French club Paris Saint-Germain face English side Aston Villa on Wednesday in the European Super Cup at the Red Bull Arena in Salzburg, Austria. The match pits reigning Champions League winners PSG against Europa League champions Aston Villa in the first European title match of the 2026-27 season.
Both teams feature Spanish managers in Luis Enrique Martinez and Unai Emery. Several key players for Paris Saint-Germain enter the contest with a lack of match fitness. Referee Omar Artan, who missed out on the World Cup, will officiate the match. Artan said to learn new things every day and never stop dreaming.
Paris Saint-Germain are seeking to maintain their European supremacy after winning the last two Champions League titles. PSG won the previous Super Cup in an agonizing finish against Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur. Fans in Paris and Birmingham view both managers as idols after Luis Enrique brought PSG to top European success and Emery restored Aston Villa in Europe. Champions League winners usually win this trophy.
Previous Meetings and Head to Head Record
This match marks the second time Luis Enrique and Emery face each other in a European Super Cup. They first met in the 2015 Super Cup when Luis Enrique managed FC Barcelona and Emery managed Sevilla FC. Barcelona won that match 5-4 in extra time after Pedro Rodriguez scored the winning goal.
Across all competitions, teams managed by Luis Enrique and Emery have played 12 other times. Luis Enrique holds eight victories, Emery has three wins, and one match ended in a draw. They last met in the 2024-25 Champions League quarter-finals, where PSG won the first leg 3-1 and Aston Villa won the second leg 3-2, which was not enough for Villa to advance.
Luis Enrique Salary and Trophy Record
Luis Enrique receives an annual salary of 11 million euros from Paris Saint-Germain. In his first season in Paris, he won the domestic treble of Ligue 1, the French Cup, and the French Super Cup. In his second year, he repeated all three French titles and added the 2025 Champions League, which was his second career Champions League title and the first in PSG history.
During the 2025-26 season, Luis Enrique guided PSG to five trophies. His team won their third Ligue 1 title, the European Super Cup, the French Super Cup, the Intercontinental Cup, and the Champions League. The French Cup was the only competition PSG entered during the 2025-26 season that they did not win.
Unai Emery Salary and Aston Villa Achievements
Unai Emery holds a contract with Aston Villa through 2029 with an annual salary of 9.6 million euros. Emery signed for the Birmingham club in October 2022 after leading Villarreal to the Europa League title in 2021 and the Champions League semi-finals in 2022. He previously won three consecutive Europa League titles with Sevilla from 2014 to 2016.
Since arriving at Aston Villa, Emery qualified the club for the Champions League for the first time in 40 years and led them to the quarter-finals, where eventual champions PSG struggled to eliminate the Birmingham team. On May 20, 2026, Emery won his fifth Europa League title, becoming the manager who has won the competition the most times.
The annual salary difference between the two managers stands at just over one million euros. The gap has surprised fans who expected a larger difference in favor of Luis Enrique given his trophy record and the status of his previous clubs.
