Achraf Hakimi: PSG's Transformation Under Luis Enrique

Achraf Hakimi leans back, smiles, and does not bother dressing it up.

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

In a club that has spent a decade trying to turn star power into structure, that line lands with real weight. Under Enrique, Paris Saint-Germain have rattled off three straight Ligue 1 titles and finally cracked Europe, lifting the 2024-25 Champions League. Now they stand one win from a second consecutive crown, with Arsenal waiting in Budapest.

This is not the PSG of old, Hakimi insists. Not the fractured dressing room, not the collection of soloists.

“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. “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.”

Those are big words. They are backed by a big season.

Hakimi ready for Budapest

PSG’s preparation for Arsenal came with a flicker of anxiety. Hakimi limped off against Bayern Munich, and the thought of facing one of Europe’s most dynamic attacks without their flying right-back briefly darkened the mood in Paris.

That cloud did not last long.

Luis Enrique stepped into his press conference this week and shut down the doubts in a single, calm update. Everyone is available. No caveats, no late fitness races.

“Everyone is ready. Everyone arrives in a different way,” he said. “But it will be a week with a lot of changes, rest days and a lot of training to prepare the small offensive and defensive details. The rest is the sun in Paris and Budapest.”

For Hakimi, that means he can attack this final at full throttle. He has been one of PSG’s most decisive weapons this term: three goals and nine assists in 31 appearances, a constant outlet and a relentless runner on the right. Across his Paris career, the numbers underline his influence – 28 goals and 44 assists in 206 matches from full-back is elite production.

He does not hide how much this stage means to him.

“Being in the final again? I think it is a very beautiful achievement,” he said. “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 message is clear. Enjoy the journey, but not yet the destination.

A Paris star with Milan in his heart

Even as he chases back-to-back European titles with PSG, Hakimi’s thoughts still drift across the Alps.

The Morocco international’s time at Inter was brief but brilliant. He arrived from Real Madrid in September 2020, exploded down the right flank in Antonio Conte’s system, and left a mark deep enough to survive his departure to Paris in July 2021 for a reported €68 million fee.

The bond 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 dominance in Serie A and the Coppa Italia. The ties are personal as well as professional. “If I have spoken to anyone? I wrote to Lautaro, I get along very well with him.”

That is Hakimi in full: one eye on Milan, a message to an old strike partner, and yet completely locked in on the task that defines his present.

The romance of Inter can wait. The reality of Arsenal cannot.

From talent to standard-bearer

What has shifted is not just his role on the pitch, but his sense of responsibility inside a club finally behaving like a team.

Hakimi talks about Enrique not as a tactician but as a catalyst. A coach who has taken a dressing room packed with egos and turned it into something more functional, more collective, and far more dangerous.

“Now we are a team, we play for each other, we run for each other, we are a family,” he said. For a player who has already sampled Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Inter and now PSG, that word – family – does not come cheaply.

From Paris to Budapest, the stakes are obvious. PSG stand on the brink of a European era they have chased for years. Arsenal stand in the way. Hakimi, fit again and emboldened by a coach who “changed everything,” knows exactly what is at stake.

His heart may still beat a little faster when Inter lift trophies in Italy. His messages may still ping through to Lautaro Martínez.

But on the night that matters most, under the lights in Budapest, his only priority wears the colours of Paris Saint-Germain.