Vortex for the Champions League winner
Two PSG stars don’t even shake hands in public
May 30, 2026 – 11:34 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Champions League winners Paris have a Russian and a Ukrainian playing in Matvey Safonov and Ilya Zabarnyi. They treat each other in a special way.
Coach Luis Enriqué has managed to turn Paris Saint-Germain’s star ensemble into a real team that has now won the Champions League two years in a row. The story would of course be different if PSG hadn’t won the final against Arsenal London 4-3 on penalties on Saturday evening.
Because exactly a week ago, the way goalkeeper Matvey Safonov and defender Ilya Zabarnyi interacted with each other caused quite a stir. It was almost a throwback to a PSG era in which the players’ egos were greater than their sporting success. But Paris is no longer such a club.
What had happened? A week ago, a video on social media showed how the Russian goalkeeper and the Ukrainian defender did not shake hands before an internal friendly match.
According to the French daily “Le Parisien” it was a “precautionary measure” by the club. Since the beginning of the season, care has been taken to ensure that the players are not shown together when they get an insight into everyday life. The association should take great care to ensure that no mutual contacts are visible in public. However, according to “Le Parisien”, it should not be seen as a personal dislike. They just want to avoid them being used for political purposes.
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“I have to act with him on a professional level”
Zabarnyi moved from AFC Bournemouth to the French capital in the summer for 63 million euros and had already made his attitude clear back then. “I have to interact with him at a professional level in training and I will fulfill my obligations to the club,” he told L’Equipe. He would not “maintain relations with Russians.”
In the Champions League final, the duo were on the field together from the 106th minute onwards after the Ukrainian was substituted on. During the celebrations that followed, Zabarnyi celebrated with a Ukrainian flag around his waist, while Safonov stayed mostly in his goalkeeping group.
In the past season they made 14 appearances together.
