With 12 appearances (1 offering) since his professional debut on August 1, 2021 during the Trophée des Champions lost by Paris Saint-Germain against Lille, Ismaël Gharbi is one of the many young people trained at Paris Saint-Germain who come up against the realities of the club Ile-de-France. Although successful with young people (19 goals and 10 goals in 26 matches with the U19s and 7 goals as well as one goal in 12 matches in the Youth League), the 19-year-old attacking midfielder has not managed to find a place permanently in the Ile-de-France squad. This summer like many young people like Édouard Michut (Adana Demirspor), Noha Lemina (Sampdoria and Wolverhampton) or even Lucas Lavallée (Dunkirk), Ismaël Gharbi saw himself pushed out with a loan in order to progress . Direction Switzerland and Stade-Lausanne Ouchy for the right-hander.
“The attacking midfielder trained at Paris Saint-Germain is loaned to Swiss club FC Stade Lausanne Ouchy for the 2023-2024 season. The Club wishes Ismaël a successful season with FC Stade Lausanne Ouchy. could we read in a press release from the Ile-de-France club. Solicited by Nice, Saint-Étienne, Werder and even Union Berlin, Ismaël Gharbi opted for Swiss training in order to be able to evolve in a climate that he considered ideal for his development. He’s a little guy who is humble, in love with this sport and that fits perfectly with the characteristics of SLO. With his advisors and his family, he chose SLO to have less pressure than in other clubs and more playing time to be able to return to Paris better armed, explained sports director Hiraç Yagan to Blick last September.
Excellent but in the middle of a struggle to maintain
A choice that quickly proved interesting for Ismaël Gharbi, who was thrown into the deep end on September 23 against Winterthur. Despite a 2-1 defeat, he produced an offering for Lucas Pos from a corner before repeating it the following week against Yverdon (1-1) by provoking the goal from Sahmkou Camara. In the meantime, he scored in the Swiss Cup against FC Wil (1-1/4-3 on penalties). Successful presentations with the Lausanne club which were enough to delight its former coach Anthony Braizat: “that’s why we took it! We’re going to help him grow. We can afford to give him playing time.” Seducing his coach, Ismaël Gharbi also immediately put his teammates in his pocket.
“Yes, he helps us a lot. Already in training, we see the differences he can make, his efficiency, his ease with the ball. We can already see that it will do us good” explained to Blick Captain Lavdrim Hajrulahu. More than five months later, the results are quite mixed. Individually, Ismaël Gharbi has nothing to be ashamed of since with six goals and three goals in 20 matches and a huge impact on his team, he delivered a solid exercise. Collectively, however, it is harder since FC Stade Lausanne Ouchy is dead last, 13 points behind its rival Lausanne-Sport which is eleventh.
Asked by Blick after the 1-1 draw against the latter in mid-February, former Lens goalkeeper Jérémy Vachoux did not fail to emphasize the importance of his young teammate in helping the club from the canton of Vaud in its mission to maintain : “of course, he’s a great player. He unlocks situations for us, as we saw in the last matches when he was with us. This evening again, he scored a great goal. All the players are important to the group, including him, and the priority is that we are a united team, that’s how we will score points. It’s a delicate situation in the standings, but it’s certainly encouraging what we showed this Saturday.” In good shape in Switzerland and under contract with Paris Saint-Germain until June 2025, Ismaël Gharbi continues to grow in Switzerland.
