Last updated: 21 August 2026

Paris Saint-Germain’s 2015/16 Ligue 1 campaign remains one of the most dominant title wins in modern French football. Laurent Blanc’s side secured the championship with eight matches still to play, sealing the title with an extraordinary 9-0 victory away to Troyes.

PSG lost just twice in the league all season and finished with 96 points, 31 points clear of second-placed Lyon. Their dominance was built around a squad containing some of the defining players of the era, including Thiago Silva, Blaise Matuidi, Ángel Di María and Zlatan Ibrahimović.

Originally published during that title-winning season, this Fantasy Sports Portal feature looks back at the players we identified at the time as the key figures behind PSG’s success — providing a snapshot of how one of Europe’s strongest teams was being viewed through a fantasy football and performance-analysis lens in 2016.

Thiago Silva

PSG had attacking riches of which the world’s leading clubs were rightly envious, but defensive leader and captain Thiago Silva was just as important to their success as the forwards.

Silva was considered one of the top centre-backs in world football and was superb once again for Laurent Blanc’s side as PSG romped to a fourth successive Ligue 1 title.

The Brazilian was particularly impressive in the Champions League, providing the leadership, positioning and defensive authority that allowed PSG’s attacking players greater freedom further up the pitch.

Silva was never primarily in the team to score goals. His value came from preventing them, organising those around him and providing the defensive platform on which PSG’s dominance was built.

Layvin Kurzawa

If PSG had one area of the squad that appeared capable of improvement, it was at full-back, but the arrival of Layvin Kurzawa from Monaco provided Laurent Blanc with another attacking option from defence.

Still just 23 during the 2015/16 campaign, Kurzawa quickly established himself as an exciting left-back and became an increasingly attractive fantasy football option.

His willingness to get forward illustrated something that has since become even more important in both fantasy football and tactical analysis: defenders can generate significant attacking value through goals, assists, positioning and involvement in the final third.

At a club often associated with established international stars, Kurzawa also represented the potential for younger players to establish themselves within an elite squad.

Blaise Matuidi

While midfield partner Marco Verratti often received the plaudits, much of the legwork in PSG’s midfield was performed by Blaise Matuidi.

Energetic, disciplined and rarely wasteful in possession, Matuidi was crucial to the balance of the side. He broke up opposition attacks, covered enormous areas of the pitch and helped PSG transition rapidly from defence into attack.

His contribution was a reminder that the most important players in successful teams are not always those producing the headline goals and assists. Structure, positioning, ball recovery and intelligent movement can be just as important to sustained success.

Ángel Di María

Ángel Di María put a difficult spell at Manchester United behind him in emphatic fashion after moving to Paris Saint-Germain.

The Argentina international became the main creative foil for Zlatan Ibrahimović, regularly supplying chances while also contributing goals of his own.

Di María’s combination of creativity, movement and final-third production provided PSG with another dimension and demonstrated why the club had invested heavily in bringing him to Paris.

He was also influential in Europe, where PSG were attempting to convert their growing domestic dominance into a serious Champions League challenge.

Zlatan Ibrahimović

Zlatan Ibrahimović scored four times in the title-sealing 9-0 victory over Troyes and was the defining attacking player of PSG’s campaign.

Even at the age of 34, Ibrahimović was producing extraordinary numbers. He combined goals with creativity and remained the focal point of one of Europe’s most powerful attacking teams.

His Ligue 1 output demonstrated just how dominant PSG had become, but European success remained the major prize missing from his career.

Ibrahimović had already accumulated league titles across several countries, although the two championships won with Juventus were later revoked following the Italian match-fixing scandal.

At the time this article was originally published, his future was also one of European football’s major talking points. His contract was approaching its end and speculation about a possible move to the Premier League was growing.

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Looking Back at PSG’s 2015/16 Champions

A decade later, PSG’s 2015/16 side remains a fascinating example of how individual quality, tactical balance and squad construction can combine to produce overwhelming domestic superiority.

Ibrahimović provided the goals, Di María supplied creativity, Matuidi brought energy and defensive balance, while Thiago Silva organised one of the strongest defensive units in France. Even the contribution of an attacking full-back such as Kurzawa anticipated a trend that has since become central to modern football analysis.

The terminology used to analyse football has developed enormously since this feature was first published. Expected goals (xG), expected assists (xA), progressive passes, progressive carries, pressing metrics and many other statistics are now part of mainstream football discussion.

Yet the fundamental questions remain remarkably similar: which players create genuine value, which players make a team function, which performances are sustainable and how do individual contributions translate into results?

Those were questions fantasy football players were already asking long before advanced analytics became part of everyday football coverage. Looking back at PSG’s 2015/16 champions provides both a record of an exceptional team and an example of how fantasy football analysis often anticipated the way the wider game would eventually be discussed.