Statue de la Petite Pucelle

Allez PSG! Allez PSG! Allez PSG! Allez! Allez! Allez! PSG! Allez!

The Paris Saint Germain’s anthem continued to be shouted out louder and louder by the ultras. The crowd were being whipped into a frenzy, a murderous frenzy of hatred by ring leaders wanting vengeance and destruction. These ring leaders had nothing to do with PSG, they were not fans of football at all. They weren’t interested in any form of joyous celebration on winning the final. Never had been; they had come out onto the streets that night to gate crash the party, the after-match celebratory event with evil intentions. Theirs was an excuse to use the boisterous happy celebrations as a disguise to protest, to riot and destroy. Any excuse to cause upheaval, anarchy and nihilism to the governing authorities.

“Bloquons Tout!” These shouts could also be heard intermingled, amongst the football fans chanting the name of their team. Suddenly, it was an angry mob no longer innocent cheering fans; so happy with PSG winning the cup, and now the Champions of Europe. The mob turned vicious and became angry with malicious and militant intent, to smash and destroy anything that was not permanently fixed to the ground. The “Bloquons Tout!” Block Everything movement spanned from the far racist right to the student left never intended to celebrate; instead, they wanted to bring down the government, the nation.

Standing and stomping on tops of parked cars, or even higher up on the plinth of the iconic Joan of Arc Monument, located in Place des Pyramides in Paris, but it was not the beloved tricolore flag that was wrapped around the famous statue of La petite Pucelle – The little Maid. It was not the tricolore, the French national flag, known in French as “le drapeau français” or more commonly “le Tricolore”, consisting of three vertical bands of colour: blue, white, and red. The design originated back to the yesterdays, back to earlier French and Paris riots which similarly caused mayhem and destruction. Those were days of the French Revolution, where the flag design symbolized the union of the King’s colour of white with the traditional colours of Paris blue and red, representing the final coming together of an impossible alliance. An impossibility caused by the new constitution of les république française, the republic of France, where every person stands equal. No man shall put us under, certainly not the King of France or the French monarchy, ever again. But, not before so much death, vengeance and destruction.

Back to the present day and so it appears; nothing changes with time, but only time itself.

Today the dark blue and red colours of “le drapeau français”, have been adopted as colours of PSG – Paris Saint Germain football club – now the champions of Europe. Defeating all comers of Europe in Napoleonic fashion – albeit in the sport of football. The highest accolade for a European football club, and only the second French football club ever to achieve this honour. Made all that more difficult in these highly competitive and modern times. Paradoxically, France the most successful world football nation in the last twenty-five years, having won the trophy twice, and nearly winning the Jules Rimet trophy again at the last attempt in 2022. In comparison, football at the French club level has lingered well behind the national side’s success, and so with PSG being winners in 2025, it was being celebrated in the French capital with more ferocity than the previous two French national World Cup wins. It started with the consequent outpouring of joy, a celebration, a boisterous but friendly street party atmosphere should have been the outcome in Paris that terrible night in May 2025.

Unfortunately, the celebrations turned quickly sour, and morphed into a rebellion, an excuse to rebel against the French system, the current day politics, the current regime and authorities by a disenfranchised part of the French nation. Mostly immigrates and the working class that did not feel they belonged. The flag wrapped around La petite Pucelle, could have any number of flags from many other French speaking independent nations. Nonetheless, it was a symbol of defiance against the current circumstances and the governing authorities.

The intoxicated atmosphere, the continued chanting, the baying of the mob was incessant, but there were dangerous undercurrents of uncontrolled anger, as the earlier exuberance, the pure joy and celebration evaporated. The unbridled elation just moments ago, when PSG lifted the trophy to become kings of European club football. Celebrating the champions of champions win for PSG now turned sour, as a veil of darkness and desire for destruction transcended the chanting crowd.

The evening had started with the anticipation of watching the cup final game which was being played in a neutral location in Munich, Germany. Not all the fans of PSG could attend the game, so the Paris authorities had erected big screens and fan zones both in the PSG football stadium and in the Louvre Tuileries near the Place de la Concorde, the opposite side of the river Seine to Saint Germain. Near the area of Saint Germain des Pres, the namesake of PSG. Paris Saint Germain football club was formed in 1970, a merger of two football teams named Paris FC and Stade Saint-Germain. Most football teams around the world were formed much earlier in the late 19th century, so 1970 is very recent and quite unusual. Paris doesn’t have a legacy or identity towards football, the impression associated with Paris is for other sports, or nothing to do with sport at all, such as art, fashion and literature. Football clubs normally originate in working class backgrounds or towns. In France, football clubs such as Olympique Lyonnais, Saint Etienne, Olympique de Marseille have longer history, and are situated in more typical working class industrial areas of the nation.

Oskar was second generation Parisian. Only just a teenager from Moroccan ancestry, with a coffee-coloured complexion, and Arabic looking features. He was an enraptured and loyal fan of PSG, and attended all the home games at Parc des Princes stadium, but the big screen being erected in the Louvre Tuileries was right by his home. This area of Paris was home to many Maghrebi communities, between the 1st and 18th arrondissements. The term Maghrebi refers to the people, culture, and languages of the Maghreb region in North Africa, which includes countries such as Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Mauritania. It is derived from the Arabic term meaning "Westerners," denoting their location in the western part of the Arab world, or the old Ottoman Empire.

Oskar’s lack of money was another deciding factor in attending the fan zone in Louvre Tuileries, it was a free entry, as opposed to the small fee to pay to attend the big wide screening of the game inside the Parc des Princes stadium.

When the lump of concrete struck his head, a piece of paving stone was thrown in the direction of encroaching police cauldron with their riot shields, armed with batons and tear gas. Oskar immediately collapsed to the ground blood gushing from the head wound, which started to stain the mostly dark blue and red PSG coloured scarf he wore, with the distinctive red Eiffel Tower motif. Unfortunately, his immediate unconsciousness from the blow, and falling like a sack of pomme de terre - potatoes made him extremely vulnerable to the advancing policeman looking like a group of roman centurions. Sheltering behind their individual riot shields, which combined made for an advancing barricade, to force back the violent mob.

The defiant mob were sheltering all around the statue de la petite Pucelle, the famous statue of Joan of Arc, some had climbed high above onto the statue’s plinth. No one noticed the prone body of poor Oskar, an innocent and loyal PSG football fan, only moments ago celebrating his team’s hard-fought victory, now in danger of losing his young life.

Nothing was reported about the incident, but one eyewitness recalls.

“Out of the shadows of the statue, came a light, like one of those apparitions you see in a movie, in the form of young girl, dressed in medieval clothing, a look-a-like Joan of Arc. It looked like a live version of the statue. The apparition went to the boy who had fallen to the ground, and she lifted his motionless body upwards. The body levitated for a while, over the heads of the advancing police cauldron. Some of the police had broken rank, as they stopped and stood in shock and awe at the apparition. Anybody nearby witnessing the strange scene became silent, a ring formed of watching onlookers staring at the levitating prone body of the boy as all the shouting temporarily ceased. But, as soon as the levitating body disappeared into the darkness of the night, the rioters continued their aggressive unruly behaviour, and the police cauldron continued its slow careful advance protected by their riot shields.”

Oskar remained in a coma for several days, his parents attending a worried vigil by his hospital bed. The doctors agreed it was a miracle he was still alive from the potential deadly blow to his head. Oskar was fortunate, as many innocents died that night, many were injured in the riots, which swept all over the capital Paris. On a night when the city should have been celebrating a magnificent sporting victory, the famous city was captured by anarchy instead.