Achraf Hakimi on PSG's Transformation Under Luis Enrique

Achraf Hakimi leans back, smiles, and does not hesitate.

“Luis Enrique? He has changed everything at PSG.”

For once, it does not sound like a throwaway line. It sounds like the blunt truth of a dressing room that has been torn down and rebuilt under a demanding coach who has already delivered three straight Ligue 1 titles and a long‑awaited Champions League in 2024-25. Now Paris stand on the brink again, heading to Budapest for another final, this time against Arsenal, with a second European crown in sight.

A New PSG, From the Inside Out

Hakimi has lived both versions of Paris: the star-studded, fragile giant and the hardened, collective machine.

“Since he arrived, everyone has changed their mentality: now we are a team, we play for each other, we run for each other, we are a family,” he told Sky Sport. There was no need to dress it up. The full-back spelled it out. “Playing like this, everything becomes easier. I am lucky to be in this team, with these teammates, and this coach. He changed my mentality and my way of being on the pitch. He has made me better as a footballer and as a man.”

That is the cultural shift Hakimi keeps coming back to: not tactics on a whiteboard, but a squad that has finally decided to suffer together. The numbers back up his own transformation. This season alone, he has three goals and nine assists in 31 appearances, a relentless presence down the right. Across his PSG career, the tally now stands at 28 goals and 44 assists in 206 matches – extraordinary output for a defender.

Injury Fears Eased Before Budapest

For a moment, all that work looked at risk. An injury against Bayern Munich raised doubts over Hakimi’s fitness for the final, and Paris held its breath. Losing their key defensive outlet on the eve of a European showpiece would have been a brutal twist.

Luis Enrique cut through the anxiety.

“Everyone is ready. Everyone arrives in a different way,” he said this week, brushing aside concerns. He spoke of a week of “a lot of changes, rest days and a lot of training” to fine‑tune the smallest offensive and defensive details. Then he lightened the mood, pointing to “the sun in Paris and Budapest” as the rest of the recipe.

The message was clear: no excuses, no distractions. Hakimi will be there.

And he knows exactly what it means.

“Being in the final again? I think it is a very beautiful achievement,” he said, the weight of the journey evident in his choice of words. “It was not an easy path and we are proud to have reached the end of the competition again. But now we must not lose focus because Arsenal are a truly strong opponent.”

The respect is genuine. The warning, even more so.

Between Milan Memories and Parisian Ambition

As Budapest looms, Hakimi’s thoughts still drift back to Italy. Before Paris, before this remade PSG, there was Inter. He arrived there from Real Madrid in September 2020, a young full-back with raw pace and attacking instincts, and left less than a year later for a reported €68 million fee to join PSG in July 2021.

The bond with the Nerazzurri never really broke.

“Yes, I am an Interista and I am very happy for the championship and the Coppa Italia,” he admitted, reacting to Inter’s recent domestic triumphs. The pride in his former club sits comfortably alongside his current ambitions. The relationships remain, too. “If I have spoken to anyone? I wrote to Lautaro, I get along very well with him.”

It is a reminder that careers at the top level rarely follow clean, simple lines. Hakimi’s heart still holds a corner of Milan, of San Siro nights and a title chase in blue and black. But that affection does not blur his priorities.

Right now, everything narrows to one game, one city, one objective.

He has a coach who “changed everything,” a squad that finally behaves like a team, and a chance to lift Europe’s biggest prize for the second time in as many seasons. The past can wait. Budapest cannot.