Ibrahim Mbaye opens up about PSG pressure

Ibrahim Mbaye has spoken openly about the pressure he felt during his time at Paris Saint-Germain, describing a spell in which he often felt he had to do too much, too soon.

The Senegal international said the experience became mentally heavy as he tried to break into a squad packed with established attacking stars.

In his interview with Cheikh Footstyle, Mbaye explained that his expectations of himself became part of the problem. Rather than easing into the environment, he felt he had to outperform players already operating at an elite level. That mindset, he admitted, made things harder than they needed to be.

“At PSG, things were not necessarily going the way I wanted. I put a certain amount of pressure on myself that I shouldn’t have had,” he said. He added that seeing names such as Dembele, Kvara, Desire, Bradley and Goncalo in the same attack pushed him into constant comparison.

Mbaye now sees that period differently. Instead of treating big-name teammates as rivals, he believes the better approach is to watch, train and absorb their habits. He said repeated exposure to top-level players helps reveal details he could not fully understand before.

The 2026 move to Aston Villa marks a fresh start, and his comments suggest he is trying to turn a difficult PSG chapter into a learning experience.