12 August 1970 - Football Doesn't Come Easy In The City Of Lights

On 12 August 1970, two French clubs merged to form a new team. Known as Paris Saint-Germain, it is now the longest-tenured club in Ligue 1 and was the first French team to win a major European trophy.



The merger was the result of a push to bring a top-level club to the capital. At the time, no club from the city had won Division One since RC Paris did it in 1936 (and they were from the suburb of Colombes) and no team had even finished in the top half of the Division 1 table since RC Paris finished second in 1961. But RC Paris had since fallen out of the top-flight, leaving perennial strugglers Red Star FC as the city's only Division 1 club.



The proponents of a new team started by creating a shell club called Paris FC in 1969 and quickly started looking to flesh it out through a merger with another club. They eventually settled on Stade Saint-Germain, a club from a nearby suburb that had been founded in 1904 and had just won promotion to Division 2 for the 1970-71 season.



Taking Saint-Germain's league spot, the newly-combined PSG won promotion to Division 1 in their first season, but struggled to a 16th place finish in 1972. After that second season, tensions arose over the fact that the "Saint-Germain" in the team's name was not strictly part of the capital. The club split, with Paris FC splintering off and keeping the team's position in the top flight, while the still-named PSG assumed amateur status and dropped down to the third division. By 1974, however, PSG returned to Division 1 while Paris FC had fallen into Division 2. PSG have remained in the top flight ever since.



They took their first Division 1 title in 1986 and added another in 1994. They have also won the Coupe de France eight times and in 1996 won the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup with a 1-0 win over Rapid Wien.



After a fourth-place finish in 2011, PSG were purchased by a group of Qatari investors who have infused the club with money and ambition. They recently acquired high-profile players such as the midfield trio of Javier Pastore (€43m), Blaise Matuidi (€10m), and Jérémy Menez (€8m) and expect to challenge for the league title.

22 January 2005 - Menez Scores Many Goals

On 22 January 2005, Sochaux winger Jérémy Menez became the youngest player in Ligue 1 history to score a hat-trick. And he did it in the span of six minutes.

Menez already had one record under his belt as the league's youngest-ever player when he signed with Sochaux in 2004 at the age of 16. He became an instant first-team choice, making his inaugural start in August of that year and scoring his first goal in November.

That month, Sochaux rose as high as third in the table, but they dropped to 10th by the time Bordeaux came to town in January, following a 6-match winless streak. The Girondins, meanwhile, were 7th.

The two sides were evenly matched until Sochaux left back Sylvain Monsoreau put the hosts ahead in the 73rd minute. Then Menez ensured that there would be comeback, adding goals in the 78th and 82nd minutes. He completed his hat-trick with a tasty chip over Girondins keeper Ulrich Ramé in the 85th minute. (The goals start at 1:17 in the clip below.) He was 17 years, 8 months, and 15 days old at the time.

Menez moved to Monaco in 2006, then in 2008 to Roma, where he currently plays.

[2012 Update: Since this post was published, Menez moved back to Ligue 1 and now plays for Paris Saint-Germain.]