould and English hearts in Champions League 'The Boy's A Bit Special'

Warren Zaire-Emery is a name FourFourTwo readers ought to be familiar with in passing, but maybe not in great detail.

He is the young Paris Saint-Germain midfielder who made France’s Euro 2024 squad at the tender age of 18 with over 100 appearances for the French club.

Capped at senior international level on numerous occasions before his recent 20th birthday, Zaire-Emery is one of European football’s coolest operators. Dig a little deeper and it becomes apparent that he’s always been destined for the elite level.

Warren Zaire-Emery - The Boy's A Bit Special

In PSG’s modern era, an academy graduate having such a pronounced impact at such a young age is pretty much unheard of. Zaire-Emery started regularly after breaking through at 17 and hasn’t relinquished his place since.

Other PSG academy graduates, many of whom are very accomplished in the game, have been forced to further their careers away from Parc des Princes due to the strength of competition, but Zaire-Emery prevailed.

The PSG man was genuinely one of the best ever players in the UEFA Youth League’s history - an Under-19 competition that mirrors the Champions League - and that was when he was 15.

At 17, he was made France U21 captain and at club level has rarely missed a game for the reigning European champions over the past three years.

Not to mention, his trophy cabinet reads as follows: one Champions League, one UEFA Super Cup, one FIFA Intercontinental Cup, two Coupe de France titles, three French Super Cups and finally, three Ligue 1 titles.

Described as a player of action rather than a player of words by former youth coaches, Zaire-Emery has been promoted several age groups his entire life and was even said to have had a detrimental effect on teammates at a younger age, simply because they didn’t have to work as hard whenever he was in the team.

It was precisely this that set him on a path to becoming both PSG and France’s youngest-ever player. Meanwhile, only Mamadou Sakho has captained PSG at a younger age.

Zaïre-Emery’s emergence bears parallels to that of Lamine Yamal - minus the attacking highlight reel because of the different positions the two play. He’s worked under Thierry Henry, Luis Enrique and Didier Deschamps, all of whom recognise his talent.

The PSG midfielder always seems to be in control, whether it’s making passes, protecting possession, creating chances or simply being in the right position on the pitch when the opposition have the ball - he’s there.

It’s perhaps why, increasingly, Zaire-Emery has been deployed as a right-back for his club side, something many managers tend to do with their sitting central midfielders to create numerical superiority in that area of the pitch. It also helps that Zaire-Emery is an extremely effective ball-progressor, taking the ball in his stride and carrying upfield, often through lines.

DID YOU KNOW: Zaire-Emery won the 2022 Titi d’Or award as the PSG academy’s best player. The women’s prize was won by his then-girlfriend Oceane Toussaint the same year.